clay stewart
New member
After about a year and a half in the DSLR business and promises of lots of quality bodies and lenses, Panasonic bails out and leaves it's customers holding the camera bag.http://www.photokina-show.com/0476/panasonic/information/panasonicinterview/
So, here were are about four years later and Panasonic has a couple years of EVIL bodies under its belt. What has changed? Personally, I found their DSLR's to be priced roughly twice as high as I figured they were worth and that holds true for most of their lenses. I think most people would agree, though not all - mostly those with more money than sense - no offense, but you know who you are:ROTFL:
The M4/3 are more in line, but still a bit high, compared to more experienced camera makers models, with similar features, even though they still have mirrors. I mean they still haven't figured out how to get a vertical image to automatically rotate and their auto ISO still lacks a user defined minimum setting.
I guess that the price of the 45 2.8 macro, got me thinking and looking back over their history, to try and figure out why they would price a macro lens nearly four hundred dollars more than what other more experienced lens makers would charge for a similar lens - camera makers with decades more lens making experience. Well, I can't figure it out, so it leads me to believe that the marketing dept. is just stupid - but I mean that in a good way, sort of. I know some will say: "But it's a Leica" Leica Schmeika, it isn't any better than Nikon's, Canon's or Olympus's macro lens and maybe worse than all of them.
Back in the L1 days, they said they were not really planing on selling a lot of those cameras, but they were just trying to break into the DSLR market. Did they sell more than a few hundred of those for 1999.00$? Regardless, they broke in, then broke right back out again and left a few dozen people holding their L1's and L10's in disbelief.:wtf:
Now I have to admit, that the M4/3 seems a bit more promising, but I have to wonder about a company that doesn't lead off with a wide angle, a normal and a portrait prime lens from the get go. I'm not talking about a fisheye and a macro. I'm talking about bread and butter lenses, like a 12 or 14 2.0 or 2.8 and a 40 1.8 or 1.4 to go along with the 20 1.7. I know there are promises of lenses in the future, but, that's what they said with regular 4/3 and that's a distant memory now.
So, maybe if they started pricing their stuff in the realm of mortals, like Canon, Nikon and Olympus, or lower, where it belongs, then they would be able to sell enough, to sustain themselves as camera and lens makers. This try and sell high, and then bail out, when the idiots in the marketing departments plan doesn't work out, is getting old already.:deadhorse::angel:
So, here were are about four years later and Panasonic has a couple years of EVIL bodies under its belt. What has changed? Personally, I found their DSLR's to be priced roughly twice as high as I figured they were worth and that holds true for most of their lenses. I think most people would agree, though not all - mostly those with more money than sense - no offense, but you know who you are:ROTFL:
The M4/3 are more in line, but still a bit high, compared to more experienced camera makers models, with similar features, even though they still have mirrors. I mean they still haven't figured out how to get a vertical image to automatically rotate and their auto ISO still lacks a user defined minimum setting.
I guess that the price of the 45 2.8 macro, got me thinking and looking back over their history, to try and figure out why they would price a macro lens nearly four hundred dollars more than what other more experienced lens makers would charge for a similar lens - camera makers with decades more lens making experience. Well, I can't figure it out, so it leads me to believe that the marketing dept. is just stupid - but I mean that in a good way, sort of. I know some will say: "But it's a Leica" Leica Schmeika, it isn't any better than Nikon's, Canon's or Olympus's macro lens and maybe worse than all of them.
Back in the L1 days, they said they were not really planing on selling a lot of those cameras, but they were just trying to break into the DSLR market. Did they sell more than a few hundred of those for 1999.00$? Regardless, they broke in, then broke right back out again and left a few dozen people holding their L1's and L10's in disbelief.:wtf:
Now I have to admit, that the M4/3 seems a bit more promising, but I have to wonder about a company that doesn't lead off with a wide angle, a normal and a portrait prime lens from the get go. I'm not talking about a fisheye and a macro. I'm talking about bread and butter lenses, like a 12 or 14 2.0 or 2.8 and a 40 1.8 or 1.4 to go along with the 20 1.7. I know there are promises of lenses in the future, but, that's what they said with regular 4/3 and that's a distant memory now.
So, maybe if they started pricing their stuff in the realm of mortals, like Canon, Nikon and Olympus, or lower, where it belongs, then they would be able to sell enough, to sustain themselves as camera and lens makers. This try and sell high, and then bail out, when the idiots in the marketing departments plan doesn't work out, is getting old already.:deadhorse::angel:
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