Panasonic GH1: State of the Nation

As we promised a million times already, the time has come for the Panasonic GH1 mega-roundup! The GH1 was announced in March 2009, after it was pre-announced at Photokina 2008. It added HD-Video and it is the second Micro 4/3rds camera to date.

Availability
In the US market, the camera is available for pre-ordering for $1500, bundled with the 14-140mm Micro Four Thirds lens, at the following reputable retailers: Amazon and J&R World. And more to follow I'm sure.

The European price is 1500 euro says Focus Numerique and it does include the 14-140mm lense.

Hands on with the camera
The latest to "touch" this camera is Imaging Resource, which has updated their preview, and added a number of studio sample shots and videos. Better yet, both JPEG and RAW files are available to download at full-size. Please drink their bandwidth responsibly :)

But the most buzz so far, both in the photography and video world, was created by the first-impressions report of director Philip Bloom. He shares both stills and videos taken with the GH1 in this blog post.

But that was not all, next, Bloom grabbed an adapter off eBay and Nikon-mount primes and tested the GH1 in low light.

Then he flew off to Kauai where he shared some slow motion videos and dramatic stills. He has a coupler of smaller updates on as well, check out his blog for more.

David Pogue of the New York Times was among the first to post his thoughts on the camera, and discussed how it fits in the camera/camcorder hybrid market. He also added a segment talking multi-aspect ratio and face recognition.

The mountain went to ephotozine, where Panasonic delivered a GH1 pizza, and ePhotozine posted their impressions after playing with the camera. There are no sample pictures however.

Sample Videos
The Imaging Insider features three videos from China, the last one of which shows zooming-while-filming from 50mm to 140mm (focal range in M43-speak). The videos have nice background music to go with them.

Also on the Insider's radar is a sample video from Japan, this one using a Canon tilt-shift lens. Is this the Micro Adaptall mount? :-)

Opinions on the camera
Chase Jarvis, which as you may recall, made Nikon D90 video famous, opines on the GH1 and the rest of the hybrid video market.

The ColorBlind Photographer is not price-blind. He has major issues with the pricing of the camera.

If the different sensor sizes and aspect ratios got confusing, the Insider points us to a diagram that tries to sort it all out.

We would have had more, but unfortunately "the Google" is filled up with a thousand different websites repeating the Panasonic press release stating the price of the GH1 is $1500, which makes it harder to find anything beyond recent.

Forum discussions
No round-up is complete without forum reactions! One such discussion starts as a faux-complaint that the US market is only getting one color option. But as with most threads, it then takes a life of its own...

But as you can expect, the price is the hottest topic. Even though the 14-140mm lens is included, $1500 is not exactly pocket change. Maybe 10 years ago at Nasdaq 5000 one could trade a couple of hot-air-tech shares for the GH1, but not in this day and age :) On the other hand, how many cameras can do what the GH1 does and at this size?

GH1 Coverage here
You can follow all the major GH1 updates at this blog, past, present and future by checking the GH1 mini blog.

Also, the Panasonic G1 Camera diary has now been expanded to include the GH1. It is now the G1/GH1 diary. If anyone has any objections to this marriage, please speak up now, before it is too late!