OK guys, if you're serious about this...

From letsgodigital.org:

During a Panasonic Press event, at which the new Micro Four Thirds system was evaluated and further explained, Panasonic also revealed the development in process of a new Micro FourThirds system camera. Panasonic already claims that it will introduce the world's smallest High Definition system camera in 2009.

Apparently Panasonic is also a believer, touting an SLR-esque camera in which HD video is more than just an afterthought. Nice to see, considering that Panasonic's debut offering in this format has no video mode at all. The compact, mirorless Micro Four Thirds system is probably closer to the eventual collision of digital cinematography and stills systems than traditional DSLR designs are.

So, Panasonic, Nikon, Canon and anyone else who wants to dip their SLR chocolate into the HD peanut butter, here's what you need to do (and what Jim Jannard of RED already knows):

Everything that matters to a photographer matters to a filmmaker/videographer. The exact features that set a DSLR apart from a point-and-shoot put the "pro" in prosumer HD cameras. It basically boils down to quality and control, but here are a few more specifics to bear in mind—if you're serious:

• Adopt a known video standard that is compatible with current NLE software. A good one. But go big—consider a "visually lossless" codec.
• Use frame rates that make sense. 24 fps is great, 23.976 fps is better. Same with 30 and 29.97. Filmmakers often shoot funky frame rates for effect, anywhere between 1 and 72 fps. And sometimes much much more.
  
• No pixel binning or other dirty tricks for hurrying the data off the sensor—give us the best stuff your sensor is capable of. Capture the full resolution and downsample to video res. Or don't—1080p is not the top of the food chain, just ask RED.
  
• DSLRs eat and sleep raw. Consider a lightly-compressed DNG sequence output as an option. At the very least, offer RGB compressed video at a wide-gamut, minimum-processing color space. Let us turn down sharpening and other "enhancements" and record something that gives us room to play in post—just like we do with stills.
• Somehow we have to focus when shooting video. The screen on that Lumix G looks mighty big, but can I make critical focusing decisions with it? Maybe I could with focus assist features that are commonplace on HD camcorders.
  
• Jello-cam is not OK.
  

But more important than any of that: Give us control of our cameras—that same control that makes the SLR experience what it is. Video is not a "mode" on a dial that you select instead of manual control.When we're shooting video, we'd like to control the camera in the exact way we do when recording stills, not via some arcane menu.

The first one who gets this right changes everything.

UPDATE: Speaking of changing everything, read the comments below. Jim has scrapped the current Scarlet design and is starting fresh. What do you wanna bet it looks a bit more like the above?

Ikonoskop A-cam dII

Funky 16mm camera maker Ikonoskop, known for their unconventional ergonomic camera designs, have announced a digital cinema camera called the A-cam dII. 

• Super-16 sensor (slightly wider than Scarlet’s)
• 1920x1080 UPDATE: CCD, not CMOS!
• 1-60 fps
• Shoots uncompressed DNG or TIFF
• €6,950 (about US$9,800) with battery, 9mm f/1.5 lens and 80GB Memory Cartridge

Between this, Scarlet’s proposed specs/price, and the D90 it’s easy to see these offerings as salvos landing all around the same unscathed bullseye: a camera in the DSLR price range that takes DSLR glass and shoots raw motion files with little or no compression. 

RED Addresses the "DSLR Market"

“If people are not stunned by the specs and design, I will retire… truly.”

-Jim Jannard, RED

Jim Jannard of RED had cryptically mentioned that they would be creating a product to address the “DSLR Market.” Last night on REDuser.com he expanded on that announcement a bit:

We believe, and are developing for late 2009, a replacement for DSLRs. Currently, we call it a DSMC (Digital Still & Motion Camera).

While (insert code name) is not a replacement for Epic or Scarlet, it is strategically targeted at the DSLR space. As Nikon and Canon release their 720P and 1080P, respectively, DSLRs with video capture… RED has a more advanced view of the future. We look forward to rapidly pushing the “big guys” along in feature sets and capabilities.

RED firmly believes in higher resolution, higher S/N, higher DNR, higher frame rates, smaller bodies, more system flexibility, and many more options as we move forward in camera development.

The strength of RED is in our sensor development program, REDCODE, and having no legacy platforms to deal with. That left us free to explore, develop and prepare to deliver a new platform. DSMC.

We think all our customers already know what the future will bring. They are just afraid to wish for it for fear of disappointment. Fear not. Sleep tight. RED is awake.

Jim

Jim’s enthusiasm-trumps-accuracy grammatical stylings are oddly representative of his company’s engineering efforts. As Fred Johnson pointed out on TWiP 46, RED is a lot like Apple entering the cell phone market. It takes an outsider to start over from scratch and shake up the assumptions that the staid players hold dear. But as an outsider it’s very difficult to just get the basics right. RED One was both groundbreaking and revolutionary, but in many ways it is still catching up with the things the “big guys” do in their sleep. Just like the iPhone.

Jim didn’t say that RED is building a DSLR. He said he’s making a replacement for DSLRs. I love my DSLR but I do have the sense that much of its design is based in a legacy that no longer applies. Jim also said on CML that “We also believe that the future is a ‘still & motion’ camera world. Just at much higher quality levels [than the D90].”

What makes up the user experience of a DSLR? To me it’s more about lens choice, a big sensor, instantaneous shutter release and a raw workflow than it is about mirrors and Through The Lens viewfinders. It’s about insanely good autofocus and lenses around which one feels compelled to form a religion. It’s about ergonomics that make you forget where your hand stops and your camera starts.

Add motion to that mix and you get to list off more personal priorities. The Nikon D90 has been amply tested by many folks and the verdict is just as I predicted: The images look great as long as you don’t look to close, and motion is fun but too much turns into jello-vision. Nevertheless, the D90 got us all thinking about what it would mean to dip our SLR chocolate into our HD peanut butter, and for my part at least I couldn’t think of a good reason not to do it. If RED or anyone else can develop a raw motion workflow in a body that not only shares my SLR lenses but can do the job of my SLR, then Jim is not wrong in saying that “‘revolution’ applies more to this than the RED ONE did to cinema.” I mean, except for the grammar.

But while the “big guys” in the SLR market may be set in their ways and unlikely to revolutionize without competition from someone like Jim, I hope Jim realizes what he’s up against. I think he should, because he’s an avid photographer. He’s going down a whole new path now, competing with well-loved players instead of the rarefied few in the digital cinema world. Canon and Nikon compete viciously on features, price, and technology. It’s a heavyweight bout where the spectator is the only clear winner.

There is a theory that in order to shake customers away from an existing product, your product must be ten times better. In the digital cinema space RED One was seen by almost everyone as being ten times better than anything at its price point. What happens when RED’s SLR-killing autofocus is just a hair slower than Canon’s? Or only a tiny bit better?

Good luck Jim. I’m sure I’ll want whatever you make. But I do hope you’re as busy making things as you are dreaming them up. Remember the 4K projectors and displays you mentioned two NABs ago? It would delight me to no end if you were as enthusiastic about refining your existing products as you are about announcing new ones.

Sensor Size Cheat Sheet Update

After some discussion on dvinfo, I added the 1/2” chip size used in the Sony EX1, as well as this weird format I just heard about called 35mm motion picture film (Super 35).