It’s $1500 for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 Micro Four Thirds camera, a rather steep price considering that the new Canon EOS 500D sells for about $900 with kit lens and the Nikon D90 has an MSRP of $1300, with kit lens.
While this may be comparing apples and oranges, Panasonic could be pricing themselves out of a burgeoning DSLR market whose buyers are quite price conscious considering the global recession.
Panasonic justifies its $1500 price tag for the GH1 by including the LUMIX G VARIO 14-140mm/F4.0-5.8 ASPH/MEGA O.I.S. lens as part of the kit. The new lens, designed to support HD movie recording, features a silent motor and continuous auto focusing (AF) capability – a feature sorely missing in other DSLRs that offer video recording.
This 12-megapixel shooter can record high-resolution full HD (1920 x1080) video at 24 fps or smooth HD video (1280 x 720) at 60 fps using an AVCHD format (MPEG-4/H.264). It has a dedicated video record button on the back of the camera which lets users instantly start recording videos, even while shooting still photos.
[Site: Panasonic]