The reason why SLRs can't record movies used to be the mirror which is neccessary for fast autofocussing. On the other hand the Panasonic DMC-L10 can use a slower contrast detection autofocus with the mirror flipped up. Another reason used to be that the large sensors would get hot when constantly in use which would increase noise. But the L10 and some other SLRs now have low power Live MOS sensors. You press the Live View button, the mirror flips up and stays up during shooting as long as you do not use the faster autofocus method. I wonder what technical difficulties hinder Panasonic to include a movie mode. It's all there otherwise: a large sensor and an articulating LCD.
Will we see a SLR with movie mode in 2008?
UPDATE: Panasonic answered to my question. Of course they don't comment on future camera features but at least they confirmed that there is no technical reason for not including a movie mode in the L10. They said it's not a designated performance feature for this model.
