Panasonic G10 discontinued??? (US deals roundup)
One of our 43rumors reades noticed that BHphoto discontinued the Panasonic G10 (Click here). This is a huge suprise for a camera that has been announced 10 months ago only! Adorama doesn’t even list the G10 and Amazon has it in Stock via third party resellers only. I guess everyone is preferring the older G1 or the newer G2 camera.
Meanhwile the new Panasonic lenses are all in Stock. The good news is that the Panasonic 100-300mm lens has a $35 discount at Amazon (Click here). The new 14mm lens is also in Stock at Amazon (Click here).
There has been a huge price drop on the Panasonic 8mm price drop wich is now in Stock for $685 at Adorama and BHphoto.
The 45mm macro lens is also getting cheaper. $735.00 at BHphoto!
And finally you can get the Panasonic GF1 body only for $299 at Amazon!
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Recent comments
Comment from TysonRobichaud: I don't think we'll see Pana move away f...
Comment from tgutgu: If Panasonic would deviate from their cu...
Comment from safaridon: The DSLR shape is still the most practic...
Comment from Redkite: If they discontinued the DSLR shape of t...
JeremyT
2 years ago |Wow, that is a heck of a price for the GF1 body! I really have no need for it, and yet I’m still tempted
davide
2 years ago |Well, the G10 never made sense, I’m glad they are discontinuing it. Why did they wasted time and engineering resources on it, it’s still a mystery. And we’ll all pay for it, in terms of missing products and price that they’ll need to recoup from other models.
Hopefully they learned that we don’t need crap copy-cat cameras but something serious, so I’m back on the fence.
Price for the GF1 body is good, if it was a EPL1 (which is supposed to be cheaper!) at the same price I might have bought it.
Price for the 8mm starts to come to reasonable, but it is still crazy that:
- they have this freaking fisheye and they don’t have yet a serious portrait (the 45mm macro is not a portrait at all)
- they have this freaking fisheye and they don’t have yet a serious prime wide (the 14mm is too long to be serious wide, when most Panasonic compacts already start at 24mm equivalent!)
- that they prefer to have a dedicated fisheye when they could have made a much cheaper (and smaller, and lighter, so I could have it always in my bag, unlike this) addon like Sony did
Evan Calkins
2 years ago |I picked up one of the $299 GF1s on Amazon. I’ve been waiting for a deal. I’m was sorry I didn’t pick up the $599 deal a couple weeks ago with the packaged 20mm 1.7.
Now… to find a lense. Any sub $150 4/3 lenses out there that would work well with the GF1?
Ad
2 years ago |+1 on the G10. I held one a few days ago and it felt like a serious downgrade from a G1. No articulating display, much less of a viewfinder, few missing buttons, no touch-screen is a lot to give up for less than 100 euros price difference with a G2.
It’s good to see that this kind of needlessly crippled cameras doesn’t sell well, it’ll encourage Panasonic and Olympus to make real progress like improving the AF speed up to that of e.g. a Nikon D300s, still better viewfinders, waterproof/dustproof gear and extension of the lens program.
TysonRobichaud
2 years ago |I’m surprised it took this long…
The G10 never made sense to me and if Panasonic really wants to have 4 cameras in the m4/3 line up, I hope they split the GF series similarly to that of the relationship between the G2 and GH2 in a GF2 and GFx1 or whatever, where the latter is a more serious, higher performing, compact body using the GH2 sensor.
Winston Loo
2 years ago |Not only that… the G10 has crippled video mode. No AVCHD Lite… and since Mjpeg has a 2GB file limit.. for HD Mjpeg movies, this means a maximum record time of only 8 min…
safaridon
2 years ago |Pany intended the G10 as their low end entry lower cost model which would permit the G2 and GH1 to remain in the middle. Only the loss of the higher resolution EVF and swivel screen from the G1 was too much as most regarded the G1 to be the better value and camera. The reviews of the G10 were mainly very favorable other for the low resolution EVF but the G10 was not widely available, not in stores like Best Buy or Walmart and did well in sales only in UK and reportedly not even available in Japan.
I think Pany is wise in dropping the G10 now to free up production resources for other new and more populuar small models. However I think the experience that Pany has had with lower than expected sales for G10 and GH1/2 is making them reevaluate whether to concentrate their new models on the perceived more popular rangefinder style or possibly something like a digital FM model rather then continuing the existing old DSLR shape?
Redkite
2 years ago |If they discontinued the DSLR shape of the GHx cameras they would lose me as a customer. I’d like to see a more professional looking model with an Titanium weather-sealed body. Slightly larger would be an advantage too as I find my GH2 just a bit too small.
safaridon
2 years ago |The DSLR shape is still the most practical configuration for a semi and pro model not to mention it still is the best seller at least for Canikon. However in a niche market to compete Pany and Oly need to something new to the table aside from being mirrorless and smaller lenses.
I personally think that would be a digital OM or FM in a metal body which would look like the small classic SLRs or Leica of old only with the EVF in the middle.
The other product I see very likely to appear is the production of a high end model like Panys patent showed ie a mini LC1 rangefinder body with compact durable metal weathersealed body. Metal is important to act as a heat sink to help dissipate sensor heat from high speed HD video operation. I think if Pany were to mount a swinging LCD in the middle they could fit a larger EVF in the far left corner which can swivel up. Such a rangefinder style would not be very tall and much more packable with no bulge for the finder.
For those wanting or needing a larger swivel screen or EVF there would be the existing models at a more affordable price.
I think both of the above described models would be very practical and prove to be very popular options setting them apart from the look alike crowd.
tgutgu
2 years ago |If Panasonic would deviate from their current GH2 body concept, which is excellent, they woould loose me as a customer as well. I hope that their “pro” level bodies will never come up as “pseudo rangefinder” style types, as they have ergonomic disadvantages if they are designed like the PENs or have at least no particular advantage, if they have a decently large grip and a view finder as large and good as that of a GH2. And I don’t care about this hybride VF hype from the X100, because I think the GH2 VF surpasses already most DSLR view finders. So there is no need for this hybride stuff.
TysonRobichaud
2 years ago |I don’t think we’ll see Pana move away from a dSLR style body (G2/GH2) but I strongly disagree that there cannot be a “pro” level ‘rangefinder’ style body. A GF style body with a strong build, high performing sensor and decently weather sealed body with most of the GH series features would absolutely kill it if they could keep the body under $1k. More than anything, I think the first platform, be that Panolympus, Leica, Canikon, Sony or Samsung (or other?) that comes up with an affordable, well built digital rangefinder style camera with interchangeable lenses will really open up an entirely new segment that would pull a lot of folks from the NEX/GF/NX100/PEN side of the coin looking for a high end, small camera while not cannibalizing the lower/entry level EPL/NEX3/GF2?etc lines. Look at the recently posted sales numbers in Japan, by far the highest selling MILC cams are the GF1 and NEX5 which shows (at least in that market which most of these companies pay more attention to) that there is a large market for small bodies with interchangeable lenses. I’m not saying this should be a replacement for the dSLR styled G and GH lines, I’m just glad to see the G10 disappear as it was to gratuitous in concert with what is logical in the market place. Keep the G line as the mid/budget line the GH as the higher end/pro line, the GF as the ‘small’ mid/budget and a new GFx? line as a ‘small’ higher end/pro line for the hungry masses screaming for it. I think it would be a huge success, assuming they were realistic with pricing, but seeing as the GH2 is under $1k body only, I don’t see why they couldn’t…