GH1 body only - cost new/used

T

thpriest

Active member
how much does the GH1 sell for new without the kit lens?
i might have the chance to buy a 2nd hand GH1 body. anyone got any idea how much it would be worth?
i have seen the kit lens advertised for 800€ new and the GH1 including the lens goes for 1340€ new.
any opinions would be most appreciated!

oh yeah, i live in Eurolandia, Kingdom of Pal and his mistress the Euro.
 
you really can't buy the gh1 body only unless you get it from Japan. I just bought mine from there and it was around $700 and that's when the Yen was at 91. You're better off either buying a new gh1 and selling the kit lens or finding someone willing to part with their Gh1.
 
you have a good point about selling the lens.

the thing is, a friend works for a production company who are thinking of selling their GH1. they don't have the lens. i've tested the camera and it seems fine. if i can get it for a cheap price that would suit me. i want a DSLR as a stop gap before the new generation video cameras come out. the less i spend the better!
 
The GH1's kit lens value goes down when it's not mated to a GH1 body. I can't see G1 owners spending EUR 800 on a super wide zoom, without any of it's HD benefits!
 
I do, but not as much as I'd thought I would.

It's great for travelling.
It's nice for walking around with and shooting ad-hoc.
It's got a great range.

But it's slow and lacks shallow DOF at the wide end, and the AF is not even up to low end camcorder standards in terms of accuracy and speed. Most of the kit lenses advantages are only utilised in full auto mode on the GH1 and full auto is not the way to shoot video. The AF tracking could be incredibly useful in the future. I like that feature the best of the whole GH1's feature set and it can only be done with the kit lens. But it's a bit rough and ready, too slow and doesn't work very well most of the time.

Zeiss primes all the way - even if they are a pain in the ass to keep changing / carrying around.
 
Full auto mode may not be the way to shoot video, but I'd be willing to bet that a very large percentage of the people who buy this camera (consumers) will do exactly that. And this is who the GH1 with the kit lens was most likely designed for.
 
I am new to the GH1 and video. Despite the fact that I have a pretty good collection of Nikon lenses, the kit lens is the only one that fully communicates with the camera to take advantage of all the automated functions in the camera. These functions are very useful when you need the camera to capture the moment. For this purpose, the kit lens works really well. When I do not have time to even AF, I use the wide end to get max DOF and zoom with my feet. While this lens is slow, to get the background blury, I use the long end and step back. The OIS makes this possible without too much camera shake when videoing indoors with available light. The AF-C occasionally mis-aims but this may be reduced if I use face detection.

Overall, the 14-140 is great for traveling and as the "go-to" rig when you need to shoot quickly to capture the moment. You can get shallow DOF by zooming to the long end. With an additional 50/1.4 prime lens, together they make a pretty simple and light traveling kit.

In terms of the body only price: In the US, the GH1 kit can be had for $1500 and the lens only option is for $850. I have thus seen people selling the GH1 body only for about $800 on eBay. In Japan, the body only is for about $800-900. Hope this helps.
 
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all very good but what about the 2nd hand price of a body only?
kit is 1340€ here new.
a second hand body would be worth.......400€, 500€, 600€, 700€ ????

any ideas?
 
I have no idea. The best way would be to use eBay's completed listing features and see what the market says.

I'd also be interested to find this out. Opinions from buyers? What would you be willing to pay? (Don't say "as little as possible") :)

I think around the $900 mark without kit lens, max. I have seen the kit lens go for £500 on eBay though, which makes buying the kit and selling the lens the cheapest way to get the body. However the body is therefore still worth about £500. Much the same as the GF1 body only in the UK. Crazy!
 
what color is the body? if it's a used gh1 body black, i wouln't pay more than $700. The kit lens brand new is msrp'd at $900. I bought a new gh1 body for $700. So if it's used, $700 would be my max offer. And that depends on how used and what color.
 
I paid $900 for a new USA Body on ebay with everything but the kit lens (i.e., charger, manuals, cables all included). Thing is they're just really hard to find and I can't imagine the market is very good for that lens only, at least here in the US, so I would imagine a US body only is pretty tough to find. I never wanted the kit lens so I was happy with the deal (would have bought it with the kit lens if I had to, even knowing that I probably couldn't get much for the lens, so the $600 discount was good enough for me).
 
I paid a little less from a great seller on ebay too. Then he knocked it down even more. I had the same idea about the lens. I'm waiting on the pancake lens to maximize this camera's low light potential. $700 might be the future price when all the competitors come out. Now is the time if you want to get max price for a used deal. I paid 825 +sh.
 
For another body, a lens adapter, you could shoot 1080p 24p two camera setups for less than 2gs. That's insane.
 
i don't think panasonic's gonna ever release a body only version in the us. for one, i believe all their profit comes from their glass. why they have it in japan??? dunno. weird, but i wouldn't hold your breath waiting for one to drop in the us. g1 never did.
 
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