At some point in the future, Panasonic will release the FZ1000 to the masses. It’s one of those nifty bridge cameras for those caught between a compact camera and full-fledged DSLR. The FZ1000 comes with 4K video, a 20.1MP 1″ sensor, and 16x optical zoom lens (25-400mm 35mm-equivalent) from Leica with an aperture range of f2.8-4. It also comes with built-in Wi-Fi and a minimum focusing distance of 3cm. With the latter in mind, we strongly suggest you use some sort of tripod. On the whole, the camera reminds us of Sony’s RX10, which sported similar specs save for 4K video. While the RX10’s lens had a shorter focal range of 24-200mm, it had a constant aperture of f2.8. The FZ1000 offers nearly twice as much in terms of focal range, and for video junkies, the 4K will work wonders, we’re sure.
Unfortunately, there isn’t any word of a release date or a price, and with similar cameras priced around $1,300, we can only guess at what the FZ1000 will be. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we have more information.
Tech specs are after the jump in a full list.
- Dimensions (W x H x D) 136.8 x 98.5 x 130.7 mm(5.39 x 3.88 x 5.15 inch)
- Weight Approx. 780 g without Battery and SD Memory Card (1.72 lb) Approx. 831 g with Battery and SD Memory Card (1.83 lb)
- Camera Effective Pixels 20.1 Megapixels
- Sensor Size / Total Pixels / Filter 1-inch High Sensitivity MOS Sensor / Total Pixel Number 20.9 Megapixels / Primary Color Filter
- Aperture F2.8 – 4.0 / Multistage Iris Diaphragm (Still Image: F2.8 – 8.0 (W), F4.0 – 8.0 (T), Motion Picture: F2.8 – 11.0 (W), F4.0 – 11.0 (T))
- Focal Length (25 – 400mm in 35mm equiv. in 3:2)
- Extra Optical Zoom (EZ) 22.4x (3:2 / 10M (M)), 32x (3:2 / 5M (S))
- Lens LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT 15 elements in 11 groups (5 Aspherical Lenses / 8 Aspherical Surfaces / 4 ED Lenses)
- Focus AFS (Single) / AFF (Flexible) / AFC (Continuous) / MF Normal / AF Macro / Macro Zoom, Quick AF On / Off (on in Intelligent Auto), Low LightAF, AF/AE Lock Button, AF Area Select, AF Tracking, Eye Sensor AF, Focus Peaking, One Shot AF (Set the Fn button in custom menu to AF-ON)
- AF Metering Face/Eye Detection / Tracking / 49-area / Custom Multi / 1-area (flexible / scalable) / Pinpoint
- Shutter Speed Still Image: Approx. 60 – 1/4,000 sec (Mechanical Shutter) Approx. 1 – 1/16,000 sec (Electronic Shutter) Bulb (Approx. 120 sec) Motion Picture: Approx. 1/30 – 1/16,000 sec Approx. 1/2 – 1/16,000 sec (Creative Video Mode / MF Mode)
- 4K video recording capability (QFHD 4K: 3840×2160, up to 30 fps (NTSC) / in MP4*1 video in ultra high definition and even grab an 8-megapixel frame as still image. After recording video of subjects in 4K, users can cut out a single frame to choose the best still image in rich resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. The FZ1000 should be used with UHS Speed Class 3 (U3). The UHS Speed Class 3 (U3) guarantees a constant minimum write speed of 30MB/s