Panasonic Imaging Chief: Making New Autofocus System

Don’t get your hopes up. Yosuke Yamame-san, head of Panny’s imaging division, indicated that they have a new system in the works, but the comments surrounding that statement seem to indicate it will be a set of improvements for its existing Depth from Defocus (DFD) system.

A wide-ranging interview by CineD showed that there is much continued pride in the DFD system.

“It is more likely that we will be able to offer the same level of performance to as many models as possible also in terms of price, regardless of the type of image sensor,” said Yamame-san in comparing the Panasonic system to the competition – all of whom have moved to phase detect mechanisms. He referred to the new system as “the next generation system,” which shouldn’t warm the hearts of Panasonic shooters hoping that a phase detect system would arrive with a camera upgrade.