I phoned Panasonic this morning and was told…”The technicians in Japan are looking into this though they have not yet been able to re create this particular problem”. I reminded Mr Tarrent that this problem only shows up when viewed on a 1920-1080 42″ screen with 6-9dB switched on.

Having done further tests myself I note…

Filming in 1080 50i the dots are finer and slightly more elongated at 6, 9 and 12dB, not so apparent at 0dB.

Filming at 720 50P the dots are rounder and seem more apparent at 6, 9 and 12dB, they are not so apparent at 0dB.

Filming at 720 x 625 DV mode the dots are not apparent.  (DV mode makes sense as you are taking a fair bit of detail out of the picture.) 

I had a play with the SCENE FILE settings,

Detail level is 0 default, tried -7 and +7 with no effect on dots.

V Detail Level is 0 dft, tried +&-7 with no effect on dots.

Detail Coring is +5 dft, tried -7 with no effect on dots.

Matrix is set to Norm 1, tried Norm 2, Fluo & Cine-like with no effect on dots.

Skin tone detail is off, tried it in the on position with no effect on dots.

V Detail frequency is set to thin, tried Mid and Thick with no effect on dots.

So I am no further forward with my production model, another camera will be tested and sent up to me ASAP.