RAW Firmware Upgrades for Panasonic EVA1 and Atomos

We have some exciting gear/RAW firmware upgrades to announce!

Choice of Mount for Panasonic EVA1

You can now rent the Panasonic EVA1 in PL mount in addition to our EF mount. Well, maybe not in addition. That would make for a very expensive, if awesome, dual-wielding setup. But you now have a choice of mounts! Or, in those rare cases where you have both PL and EF mount glass on set and need a 2-camera setup anyway, you can splurge for one of each (c’mon – splurge!). Note that these cameras are exactly the same – the only difference is the mount. Well, that’s not exactly true – on the PL mount, you won’t get any metadata communication with the lens (not even iris data) nor access to automatic lens functions. So keep that in mind! That’s an important detail.

Atomos and Panasonic 4K RAW Firmware Upgrades

Something that is different about these cameras, though, is their firmware. We’ve upgraded all of our units to the version 2.0 firmware, which includes ALL-Intra frame recording formats, RAW output, time-lapse recording in both LongGOP and ALL-Intra, HD 4:2:2 interlaced formats, and remote operation capabilities with 3rd party wired controllers. This pairs beautifully with our also-updated Atomos Sumo and Shogun Inferno units, which now support RAW-to-ProRes RAW from the EVA1 in (cropped) 4K up to 60FPS and 2K up to 240FPS (4K at 100 or 120p on the Sony FS5 or FS700). The Atomos upgrade also includes Sony RAW loop-out support, ARRI RAW support, HLG support for the Panasonic GH5/GH5S, and more.

Like the finer prints of life? View the EVA1 updated data/changelog here. And speaking of fine print, there is a caveat to these announcements…

Atomos 5.7K Compatibility in Future Upgrade

Note that we just stated 4K up to 60FPS on the EVA1 and not 5.7K. Not to take away from the Very Big Deal-ness of this upgrade, but we spent some time with Atomos on the phone (twice, actually, because the first time we didn’t believe it) and their units (at the time of this writing) can only take 4K RAW out of the EVA1, even though the EVA1 itself outputs RAW up to 5.7K (the full resolution of its sensor).

If you go to download Atomos’ V9.0 firmware update yourself, you’ll notice that the list of changes merely includes “ProRes RAW capture” – not specifically “ProRes RAW capture at 5.7K” (even though 5.7K support is implied just about everywhere else in association with this firmware upgrade). So, at the time of this writing, when paired with the Inferno or Sumo, you can do a cropped 4K or 2K out RAW from the EVA1. Still pretty great, just not the full compatibility we were expecting. Atomos says to expect full compatibility in a future firmware release.

About Atomos’ ProRes RAW

Taking in 5.7K from the EVA1 on the Atomos has to wait just a hair longer but this recent firmware update is still big news. With ProRes RAW, you get the best of both worlds. You are getting data straight from the EVA1’s sensor plus you can enjoy the space-saving features you’d normally have with compressed files. ProRes RAW files are actually smaller than CinemaDNG files, for example.

Atomos is at the forefront of this by providing two flavors: ProRes RAW and ProResRAW HQ, which means data rates between 80-140 MB/s and 12-bit RGB color. However, this has been slowly spreading throughout the industry. For instance, RED also records a flavor of compressed RAW with their R3D format. For a deep dive, check out this handy Apple ProRes RAW White Paper.

Enjoy ProRes RAW in 4K for your next project! To learn more about EVA1 and whether it is right for you, check out: Panasonic EVA1 Review: Loves and Loathes from a Humble Filmmaker. BL’s own video guru, freelance Director/DP Javier Meléndez, recently took one of our updated EVA1s for a spin:

[box] We used the Panasonic EVA1 with its new All-Intra codec update recently during the 48 Hour Film Project and we were very happy to have the extra information the All-I codec provides. Since we had such a short amount of time to write, shoot, edit, and deliver the film, the shoot was very run-and-gun and the camera was shoulder-mounted the entire shoot. The new All-I codec definitely helped make the image cleaner in shots with lots of hand-held camera movement. Also a huge benefit is that it’s easier and quicker to work with in post, which was perfect for our tight turn-around time.[/box]

Rent the Panasonic EVA1, Atomos Sumo, or Atomo Shogun Inferno with RAW Firmware Upgrades

The Panasonic AU-EVA1 5.7K Super 35mm Cinema Camera in EF or PL mount is available to rent from $325 (at the time of this writing), the massively awesome 19″ Atomos Sumo is available from $185, and the 7″ Atomos Shogun Inferno is available from $103.

Alexandria Huff's photography and lighting tutorials can be found on 500px and her blog. See her lighting tutorials here. She is a Marketing Associate Manager at BorrowLenses.com. She learned about lighting and teaching while modeling for photographers such as Joe McNally and has since gone on to teach lighting workshops of her own in San Francisco. Before focusing on studio portraiture, she shot motorsports for X-Games, World Rally Cross, and Formula Drift. See her chiaroscuro-style painterly portraits on her website.

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