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Back in 2010 the big camera that everyone and his granny wanted was the Panasonic AF101 a great large format camcorder.
It was the first affordable large-sensor camcorder designed for indie filmmakers, event shooters, and documentary crews who wanted the shallow depth of field and cinematic look of DSLRs—but with proper video ergonomics.
Some reasons it became so desirable:
Micro Four Thirds sensor: Bigger than 2/3″ broadcast sensors, giving that “filmic” shallow DOF.
Interchangeable lenses: Thanks to MFT mount, people could adapt almost any lens (Nikon, Canon, PL).
Pro video features: Built-in ND filters, proper audio XLR inputs, long recording times—things DSLRs like the Canon 5D MkII sorely lacked.
Relatively affordable: Around $5K new, which was huge value compared to RED or Sony CineAlta cameras.
Target audience: Indie filmmakers, small production houses, and even broadcasters looking for cinematic style on a budget.
It didn’t have the best low-light performance compared to later cameras, and the Micro Four Thirds crop wasn’t as cinematic as Super 35 or full frame, but back then it was the dream camcorder for people who wanted to break out of the “video look.”
I think “dream camcorder” is rather overstating the AF101!
It had a (brief) niche if you must have the shallow depth of field of a larger format sensor, and was indeed better than what the video mode of a DSLR intended mainly for stills work could offer at the time.
But – you do mention poor low light performance, but for an HD camera it was also poor in resolution terms – from memory only about 1150 lines horizontally, and with significant aliasing above that. (Though monochrome aliasing – better than from DSLR’s of the time.)
That meant it was poor even by 720p standards, and whilst it was capable of outputting a 1080 signal, the real resolution was nowhere near what 1080 was capable of. Indeed, I remember seeing some AF101 footage intercut with that from an EX1 and frankly the AF101 just looked poor by comparison.