Panasonic's AG-AF100 Micro Four Thirds Professional HD Camcorder represents an enormous leap forward in affordable, cinema-quality video imaging. Providing all the professional features that videographers expect in an interchangeable-lens camcorder--manual video and audio control, variable frame rates, HD-SDI and HDMI output, XLR inputs, timecode--the AG-AF100 plays its trump card with a large, 4/3-type image sensor. At 13 times the size of comparably priced 1/3" sensors (and almost 4 times larger than the 2/3" chips found in cameras costing more than twice as much), the AG-AF100's sensor brings the richness of DSLR video into a professional form factor.

Until now, if you wanted a camera that could shoot video with the deep colors, enhanced light sensitivity, and shallow depth-of-field achievable with large-sensor imaging, you had one of two options: an ungainly DSLR kitted out with any number of expensive support accessories, or access to a large bank account. The AG-AF100 not only delivers the image quality, versatility, and control that professional shooters have been clamoring for, but at a price well within most pro-level budgets.

No doubt about it: the large-sensor, interchangeable lens camcorder has finally arrived.

World's First to Adopt Micro Four Thirds

The AG-AF100 series is the first professional HD camera recorder to adopt the Micro Four Thirds standards. These standards were announced in 2008 as an extension of the Four Thirds standards for DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras. Panasonic and some other manufactures have already released a number of digital cameras and interchangeable lenses based on the Micro Fourth Thirds standards.

The "Four Thirds" name is derived from the 4/3-type (approx. 17.3mm x 13mm) image sensor. The size of the image sensor, the standardized lens mount developed for it, and interchangeable lenses designed exclusively for digital cameras form the core of the Four Thirds standards. These standards were established to offer an optimal solution for digital cameras, breaking loose the confines of film camera standards. In establishing the Micro Four Thirds standards, the flange back distance (the distance from the lens mount surface to the image sensor) was reduced by about half and the mount diameter was made about 6 mm (0.24 inches) smaller than that of the Four Thirds mount. The image sensor size is the same as that of the 4/3 type used in the Four Thirds standard. The Micro Four Thirds standards have made it possible to reduce the size and weight of cameras and lenses, and to achieve greater interchangeability of lenses together with video recording capability.