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As you might now the Panasonic GF1 is now selling for $599 at Amazon
. That’s an incredible $90 price drop compared to last week price and a $220 price drop compared to the last month price. The Olympus E-PL1 with 14-42mm Lens (Black)
sells for $499. Such price drops do allow the mirrorless market to compete against the low-entry DSLR. The Nikon D3100 with 18-55mm Lens
sells for $646 and the Canon EOS Rebel T2i with 18-55mm Lens
for $849. For a long time an argument against the new mirrorless camera was that those cameras were too expensive. Of course DSLR can offer some advantages but so do mirrorless cameras (compact cameras and lenses, less weight and no mirror movement, etc.). The recent price drops could become more important than any new camera announcement. No excuses now, if you want a compact high-quality camera it’s time to get the [shoplink 14828]GF1[/shoplink] or the [shoplink 14832]E-PL1[/shoplink]!
The graph from Idealo.de shows the GF1 price drop in Germany (on the Panasonic GF1-14-25mm kit). The graph below shows the Olympus E-PL1+14-42mm price drop.
Check your Pixmania or Amazon store to see the current GF1 prices:
Pixmania Deutschland, Pixmania Belgium, Pixmania France, Pixmania Austria, Pixmania UK, Pixmania Nederland, Pixmania Poland, Pixmania España,Pixmania Italia.
Amazon Deutschland
, Amazon UK
and Amazon France
Trendy.Nikkei.jp worte an article about the recent Panasonic GF1 price drops. On the graph above you see the price trend comparison bertween the Panasonic GF1 (violet) and the Sony NEX-5 (green). Even if there is a GF2 coming in a few months they suggest to buy the GF1 because the price is very low.
16 Responses
These price drops may well simply reflect a lack in demand for a “sophisticated” (large sensor, interchangeable lens, expensive) camera with an unsophisticated (LCD screen) finder. People interested in interchangeable lenses and all that capability can provide might also be interested in focusing accuracy, viewing comfort, and framing accuracy. None of these cameras offer that without buying the accessory eye-level electronic viewfinder and, therefore, adding a lot to the price.
Large price drops like these reflect the fact that the makers misconceived their market. The Panasonic G1 series, with a built-in EVF with focus magnification, is a more flexible and usable camera than either the GF1 or the Olympus series, and at today’s prices is a bargain compared to the finderless cameras.
If these price drops had occured a couple of months after release, you might be right that this is just a market correction. But this generation of cameras has been out for over a year (EPL-1 is just a variation on the EP-1), and updates are expected soon. It’s merely a reflection of Moore’s Law, and tech gadgets having roughly an 18-month product cycle.
Jeff… you’re absolutely right. I lost my E-PL1 after owning it a month (don’t ask). I could replace it now for $499 but instead I just ordered a leftover G1 for the same price. That’s because the optional $259 electronic viewfinder is an absolute must with the Oly. I found I could barely frame a shot in bright sunlight with the E-PL1’s rear LCD.
The G10 is even cheaper than the G1, but the older camera has a much-better viewfinder, an articulating LCD and the older (and much better) 14-45mm kit lens.
The GF1, even at the current cut-rate price, is $100 more than a leftover G1 plus the EVF is still optional (and only as good as the G10’s). And the GF1, with the EVF mounted, is no smaller than the G1.
If video capability isn’t critical to you, the G1 is the micro four-thirds steal right now.
But the quoted prize of $599 is for Panasonic GF1 with 20mm f/1.7.
How much would it be for the G1 with the same lens?
E-PL1 is meant to be lowend .. and LCD quality is one of the things why it was cheaper than E-P1.
With E-P1 I have no problem to see something on the LCD screen.
Even though the E-PL1 is low end on the PEN range, it still has better image quality and better out of the camera JPEGs than both E-P1 and E-P2. I also has the convenient movie button, it’s easier to manually focus legacy lenses with an easy to access magnification button and it’s smaller than the other PENs. In almost all the reviews it outdid the GF1 on image quality too. At the price of a Canon S95 you can hardly find a better deal for a camera that might still fit into the pocket of your jacket.
I got it recently and decided to buy the viewfinder. I am not sorry about it. I compared the viewfinder accessory with the viewfinder of all the mirrorless cameras they had at a local camera shop and it’s simply the best viewfinder I have seen so far. It’s really THAT much better to justify the price. Plus, when you upgrade your PEN to newer models, you won’t have to get a new viewfinder and newer PENs will probably be cheaper than Panasonic’s models with integrated viewfinder.
Just to give you my impression how good the viewfinder is: it’s easier to manually focus with a legacy lens using the PEN viewfinder than through my E-520’s tiny optical viewfinder.
Agreed, for this substantial of a camera- IQ and build wise- I want a viewfinder, yet I have to pay a lot to get one…. I would prefer the G1 I think.
Yeah. I got my E-PL1 with the kit lens for 390 Euro.
Where are the Canadian price reductions. Cheapest price here is $800CAD (MSRP $900).
I’d pick one up right away if the street price was similar to the US…even at $650 CAD it would be fair.
I’d buy one from Amazon/J&R, but Panasonic won’t honour the US warranty, correct?
@ggweci
That’s correct. However Olympus does have WW warranties so that’s a better option to SHOP down south. Too bad because the GF1 is still better IMHO.
Thanks Pascal. That’s what I thought.
As for Oly, I am aware of the international warranty, but I prefer the GF1 much like you.
No way. Check out the E-PL1 review done by dpreview. The E-PL1 outdid the GF1 regarding image quality. 🙂
I love my E-PL1. But a new Oly M4/3 announcement would be a lovely Christmas present. What are you keeping to yourself Admin? 🙂
Yeah, what’s up admin….. Can you bring us some new Oly MFT cameras please?
The E-PL1 was meant to be cheap and compete at the low end of the market. Olympus and stores probably had a pretty huge margin on that model and made nice profits in the first few months. When NEX came out, the E-PL1 could be lowered in price to undercut competition. Now, at €390 for the kit, it’s very competitive with lower end Dslr’s and high end compacts.
Looks like these price reductions are having a huge effect at least in Japan and US if Amazons sales reflect the general market showing the GF1 the top mirrorless camera in sales in US while Amazon Japan shows the GF1 w 20/1.7 lens to be the top seller over the Kiss4(2 lens model)amoung all interchangeable lens cameras. The Amazon rankings show a 55% reduction in price over list for the GF1 and already discounts of 40-50% on the Canon Kisses.
Already almost all the entry DSLR models have rapidly dropped out of contension and if the recent Amazon figures are any indication the trend away from the larger DSLRs even the quality ones in favor of the smaller mirrorless cameras is in full swing and accelerating.