Panasonic GH1 gets a price: It's high
Is the Lumix DMC-GH1 worth $1,499?
(Credit: Panasonic)When Panasonic announced its video-capable follow-up to its Lumix DMC-G1 interchangeable-lens camera (sometimes referred to as a "hybrid") at PMA in February, the DMC-GH1, the company coyly left out any mention of pricing. Although it shipped several weeks ago in Asia and I dutifully did the exchange rate conversions, I really didn't want to believe that it was going to cost $1,499. But a preorder listing for the camera has popped up on J&R's Web site at that very price.
Given that J&R doesn't generally offer the deepest discounts and that the camera isn't really shipping yet so competitive pricing hasn't kicked in, I expect the street price to be closer to $1,299--still pretty pricey, even with the bundled 14-140mm (28-280mm equivalent) lens.
Then again, it's a new technology and probably a new market segment, so who knows what price the market will bear. The question is, would you pay that much, assuming the photo quality and performance can match a similarly priced dSLR?
(Via photorumors.com)
On Sale Now: $1,439.00 - $1,499.99
View the latest prices for Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1K
Senior Editor Lori Grunin has been covering digital imaging for two decades, but her memory's kind of sketchy on the details. You can hear about it every week on Indecent Exposure, the podcast she co-hosts with Matt Fitzgerald. 
And besides, what lens mount does it use? Who makes their lenses? What is the availability of lenses for this camera? You know, a camera is only as good as it's lenses~
Ed
Lenses:
With manual focus: almost every lens ever produced via adapters
From 4/3 system (Olympus&Panasonic): at least 6 lenses with autofocus, more to come.
Dedicated micro4/3: 4 lenses already by Panasonic, Olympus will present at least 2-4 this year.
That means 15 lenses available within a year of launch G1 - pretty impressive.
14-140 - the only lens on the market with continuous aperture for SLR (for video)
7-14mm - superwide (for APS-C - 14mm is not available)
Who will buy this: everyone who wants to travel light and wants both high quality stills and video.
If you've ever travelled in Himalaya above 4000m you'll know that each gram counts.
That will have to come down or nobody will be buying it.
Maybe you should not speak until you've done your homework. This camera breaks NEW ground: continuous shooting of video with full control (Nikon and Cannon shoot in bursts with no control of the lens) and excellent audio features (plus a jack for microphones). And it shoots excellent still images. This camera is CHEAP for what you get.
another question about the default lens kit, I read in a blog or a comment that the minimum distance between a focused object and the camera is 0.5m? Anyone confirm this? How can it shot a macro using default lens kit?
1. The photo quality at best is keeping up with the entry D-SLR of other major brands, but it is overall just average quality, not even close to the higher end D-SLR in performance.
2. What has been making a big impression is its HD video capabilities, which is the best among the digital cameras. But we should keep in mind that compact video has been mediocre and the HD video capability in D-SLR is just a first attempt, a prototype. In many cases, it seems to me that these manufacturers rushed this new technology into production in their new D-SLRs inpatiently in fear of being seen as behind its competitions. Canon's EOS 5D Mark II needs a postproduction firmware upgrade to provide manual control that the manufacturers obviously could not wait before the camera's debut. Both the Nikon D90 and D5000, and Canon T1i have videos without any meaningful manual control, mediocre video AF, and terrible unuseable audio. To Panasonic's credit, the GH1 has a more complete and useable HD video. Many people have marveled about the HD video quality and its depth of field that is comparable to the much more expensive pro camcorders. But the GH1 and D-SLR HD video has an important flaw, there is vertical distortion when filming moving subjects. To quote a comment by dpreview.com, "Verticals can be skewed if the camera (or the subject) moves too fast - the top of the image has been recorded earlier than the bottom, so moving vertical lines can be rendered as diagonals." So the GH1 is not exactly a cheap replacement of the digital camcorders.
3. Now the main promise of micro 4/3 is the smaller size compared to conventional D-SLR. In this respect, the Olympus Pen E-P1 has done a better job than Panasonic's GH1. Well, the GH1 body itself is about the size of the Canon G10. But after adding that 10x zoom kit lens, it is just a little bit smaller than the Nikon and Canon entry D-SLR. On the other hand, Olympus Pen E-P1 has a much more compact package. The E-P1 camera body is slightly smaller than the GH1 and Canon G10, but I'm not sure whether I can forgive Olympus for not including a built-in viewfinder to achieve the smaller size. But Olympus has a collapsable compact zoom lens and a very compact pancake fast wide angle lens that makes the E-P1 quite an appealing compact package. However the E-P1 suffers some performance issues with slow AF. If one really wants to have a compact D-SLR like camera, then can buy Panasonic GH1 body and use the Olympus' compact lenses (but you will not have image stabilization). But so far no one is selling the GH1 body alone, and I am not sure about the quality of the Olympus' compact lenses. As for the GH1 kit lens, its image quality is not impressive but it is optimized for video use with quiet focusing and long 10x zoom range.
So is it worth the $1500 price tag for this prototype camer/camcorder hybrid? One thing for sure, there will be a lot more D-SLRs with similar and perhaps improved video capabilities in the next few years. That may help to end the silly pixel war and give the manufacturers something new to compete among each other. So if you don't need it right now, you should probably wait. I still remember buying my first 42" Plasma TV back in 2000, costing $5000 and has a DVI connection that becomes outdated and replaced by HDMI. This is a new technology at its infancy, future generations will be cheaper and better, and perhaps smaller.
- by larry33 September 7, 2009 11:38 AM PDT
- I've had one of these cameras for about a week now. I have mixed feelings about it.
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- by sithums September 8, 2009 11:29 AM PDT
- hi larry
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(18 Comments)The good:
The camera is small, and light as promised. The auto focus is good and the camera has little or no appreciable lag. Still photos look very good although not nearly as good as my 5D MII. The most noticeable weakness I've encountered is, not surprisingly, at the very bright end, the pictures start to clip more quickly than on the 5D - I haven't looked but it may be possible to control the rolloff. The lens, 14-140, is sharp, although very slow, and it appears to deliver very nice results at all focal lengths and apertures. While the camera has endless menus and options, the ergonomics are good and it quickly becomes second nature to operate most of the functions. The onboard screen is both easy to view and of sufficient resolution to actually evaluate pictures.
The bad:
The electronic viewfinder is terrible. It suffers from all the worst qualities these viewfinders are famous for. It is possible to make a good one - the current RedOne finder is spectacular - but expensive. I love the dedicated movie button but the placement is terrible. I constantly find myself hitting it by mistake. The video is fine but looks 'thin'. It kind of looks like DV on steroids. I believe the color bit depth is 4.2.0 so I wouldn't recommend it for green screen work.The avchd codec just doesn't look that great to my eye. That said, the chip size makes for attractive selective focus even with the slow lens. Too bad neither Canon nor Panasonic allows for live high res capture (uncompressed) from HDMI. My understanding is that the chip actually captures at a much higher native resolution and I don't expect either Canon or Panasonic to give us that level of video anytime soon. Red's new Scarlet has plans to incorporate such features but I doubt it will be this inexpensive. It will, however, put pressure on Sony, Canon, and Panasonic to deliver more video picture in the prosumer dept.
All in all, I like this little camera. I may get an adapter for other still lenses, but I know the risk.
By the time I'm set up with my 5D with all the add ons I'm not really looking at a little still camera any more. The small size and modest price are what attracted me to this camera. I think I'll try to keep it that way.
Thanks for yr comments. so useful. I was Nikon user, D300, and because of weight and size I changed to use D5000.
At the same time I also use handy Panasonic LX3 for its F2 lens and wide 24mm for my project records. I found out D5000 quality is not so good in my view. So I m looking for a camera with proper image and performance quality and light weight. Then I am now thinking of buying GH1 (or probably GF1).
I know I cant expect so high about GH1 but if its within acceptable limit, its ok with me. Yr comments help me at least to see the extent of that camera's performance.
Since I m not pro fotographer and just a serious enthusiast, I hope GH1 will satisfy my needs