GX7 suddenly under represented on major sites?

[moccaman]

Just browsing through BH and adorama and the GX7 seems very under represented, 2 models in fact, body or with kit zoom, thats it. Seems strange there are no prime kits or other offers, Asia is full of kits with the primes, different colours, is the US dropping off the GX7 already?

 

[Reflector]

I think the GX7 had somewhat of a weak launch in the US, given how Panasonic and Olympus have this thing about ignoring the US market while people make crummy excuses of "oh the Americans have bigger hands so they hate m43s." (It feels like they never made a very aggressive push for the US market, at least from my perspective.)

I remember when during the initial announcement the black version wasn't even available. At least they're actually an option now.

 

[moccaman]

One thing I have noticed is Sammys site has improved a lot with nice clean listings and fast load times, his m43 inventory seems to have grown too.

 

[meyerweb]

Asia is full of kits with the primes, different colours, is the US dropping off the GX7 already?

It's not a question of dropping the GX7. Panasonic US never had kits with primes or the black body. I guess they didn't think there would be that much interest in this country. But the black body is coming: it's available for pre-order on B&H.

 

[moccaman]

I didnt see the pre-order stuff, and I searched the full name and just gx7 too. Not that it matters, our pricing here is now very competitive, was just curious. :smile:

 

[RevBob]

It may be that effective advertising in the US is too expensive to make it feasible to go up against CanIkon. The advertising that I have seen is not particularly effective.

 

[STR]

I think the GX7 had somewhat of a weak launch in the US, given how Panasonic and Olympus have this thing about ignoring the US market while people make crummy excuses of "oh the Americans have bigger hands so they hate m43s."

Americans just equate a bigger camera with a better camera. As a worthless, fannish, anecdote the GH3 outsells the Rebel SL1 on Amazon. That doesn't explain why Amazon classes the GH3 as a DSLR, but eh.

 

[Reflector]

It may be that effective advertising in the US is too expensive to make it feasible to go up against CanIkon. The advertising that I have seen is not particularly effective.

I can find Canon and Nikon advertisements in magazines and Canon has put up some material on TV (See: Flaming tire rolling down a hill.)
All I remember was the original E-P(L?)1 commercials on TV where it was stated that the commercial was shot on the camera. Back then it appeared to be nothing more than a "very advanced P/S" to me and I did not express any interest.

What I've seen from Panasonic and Olympus besides that: Zilch. Nothing. Nodda. I can walk into local shops and ask if they have any m43 stuff for me to look at, at most they might have a single body and zero lenses. Meanwhile I see a nice display case of the Fuji X system standing in the middle of the shop...

Even the Nikon 1 makes it into Costco to sit with the DSLRs.

Americans just equate a bigger camera with a better camera. As a worthless, fannish, anecdote the GH3 outsells the Rebel SL1 on Amazon. That doesn't explain why Amazon classes the GH3 as a DSLR, but eh.

I think you can replace "Americans" with "stupid human beings on this planet Earth" because I've met some intense stupidity from all parts of the world that only remind me that there is no escape from incompetence. When you tie a certain image to something, from a brand to a certain class of items, people will think they are going to get what they want from that image. You see lots of DSLRs in the hands of pros, people will think that DSLRs are the way to go. Give the pros a bunch of medium formats and the next thing you know in a few decades, the next "Format Aryan Master Race" being screamed on the forums of the future will be medium format and it will come from the mouths of unphotographers that have little talent for doing anything but taking out of focus shots of their cats and possibly blurred children (Unfortunately these types actually can reproduce even with their overwhelming incompetence) and talking about how it has the most dynamic range, microcontrast, pop, render and low noise that they've ever had. Then the 135 users of the future will be saying the same things that the "m43 zealot" is associated with saying: "We're more portable, lighter, compact..."

And of course nature likens to make big things scary, just like tall people typically have greater respect, statistically speaking, if you were to introduce them into a room of strangers. In comparison, someone hovering "above average" or "average" or "below average" wouldn't get some of the nicer parts of that treatment. Like not getting harassed.