Panasonic drops the price of the Varicam LT to $9,995

Panasonic has dropped the price of the Varicam LT to $9,995 USD. This is a significant reduction in price considering the camera was originally retailing for around $18,000 USD.

Update from Mitch Gross

This is an Instant Rebate promotion on the VariCam LT. The good news is that it’s instant, so you don’t lay out more cash and then get it refunded. The Instant Rebate offer is available until the end of September.

$9,995 USD gets you the camera body with top handle, EF lens mount and control panel. That control panel doubles as an LCD monitor so technically this is a complete camera kit. This base model comes with the interface, the lens mount, the monitor, the battery mount, the I/O connections. You can add stuff but you don’t have to just to make it function.

Mitch Gross, Cinema Product Manager – Panasonic

If you aren’t that familiar with the Panasonic Varicam LT it was launched 3 years ago. I reviewed the camera in June 2016 and there was a lot to like: a 4K-capable Super 35mm camera in a lightweight magnesium body with interchangeable lens mounts as well as many of the same features as its bigger brother the Varicam 35. The LT shares the same sensor as the Varicam 35 and Varicam Pure, as well as utilizing the same dual native ISO ratings of 800 and 5000. The camera records 4K at up to 60p and 2K at up to 240fps.

The Varicam LT a really nice camera, but it isn’t without its problems if you are using it as a one-man band. It’s almost as if Panasonic originally designed some of the control interfaces for a production camera and then integrated them into the LT. I still find it hard to get my head around some of the design components. On one hand, it has been really well designed as a documentary shoulder-mounted camera, but on the other, the control panel and lack of physical audio controls on the camera body itself make it feel more like a production camera.

Despite some of these problems I really enjoyed using the LT.  The pictures are great, and the camera is wonderful to use on either a tripod or on the shoulder.

I still think the LT is one of the best cameras around for handheld work as it balances really easily and feels very comfortable on the shoulder. For me, it is a far better-balanced camera on the shoulder than either the Sony F5 or Canon C300 Mark II. Where it does fall over for the solo shooter is the ridiculously slow bootup times and adjusting the audio.