Good news: Panasonic says GH4 preorders exceeded the expectations. Will ramp up production.
Panasonic Japan announced that the GH4 preorders were higher than expected and that they will try to increase the current production to meet the unexpected high demand. Currently the only cameras that have been shipped were sold by US stores and this also represents a first strategy change at Panasonic. They are now trying to increase their visibility on the US market. UPDATE: Personal-View has some GH4 in Stock and shipping worldwide.
And Photographyblog posted the full GH4 review and they are impressed by the camera:
The Lumix DMC-GH4 is a major step forward for Panasonic’s flagship camera, not only in terms of 4K video but also for the still image quality, responsiveness and handling. Even the asking price of £1299.99 / $1699.99 body-only seems like very good value for money given all the extra features that Panasonic have added, which means that the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 is a very worthy winner of our coveted Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 Essential! award.
Camerastuffreview writes:
The Panasonic GH4 is, in terms of ease of use, construction quality and image quality, a professional camera for video and photo – given the speed of the contrast AF – also for action and sports. A couple years ago, this was thought impossible. That is a top performance from Panasonic.
And so far the Sony A7s doesn’t seem to be a real competitor of the GH4. While the High ISO performance of the Sony is impressive (and so the pixel per pixel readout) the A7s is twice as expensive, cannot record 4K internally and has no 10bit out. And of course the Sony A7 series is known to have a very slow autofocus system too.
North American preorders, shipping date and price:
GH4 camera at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), and Panasonic (Click here). Price: $1,698. In Canada at Vistek (Click here).
GH4 camera with interface unit at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here). Price: $3,298
Interface unit only at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), BHphoto (Click here) and Panasonic (Click here). Price: $1,998
Europen preorders, shipping date and price:
Germany: Wexcameras, Marcotec-shop.de.
UK at Wexphotographic, CameraWorld, UKdigital, CVP, TipTop.
Holland at Fotohanskeuzekamp.
Belgium at Fotokonijnenberg.
Norway at Fotovideo.
Sweden at Cyberphoto, Skandinavianphoto.
Finland at Telefoto, Topshot, Verkkoauppa.
France at Photocineshop.
Spain: Fotoboom.