Gauging the reaction to the Panasonic GH6

[MrSMW]

Exactly what ^he^ said, except I do use AF.

Not all the time but probably about 50:50 on a typical wedding day.

It’s the viability of Panasonic’s camera division that concerns me.

Especially as I came from Fuji who have some very interesting stuff available in the next few weeks and ‘probably’ coming next year…

Ie, I think their future does stand or fall very much based on what they do in regard to AF simply because the sheer volume of negativity surrounding the AF is overwhelming the rest which is arguably the best kit going at these price points.

[newfoundmass]

Exactly, it's simply not good for a company when people always reference the "terrible" (its not terrible, btw) auto focus whenever your cameras are discussed. It's a stigma that has, whether valid or not, taken on a life of its own. I've literally had people use my cameras expecting them to be useless, because of the auto focus stigma that comes with them, who are then confused when they're actually great and some of the easiest cameras to use. It's silly, but it's the reality Panasonic faces and Sony/Canon style auto focus is what users want. 

[kye]

5 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

Anecdotal evidence indicates that the auto focus has been the deciding factor for many people on YouTube to switch from Panasonic to other systems. At this point I think Fuji is as popular, if not more popular, than Panasonic is with that market. 

As someone that's heavily invested in Panasonic and the M43 system, auto focus is a big thing for me not because I need it (the cameras I have meet my needs) but because I'm interested in the long term health of the system. A move towards AF that is on par with the competition gives me more confidence in the viability of the system and company long term. Knowing the system I'm in has a future is important to me and my business decisions. I realize that there are people who think that's crazy, I don't really care to argue over it. 

If I were you, and cared about the health of the system, then I wouldn't be posting endlessly about how AF will be the death of it.

I mean, what if everyone started saying that because everyone else was saying it, and the system died because it didn't have a feature that no-one really wanted, but everyone thought everyone else wanted?

The cryptocurrency people have no evidence of the future and are all posting "to the moon" because they want confidence to be high, but in the same lack of evidence everyone is posting "dead without PDAF".

I think you're all just shooting yourselves in the foot for no reason....

[kinvermark]

+1.    This the big problem with social media, especially Youtube.    The first anxious sheep starts bleating because the wind moves  some leaves, and before you know it the whole flock are in a blind panic that the wolves are attacking!

The whole AF issue has been grossly overstated IMO.

From my limited point of view, I couldn't care less about improved AF.    The big points for me are overall image quality, ease of use, an IBIS IBIS IBIS!     Higher frames rates & rasters, plus improved low light and noise reduction would be great. The only other real "pain point" for me is having to use external ND filters because they are fiddly and get wet or dirty - but I think internal electronic ND seems unlikely at this point.

[newfoundmass]

21 hours ago, kye said:

If I were you, and cared about the health of the system, then I wouldn't be posting endlessly about how AF will be the death of it.

I mean, what if everyone started saying that because everyone else was saying it, and the system died because it didn't have a feature that no-one really wanted, but everyone thought everyone else wanted?

I say it because it will be. I'm not the person Panasonic needs to win over, it's the people who've written them off or have left because of the auto focus. I've been saying for years on here that it's not that bad and that it's not really a problem for me. What is a problem for me is a company ignoring what the majority of the market wants, which puts the system and company at risk. Little old me, the guy heavily invested in M43, isn't going to be responsible for Panasonic or the system dying because I point out of EOSHD the obvious, it's the poor marketing that will do that. 

[kye]

6 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

I say it because it will be. I'm not the person Panasonic needs to win over, it's the people who've written them off or have left because of the auto focus. I've been saying for years on here that it's not that bad and that it's not really a problem for me. What is a problem for me is a company ignoring what the majority of the market wants, which puts the system and company at risk. Little old me, the guy heavily invested in M43, isn't going to be responsible for Panasonic or the system dying because I point out of EOSHD the obvious, it's the poor marketing that will do that. 

I think you might be underestimating the power that we have here....

This thread has 15.7K views at time of writing, the GH5 thread has 840K views, and there are many other threads where the "MFT is DEAD - AF is the only thing that matters with any camera ever OMFG!!!!!" sentiment is posted over and over again.  
Yes, the internet is a big place, but to Andrews credit, there are a number of threads here that have no parallel anywhere else on the internet (I've dived down enough rabbit holes to have found quite a few).  

Besides, no-one can correctly say that they know what "everyone else" is saying about something, and no-one can say that their input has zero impact on the world, so given those things I don't know why you would argue against yourself trying to convince the world that the system you have heavily invested in is dead.  It's like posting "<your real name> isn't very good - don't hire him" over and over again!  Either someone will believe you and you lose, or they won't believe you, and so they think lesser of you for what you wrote, and you lose again.