Panasonic has published a special offering on its website, titled “Affordable 4K Professional HDR Cinema Acquisition has Arrived!”, and “Massive Savings on VariCam LT Cameras & Packages”. The offer: A VariCam LT package for $13,495. The offer is valid from October 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022. The only ‘problem’ is that the price of the camera has been reduced more than 3 years ago to $10,000 USD.
Panasonic’s new Massive Saving on VariCam LT
Panasonic has published a post indicates on “Massive Savings on VariCam LT Cameras & Packages”. It stated that $13,495 is the new list price of the VariCam LT body after the instant rebate is applied, “Making this cinematic beast more affordable than ever!”. The post, titled “Affordable 4K Professional HDR Cinema Acquisition has Arrived!” says that this special rebate is applied from October 1, 2022, till December 31, 2022. The package includes the camera body, control panel, top handle, and EF lens mount. The only problem is that the price of the camera has already been reduced three years ago, to an even more affordable price ($10,000).
But the LT is worth $9,995 (from 2019)
In May 2019, Panasonic has made a significant reduction (together with other camera manufacturers) in price considering the camera was originally retailing for around $18,000 USD. The instant rebate announced in 2019 was $9,995 USD (and it still is) and it includes the camera body with top handle, EF lens mount, and control panel. That control panel doubles as an LCD monitor so technically this is a complete camera kit. The Panasonic Varicam LT has launched 6 years ago. This beast is 4K-capable with a Super 35mm sensor, packed in a lightweight magnesium body with interchangeable lens mounts. The LT shares the same sensor as the Varicam 35 and Varicam Pure, as well as utilizing the same dual native ISO ratings of 800 and 5000. The camera records 4K at up to 60p and 2K at up to 240fps. However, it’s well known that the correct price of an LT kit is $10K. So how come Panasonic has just published a “Massive Saving” with a significantly higher price?
The future of the VariCam
It appears, and we say this very carefully, that the wonderful VariCam LT is fading. We don’t sure if Panasonic is going to push new firmware to LT users. We wrote articles discussing the future of Panasonic’s cinema cameras: Is Panasonic Abandoning its Cinema Camera Lineup (VariCam and EVA1)?, and Panasonic CES 2022 Press Conference: R.I.P Camera Division? Panasonic’s Cinema social channels haven’t been updated for a while, nor has the page Shot on Varicam. There seems to be a silencing mode in the divisions responsible for cinema cameras in Panasonic.
We’d like to post a smart comment by one of our readers, Oliver Moereels, regarding his view on that matter: “Firstly, there is no ‘camera division’. The consumer image division (Lumix) and pro av division (Varicam and EVA1) are different entities inside the company. They share technologies but have separate goals and leadership. As long as the divisions make money, they’re safe. The pro av division has the studio, ENG, and PTZ cameras under its wing as well. And vision mixers, and pro displays, … Panasonic absolutely owns the PTZ market and is still a big name in ENG. They are not getting out of the camera business. But it is a huge company and cameras are only a very small part of its business. It’s clear the Varicam 35 is nearing EOL. Panasonic clearly states limited stock for the 35 and Pure on its website and the HS camera head is out of production for a while now. The LT lives on is used on quite a few tv shows, and with the addition of CineLive can be used in multicam as well. So it’ll be along for a bit longer. Both the EVA1 and the VaricamLT are great cameras, but they never gained much traction. They were a bit late to the party. People who use them love them, but there’s no point in keeping expensive social media and other campaigns and websites alive at this point. The models are too old to get much marketing attention, other than getting the price down. This was apparently doable for the LT but not for the 35, although both are hand built to order and over-engineered tanks. But the market has gone to full frame, where Panasonic has put the S1H and the box variant BS1H. The sensor in these cameras builds upon the sensor tech in the VariCams, but Panasonic was already developing its next big thing. The 8k organic sensor. My guess is they will develop full-frame and S35 variants of this and come with ENG and pro-cinema-styled cameras from this sensor tech. BTW, even 7(!) years after being released, the VariCam S35 sensor still shoots great images with fantastic color information and fidelity”.
Why do you think Panasonic has published that VariCam LT ‘Massive Saving’ offer with a higher price tag?
Product List
Here’re the products mentioned in the article, and the links to purchase them from authorized dealers.
- Panasonic Cinema VariCam LT 4K S35 Digital Cinema Camera
Used it once on a TV series pilot, hated it as much as I could. Suggested the production buying an Alexa Classic instead of this one, which was even cheaper back in the day.
The problem with that camera that it was too pricey to compete. There was plenty of competition to choose from at this price point – several Red bodies, Alexa Classic in various flavors (used, but still tanks), and even on a new cams market the competition was high.
I pretty much loved the colors when it came out, used EVA on several shoots where I needed low light capabilities. But hated the codec and complexity of how things worked with those two cameras – their form factor made them not an easy goer for gimbals etc.
I still own and use 2 EVA1’s and several FF Lumix cameras. Image is great, flexibility and wight of the EVA1’s is awesome. I just shot a big tech conference with 3 EVA1’s and the Canon 25-250 zooms. Client was really happy with the image compared to Blackmagic G2s. I would love to have a FF L mount EVA2.