As I told you recently there will be no new GF camera this year and Panasonic main focus will be on the GM line. And I suspect the Gm line will never be as cheap as the GF cameras and that’s why it could be a good idea to grab one of the highly discounted GF cameras you can find right now. Let’s start with the GF3 camera. It’s really a good-looking (in my opinion) and well spec camera. Reviews can be read at Dpreview, Photographyblog, Imaging Resource and CameraLabs. And these are the best prices I found in USA:
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Black body only for $117 on [shoplink 45991 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
Black refurbished camera with 14-42mm lens for $179 on [shoplink 45990 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
Black camera with 14-42mm lens for $299 at Amazon US (Click here).
Black camera with 14mm pancake for $318 on [shoplink 45992 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
Red camera with 14mm pancake for $318 on [shoplink 45993 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
White camera with 14mm pancake for $318 on [shoplink 45994 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
Brown camera with 14-42mm X pancake lens for $349 at Amazon US (Click here).
White camera with 14-42mm X pancake lens for $349 at Amazon US (Click here).
6 Responses
Yes , it’s good looking camera .
But it’s ISO performance is such a disappointment .
From GF1 to GF5 , there are minor improvements in ISO / sensor performance ,
Can’t go further than ISO 800 with free noise photos .
Till Sony came out with innovative cameras , Pana start doing it’s work seriously .
Without Sony , Oly & Pana definitely keep decorating it’s new camera , cheating people’s hard earned money . The same for Canon & Nikon .
The gf3 is actually a really good stills camera. It beats my gh2 in most ways for stills.
Yes, it is a “good” camera – we have one – but not as good as those that followed. I think Panasonic have hurt themselves by keeping it around in the bargain bin for years, while better GF models (GF5 and now GF6) and also better G models should have received a higher level of promotion. Did they build way too many GF3s for Target and now are stuck with inventory? Just write it off for the sake of the product line.
When Olympus put the excellent 16MP imager in all Pen models, it left Panasonic with a performance compromise in the GF models, particularly the GF3. There is no compromise in the GX7, GM1 or GH3/4 models; so no wonder Panasonic is struggling to make the GF series appealing. True, many customers don’t follow all these details of sensor and AF evolution, but they do check reviews, and if they don’t they may be underwhelmed by the bargain GF3 and then stay away from Panasonic thereafter. Loss of a higher profit sale to a close-out sale, potentially followed by loss of a customer for the future.
I’m hoping Panasonic keeps fighting with a couple of really good efforts in the $400 category, and that they find a way to solve the no-retail-exposure problem.
It is much more clever to buy a Olympus E-PM2 or E-PL5 now in discount for the same price. There you dont get old technic but a camera with the qualities of the OMD-EM5
G7 with gh4-sensor and oh my good only UHD-readout( soo faar way from 4k 🙂 and so on )
and cristal fine full hd- the good photospecs and a new starter f2,8 lense in one and all
for 499,- and you get your market–means also to stop the 2010-2014 model-model-model
but nothing realy usfull in portfolio…the times of such things are gone–made by manufactures
itselfe and now they look in there own marketing-bottel-neck.. i will not give anybody money close to 149,90 away of a next bmc p-2 ( maybe a 2,5k cinema-799,- porn) and no-i am no
fan of nothing—- i do not want—i only see specs/ the realty/price i get
( sony makes it alwasy a bit hard look at the 6000 model-it has blocks and artefacts in video–
so what to change older nex 5 oder something for what?) ( and never forget the smartphone-
zu-nami = you get it for 14,90,-/month and no more money for this shitpice of nothing)=
89% of all users do not give any $$$ for nothing–this is gone.
GF3’s can be hacked to improve video bitrates similar to GH2. None of the newer ones have been hacked yet for faster bit rate videos. Check out YouTube. Also the picture from the GF3 are still quite nice, the interface and form factor are excellent, and the PZ lens with GF3 is a pocketable setup.