Panasonic reveals pricing and in-depth details about the EVA1 camera

The EVA1 was originally previewed at Cine Gear Expo earlier this year and showcased for the first time in the UK at the Media Production Show, although specific details about the camera weren’t available at the time.

Now Panasonic has announced the EVA1 has a resolution of 5.7K, with a pixel count of 5720 H x 3016 V (17.25 million). The sensor has been newly -designed for the camera and is Super-35 sized (24.60mm x 12.97mm), and Panasonic says it “yields a higher resolving image when down-sampled to 4K, UHD, 2K, or even 720p. Additionally, the increased colour information results in a finer, more accurate finished image.”

It has dual native ISO ratings of 800 and 2,500, and 14-stops of dynamic range. Panasonic claims the EVA1 can switch from a standard sensitivity to a high sensitivity “with almost no increase in noise or other artefacts, allowing cinematographers to shoot in almost any lighting environment.”

Furthermore, EVA1 features V-Log/V-Gamut capture. V-Log has log curve characteristics that are HDR ready and V-Gamut delivers a colour space that will cover BT.2020.

In terms of practicalities, the camera looks well suited to handheld use – it’s lightweight at 1.2KG (body-only) and compact at 17cm H x 13.5cm W x 13.3cm D, and includes a removable handgrip. It can also be mounted on a drone, gimbal rig or jib arm. Panasonic says it is “currently working with top accessory makers to allow further customisation with the EVA1.”

The handgrip provides controls for menu, REC start/stop, Iris and two user buttons. The EVA1 also has a built-in 3.5” touch panel LCD screen for menu selections, expand (image zoom) positioning and playback controls. The LCD has an adjustable backlight control, including a Power LCD mode for bright viewing conditions.

The EVA1 has electronic image stabilisation to counterbalance camera shake and blurring, and also has one-push auto focus.

The EVA1 is EF-mount, and has an integrated ND filter wheel in 2, 4, and 6 stops, which can be controlled remotely via smartphones and tablets. On top of this, the EVA1 will have a remote control app for tablets that enables users to control it on a camera crane, or remote location.

The camera records to affordable SD cards and has two SD card slots. It includes one shot record, which enables single frame video for stop motion capture.

It can shoot 10-bit 4:2:2 in 4K and can record 4K in-camera. In a future firmware upgrade, EVA1 will offer 5.7K RAW output to third party recorders. For high-speed capture, the EVA1 is capable of 59.94fps/50fps in 4K/UHD and up to 120fps/100fps for 2K/Full HD.

The camera has dual-balanced XLR audio inputs with Dolby AudioTM encoding and its HDMI and SDI video outputs are both 4K-capable.