Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for us 4/3 camera users but
Last edited Tue Feb 22, 2022, 12:54 AM - Edit history (1)
The new OM-1 is priced at $2200 body only and Germany released pricing on the new GH6 at almost $3000. That's a major price increase over past new cameras. I think we'll see more of this including new lenses and accessories.
Before we gasp and whine keep in mind that the equivalent product from Canon or Nikon is over $5000.
I think what we are seeing here is price pressure to bring the respective companies back into the black and a desire to use pricing as a measure of value. When I was in the business I often heard, "If it's so much better why is it so cheap?" == My favorite answer was, "If theirs isn't why is it so expensive?" ==
Going forward there is a possibility that product will be priced on performance and features and not the cost of production.
edit to correct price on GH6--official Panasonic announced price is $2,200
= new reply since forum marked as read
And I expect to be, for some time.
But for the folks who want this one.........well. Time to buy it and enjoy, or not. Choices are so often difficult.
Although cameras don't make pictures (they occur in your head, cameras only let you share them with others) they make pictures easier. Or even possible.
In 1980 with state-of-the-art equipment there was no way I could have made the picture below:
I could not have manually focused fast enough to capture this. Paying attention to composition at the same time?? Yeah, I could zone focus and hope but to define the veins in a bee's wings fast enough to do this repeatedly? No way.
The hardware makes things possible. I daresay your iPhone does all the hard technical part once you see the picture so without it you don't get to make the money that technology affords you.
There are two challenges here. For the enthusiast it comes down to which new features will make their kind of photography easier, better or even possible. For the camera maker it's how to stay in business in a diminishing market so the enthusiast can make those pictures that were once impossible. Don't fool yourself into thinking the 'Pros' will do it 'cause there aren't enough of them. Us hobbyists carry the load on volume, not the pros. Left up to them we'd still be using the Nikon F (not even the Photomic!). Income forces them to upgrade to keep up with the ones who upgrade first.
I look at the OM-1 and see faster auto focus, better focus tracking, improved high ISO performance for that extra hour of dawn shooting and better dynamic range. I don't care about the other ten new improvements so the question for me is, "Am I willing to pay $2,200 to buy them?" If enough of us say yes, OM Systems stays in business, if not we don't have the option of ongoing support for the platform we have chosen.
The more info that comes out about the camera the closer I get to saying yeah. It's only money and ya' can't take it with ya.
