I won't pretend to know much about this as I am not a raw shooter, but guess it's possible, though Panasonic already has pro-res raw, and the masses don't need anything beyond that. I think it is really more GH6 related as they had a similar flop with the GH3. In that case the core users had patched GH2's and there was little justification for paying more for a more professional body but lower bit rates. Maybe I am giving myself too much credit, but my little phase detect leak video did get noticed by many, including Panasonic as I was asked "who told you, phase detect would be in the GH6?". Thing is I get it now, the G9II was already pre-production (this is what I was being told about), and they thought the GH6 would get a pass on other specs with everyone not expecting phase detect anyways, as hardcore users were still fine saying "we don't need AF for Cinema". Well, I think I put a bit of kindling before the inevitable flames as suddenly everyone saw it may actually be coming, and even those claiming they didn't care, clearly did. So when it was released sans PDAF, it was enough of a let down to be essentially DOA in terms of expected or even minimal sales needed. But management is not going to let the team just say "it was a failure, we need to release GH6A (action) or some shit now and accept the loss. They have to push the stock out the door and likely do at least one or two small production runs to make it look like "due to the current global economy sales were lower than expected, however the timing of the G9II was better as the economy has stabilized. We Have Also Learned from the G9II that phase detect was more desired than we previously believed (har har), and data suggests that if we release a GH7 with phase detect before the end of 2024 it will be similar in sales as the now very sucessful G9II release." Thing is they weren't completely wrong to give it to the G9II. The G9 as I have mentioned before is widely successful in Japan with many bird photographers which is a huge market segment in Japan using that camera. Japanese camera people are slow to change camera's only doing so if there is a significant improvement that will greatly increase their experience. Two cameras more than any stand out far above others in the past half decade. The Z9 and now G9II. The Z9 first only appeared with 2 individuals in my go to spot shortly after the release. There was obvious interest from others, but they waited to see how the users felt after a couple months of use, and then 2 more popped up, a month later 6 more, and so on.. The G9II was like this, except one popped up, and a month later 10 popped up. Obviously a less prohibitive price is part of it, but again the G9 was hugely popular, and people who invested in that camera had allot more time to save their yen and justify the doubled price 10 years later. GH7 if indeed coming will be a very interesting test to see if micro four thirds still has staying power in the video crowd. Obviously allot of us here have a special place in our heart for these once little beasts, and I don't think they are going away just yet, but had they made the GH6 phase detect the timing would have been allot better as I think many die hards really just gave up at that point and moved on to aps-c or full frame. (I should probably make this rant a youtube video).

@mee Well, it was pretty silent on the "RED RAW codec" at NAB, so nothing new here.

But m43 rumours now report about a imminent new Lumix camera announcement in may.

It will be a completely “new kind of model”.

Whatever that is supposed to be.

Well, here is a "rumour" about the may Panasonic announcement being a Lumix S rangefinder style full frame camera.

What a total shitshow from Panny if true.

m43 reports about a possible m43 camera for may as well.

I don't really put to much belief in the claim of a entry level model as all 3 unreleased WiFi-registrations from China are dual band WiFi. So unlikely to be "entry level". Alas, this rumour should be taken with a ton of salt, no more believable than the countless GH7 rumours published in the last 8 months.

(Alas, also all three cameras are unlikely to be a high end S1 mk II replacement since these are all tri band WiFi...)