Maybe competition as well? The G3 is such a good buy regardless of what you compare it to. The em-5 has also been making waves even before its official announcement a few months back. So people are probably holding back on getting a slightly improved gf1, thus all these price drops.

This is still not as big of a price drop compared to what some people are "predicting" when a new camera is released (read: wait a month or two and it will go down almost half its release price).

prices haven't dropped here in UK, on camera price buster site, the price is the same today as Mid february £429 for body only

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GX1, G3, p14-45 , p14, sigma 19, p20, oly 45, p45-200

Amazon Best Sellers: best Compact System Cameras

In Amazon US' best sellers, the GX1 makes its first appearance at #30. On the other hand, I do remember Amazon not having th GX1 in stock for extended periods of time while other big retailers like BH and Adorama did have them stock.

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OMD
14/2.5 17/1.8 17/2.8 25/1.4 45/1.8 75/1.8 12-50 14-150
My FlickR!

I believe a lot of enthusiasts like myself were feeling quite nostalgic about the GF1, which in many ways, has/had almost achieved a "cult" figure like or icon status amongst many m4/3 users. The more Panasonic dumbed down the GF line with the GF2 and then GF3, the enthusiasts complained. The more complaints there were, the more the GF1 became an icon. It's hard to create something to succeed an icon.

While the GX1 is clearly superior to the GF1/2/3, it was just underwhelming relative to the G3 (and GH2). As others already noted, the performance is fairly similar, but the G3 has a built-in EVF, articulated LCD, and is much cheaper. My guess is that the GX1 line would have sold much better at the launch price IF Panasonic had bundled the new EVF with it.

Maybe Panasonic should have priced the G3 at about $700-800 (and kept the eye sensor for the EVF). In retrospect, I suppose it would/could have made sense for Panasonic to have a GH line priced at $1000+, G line priced at $700-800, GX line priced at $600-700, and GF line priced at $400-500.

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OMD
14/2.5 17/1.8 17/2.8 25/1.4 45/1.8 75/1.8 12-50 14-150
My FlickR!

I'm surprised at the discussion in this thread... I don't think the GX1 has dropped in price much in the US. It's been out for almost 5 months now, and the largest discount I've seen is the recent $50 rebate.

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Panasonic GF1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamgibson/

It's the kit price that they're reacting to - it's down $100 with the 14-42, which is pretty substantial, and fast compared to when the GF1 first started dropping.

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[ GF1 | GH2 | 7-14mm | ROK7.5mm | PL45mm ]

Tax season for many means a substantial refund check to spend on toys, so there may be an opposite effect!

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Chuck

Thanks Ray
Thats what I was thinking , Olympus and most of Panny models are doing well . EP3, EPL3 and EPM1 havent dropped more than 50-100 . USD .Even Panasonic G3 and GH2 are holding well . GF3 lost some money but its not a flagship model . But I am happy as many of us can pick up this at a better price now .
Cheers
Bhupinder

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OMD Silver with battery Grip
Olympus 45mm 1.8
Panny 20mm 1.7
Olympus 4/314-54mm MrkII,
Fuji X100 Black LE

I think, as has been alluded to, that it's a combination of influence from the G3 and E-M5. The GX1 is really nothing more than a reformulation of the G3. Very slightly faster, very slightly better jpegs, slightly smaller, and a couple of more buttons. Yet it also loses an integrated EVF(adding the VF2 to the GX1 makes it larger than the G3, although still more portable since it's detachable), the articulated screen, and the(arguably) better handling. For the substantial price difference I think the GX1 just isn't as worth it as it seems.

In fact, since the GX1 was announced it seems the G3 has had a popularity boost, since the peole buying the GX1 are enthusiasts, and they research their cameras before purchasing. Those people will read that it's not really substantially better than the G3 which costs a lot less, and they will buy the G3 instead. That's certainly what happened with me.

Conversely, the other thing to consider is the advent of the E-M5. While many of the people who were gonna spend 800-900 dollars on the GX1 realized they could get equal performance from the G3 at 200-300 dollars less and went for that instead, another portion of the GX1's market probably figured that if were willing to spend so much money on the GX1, why not spend a little bit more on the E-M5? For a relatively small difference in investment, you get a camera that is weather sealed, has possibly the best m4/3 evf, substantially improved C-AF(by most, not all accounts), is still very small, has a tiltable screen, possibly better image quality, certainly better jpegs, better video, optional microphone accessories, a lot more controls, optional grips, the best image stabilization system ever seen outside of a physical support system, and that Oly charm many love?

To me, the GX1 was always in a bit of an awkward position, particularly after the announcement of the OM-D. It was treading a middle ground where I think many people could see just as good or better options to it at either side of the price spectrum. The price drop helps make that less of an issue.

Panasonic kit prices sometimes puzzles me. When the GX1 came out many people bought the kit with the 14-42 PZ and sold the body as "used but new". About the same time they were giving away a GF3 and the old 14-42 with the 14mm in a double kit, which led to a flood of "used but new" GF3s with 14-42mm.

I bought the GX1 with the PZ and are thinking about selling it (due to little use), but prices on Panasonic cameras seems to drop like a brick. That being said, none of the stores here have lowered the prices for cameras in stock, but one has had quite a low price on the net but not in stock until May...