GH1 availability around the world thread

I was at the Saturn here in Goettingen and the head photo guy said that they had ordered them and they would be here around the 20th--a week from yesterday. Saturn is a pretty big store so we shall see, but it could be vaporware. They did do a sort of pricematch for me with Deutsche Amazon--split the difference on an MKE 400, which I thought was unusual.
 
That sounds about right because other rumors have pegged worldwide production total at 5,000 units per month so it would make sense that about 2,000 would go to the U.S.

Dan
 
I don't know how much water this holds, but 43rumors.com is pegging June 12 for the GH1 release date (US). 2,000 units per month.

http://43rumors.com/gh1-release-date-june-12th/

I'm not sure about those numbers, I read a Panasonic press release saying they are trying to capture 10% of the DSLR market with the 4/3 G1/GH1. I do know 7.5 millon DSLRs were sold worldwide last year. I can see those numbers for the first couple months but I'd expect production to greatly increase.
 
I hope this isn't going to be a long painful wait. I have been dreaming of this thing and that is sad in itself. Oh well... you know what they say... If it isn't here by then... just wait longer.
 
The Panasonic Direct website says it will be shipping in June. So take that for what it's worth. I have two pre-ordered through them.
 
I predict that many of you will not be able to get a hold of one until July or even August/September. This camera is so hyped and so cheap that supply is already overwhelmed by demand and the thing hasn't even shipped yet outside Japan. It will probably be the same story as the original HVX200 was. We all wanted one so badly that we could taste it, yet many of us couldn't obtain one until about 4 months after the "official" shipping date.

Dan
 
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Stock is even running out in Japan.

I tried ordering from an online shop there, and got conflicting answers. My friend in Japan was able to place an order and got a delivery date of 'Friday'. I emailed the same store earlier and my reply came through the next day saying it was unavailable due to stock shortages from Panasonic, and that they had confirmed this by calling Panasonic Japan.

I am really fed up with the slow trickle of GH1s onto the market.

To have it unavailable in two of the biggest electronics markets in the world, Hong Kong and Taiwan is almost as bad as having to wait 2 or 3 months longer than Japan for it to arrive in the US and Europe!!

Compare this to other mass market digital SLRs from Canon (inc. luxury items like the 5D Mark II). They are EVERYWHERE here in Taiwan, and worldwide.

I don't know what kind of production problems Panasonic are having with the GH1 but clearly it is not going smoothly.

Their marketing is very tepid and slow too... still evaluating markets outside of UK, Germany, France, Australia, Cananda, USA and Japan.... that leaves a lot of the world still remaining!!

All in all a very poor launch.

I am hopeful my friend's Japanese order will be delivered - apparently stores in Taiwan & Japan have to compensate their customers if the item is not delivered, and have to state the item as being out of stock if they don't have any to send.
 
To put this in perspective it's not until the recent week that Canon has managed to manufacture 5DmkII in quantities enough that one can just enter a store here in Sweden and buy it off the shelf and that camera was announced September 17th last autumn. Considering that Panasonic announced the GH-1 in March I'd say they are pretty speedy in ramping up the production.
 
To put this in perspective it's not until the recent week that Canon has managed to manufacture 5DmkII in quantities enough that one can just enter a store here in Sweden and buy it off the shelf and that camera was announced September 17th last autumn. Considering that Panasonic announced the GH-1 in March I'd say they are pretty speedy in ramping up the production.
Yeah. I don't think you can compare the current availability of the 5D Mk II to the current availability of the GH1. The 5D Mk II was very hard to find in stock in the US for months and months. Canon certainly didn't have enough to meet demand at launch. Not even close.
 
Exactly. And it's STILL hard to find. People are just now receiving their orders.

Yeah, I would expect the GH-1 to be harder to get at the price it costs, but it won't be that bad.
 
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