I had a hands on go with the Panasonic GH3 a couple of days ago. Even though it was a pre-production model it still turned out a decent performance with video, audio and of course stills. I will do a full review on this camera as soon as it becomes available. Take a look at the short video here.

Panasonic Lumix GH3 overview | photo-i - digital photography (http://www.photo-i.co.uk/2012/10/video-panasonic-gh3-overview/)

Thanks, Vincent. Looking forward to it. In the meantime, here are a great preproduction unit review (http://www.trustedreviews.com/panasonic-lumix-gh3_Digital-Camera_review) and video from the folks at Trusted Reviews UK. Best video I've seen from the GH3 yet:

Panasonic Lumix GH3 Test Footage - YouTube

Thanks for posting. I have to say either YouTube is killing it or the handling was off a bit as I think this footage was kind of soft compared to the GH2. The GH3 is not turning out to be the slam dunk that so many had been hoping for. We will see over time and if a hack develops to offer any visible improvement as with the GH2. For me, if the HDMI was a true 4:2:2 it would be a big plus for an upgrade.

The cameras that we played with were all pre-production models, in fact my camera kept cutting out every five minutes. I don't think we should jump to any conclusions at the moment. The handling was very good, I liked the OLED viewfinder, at least you don't have to strap on any other accessory to use this camera. Panasonic together with Olympus offers a good range of lenses . Should be interesting once I get a chance to do a full production model review.

To put it more plainly, I think it is a bit early to pass judgment. Or to expect hacks when it hasn't made it to production yet. Vitaly is smart, but even he needs a production unit to do anything with it. The softness in the Youtube video could be explained simply by the reviewer relying way to much on autofocus, for instance, and that functionality not being fully dialed in as yet. There are some signs of it - or the reviewer - hunting for focus. Or the reviewer relying to much on the rear screen to get critical focus, and the rear screen is inadequate for that - its specs are not at all hi-res.

I think Panasonic's motivation in providing these pre-release views of the GH3 is to keep interest alive as they go through a longer than usual period between Product Announcement and Product Release. They're still writing the firmware for goodness sakes! It could be CES or NAB 2013 for all we know before they finally start shipping.

Still looking forward to production units eventually being released and reviewed. I prefer to remain cautiously optimistic. They are NOT going to do worse than its predecessor.

Wise words. The fact that the GH3 chip is a different design makes the lineage from the GH2 difficult. Having so many pro type people using a consumer cam like the GH2 tends to bring about different behavior as well. For all we know, Panasonic video called to say "put the brakes on..."

Canon took this situation to build an entire line above the camera that created all of the buzz. Then chose to improve only certain aspects of the 5D video image leaving the all important detail level the same or worse.

We will wait for the reviews...because we have no other choice!