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Samy’s Lumix S Sale

iiiNelson

Well-known member
If you’re in California Samy’s is running an unbelievable sale in store only where you can get a S1R kit with the 24-105 for $2600 and the S1 kit with VLOG for $2200 with the 24-105. I tried to see if I could get in on the action but the manager said no. Oh well. I’m expecting a more drastic permanent cut of the price soon. I’m assuming the cameras aren’t moving all that well.

P.S. The sale ends today.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
It is a shame that they are not selling well, if that is the case. They are way ahead of the Sony's in my use...I have the S1 and actually prefer the Camera Natural setting to the standard colors in my Leica S006 on many occasions. I have never seen a camera whose colors are as good as the S006, so that is saying a lot. The S1R is quite tempting for me, but I am going to wait until the S3 comes out to see what the price and specs are for that. But for an EVF camera, the S1 is extremely nice to use and has remarkably good output...it seems to be by default sharper than my M10 (and I am not talking about the sharpening...the literal pixel level detail without sharpening).
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
It is a shame that they are not selling well, if that is the case. They are way ahead of the Sony's in my use...I have the S1 and actually prefer the Camera Natural setting to the standard colors in my Leica S006 on many occasions. I have never seen a camera whose colors are as good as the S006, so that is saying a lot. The S1R is quite tempting for me, but I am going to wait until the S3 comes out to see what the price and specs are for that. But for an EVF camera, the S1 is extremely nice to use and has remarkably good output...it seems to be by default sharper than my M10 (and I am not talking about the sharpening...the literal pixel level detail without sharpening).
I agree the IQ coming out of the Panasonic cameras is extremely impressive. The color profiles are really nice as well. I was actually looking forward to splurging on this in-Store deal with the S1R and 24-105. At $2600 it was a no-brainer for me personally. It’s a tougher pill to swallow at $4600 as it’s approaching GFX money on one end and A7Rx/A9 money on the other.

Yeah it would be a shame if these cameras don’t succeed because I’m really interested in the Panasonic, I want them to do well, but it’s probably a hard sell at a premium price, smaller dealer network, and more limiting lens selection as of today. Perhaps they aren’t being produced in great numbers and if this is the case then that’s a smart move. The S1 is priced at launch on the high end of what I expected. The S1R was priced $300 above the high end of where I expected. It kinda had an uphill battle against the Sony and Nikon Mirrorless cameras given the higher pricing and fewer native lenses.

Again I would like to see a more competitive regular price become the norm and I also wouldn’t mind a refresh coming soon than later. It’s clear that processing speed will affect this camera perhaps more than its direct competition since things like AF are so reliant on moving a lot of data. I wouldn’t mind seeing a refresh of the S1 and S1R in 2020 with AF that more closely competes with the competition in continuous AF.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
I agree the IQ coming out of the Panasonic cameras is extremely impressive. The color profiles are really nice as well. I was actually looking forward to splurging on this in-Store deal with the S1R and 24-105. At $2600 it was a no-brainer for me personally. It’s a tougher pill to swallow at $4600 as it’s approaching GFX money on one end and A7Rx/A9 money on the other.

Yeah it would be a shame if these cameras don’t succeed because I’m really interested in the Panasonic, I want them to do well, but it’s probably a hard sell at a premium price, smaller dealer network, and more limiting lens selection as of today. Perhaps they aren’t being produced in great numbers and if this is the case then that’s a smart move. The S1 is priced at launch on the high end of what I expected. The S1R was priced $300 above the high end of where I expected. It kinda had an uphill battle against the Sony and Nikon Mirrorless cameras given the higher pricing and fewer native lenses.

Again I would like to see a more competitive regular price become the norm and I also wouldn’t mind a refresh coming soon than later. It’s clear that processing speed will affect this camera perhaps more than its direct competition since things like AF are so reliant on moving a lot of data. I wouldn’t mind seeing a refresh of the S1 and S1R in 2020 with AF that more closely competes with the competition in continuous AF.
Yeah, I can see how they have an uphill battle, but it is interesting to me, as every other pro I have put the S1 in the hands of has been really impressed. People who work day in and day out with cameras know what matters, and the handling, color and output of the Panasonics are superb...I was and still am a Sony user (I have the A7S for night video still), and it is like night and day. Personally I am not using the AF in the S1, and AF video has never been necessary to me, so I do not care how their AF compares to the competition...when I have tested it it seems very quick to focus with the 24-90 Leica zoom. But if you want AF for video, clearly phase detection is a undeniable advantage. I think their biggest problem, however, is making pros aware of the camera, and perhaps in furnishing them with lenses to use. It seems like they are doing pretty well with lenses, and Sigma should come in with a large number of really high quality lenses as well, so hopefully that will not be an issue much longer. The more challenging one is the marketing. The price was not a big concern for me as I think they deserve to be more expensive than the competition...they are better. Then again, that's just my take. Obviously the market is really difficult these days.
 

bab

Active member
Yeah, I can see how they have an uphill battle, but it is interesting to me, as every other pro I have put the S1 in the hands of has been really impressed. People who work day in and day out with cameras know what matters, and the handling, color and output of the Panasonics are superb...I was and still am a Sony user (I have the A7S for night video still), and it is like night and day. Personally I am not using the AF in the S1, and AF video has never been necessary to me, so I do not care how their AF compares to the competition...when I have tested it it seems very quick to focus with the 24-90 Leica zoom. But if you want AF for video, clearly phase detection is a undeniable advantage. I think their biggest problem, however, is making pros aware of the camera, and perhaps in furnishing them with lenses to use. It seems like they are doing pretty well with lenses, and Sigma should come in with a large number of really high quality lenses as well, so hopefully that will not be an issue much longer. The more challenging one is the marketing. The price was not a big concern for me as I think they deserve to be more expensive than the competition...they are better. Then again, that's just my take. Obviously the market is really difficult these days.
I would guess they are dropping the line?..
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
I would guess they are dropping the line?..
It is possible, but that seems pretty unlikely to me. They just announced the S1H...if sales were so dire that they decided to shut down the entire line, I imagine the first thing they would do would be to cancel the release/announcement of any new cameras. I am not sure of the sales numbers, which seem to be entirely anecdotal, but most of the reviews I have read of the cameras have been very positive. I would hesitate to infer too much from a single camera store's sale. There could be any number of reasons they might do something like this...if they were just trying to sell out their stock, why would they restrict the sale to in-store only?
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Yeah, I can see how they have an uphill battle, but it is interesting to me, as every other pro I have put the S1 in the hands of has been really impressed. People who work day in and day out with cameras know what matters, and the handling, color and output of the Panasonics are superb...I was and still am a Sony user (I have the A7S for night video still), and it is like night and day. Personally I am not using the AF in the S1, and AF video has never been necessary to me, so I do not care how their AF compares to the competition...when I have tested it it seems very quick to focus with the 24-90 Leica zoom. But if you want AF for video, clearly phase detection is a undeniable advantage. I think their biggest problem, however, is making pros aware of the camera, and perhaps in furnishing them with lenses to use. It seems like they are doing pretty well with lenses, and Sigma should come in with a large number of really high quality lenses as well, so hopefully that will not be an issue much longer. The more challenging one is the marketing. The price was not a big concern for me as I think they deserve to be more expensive than the competition...they are better. Then again, that's just my take. Obviously the market is really difficult these days.
I agree that the user experience is a subjective thing. I wouldn't mind a larger Sony body for when I want to use the larger zoom lenses for improved ergonomics with them. I've never had a large issue with Sony RAWs but I get that they take a different technique to massage. One of the selling points for me with the Lumix S would be the Leica APO-Summicron SL 35 and 90... and maybe even the 21 when it is released if I chose to add/replace my system with a Panasonic. I don't care about the SL zooms personally. They're fine but I believe the Panasonic ones released so far are good enough for me judging from the rendering that I've seen. Leica zooms are probably technically better but not to a level that really would matter to me. I'm ultimately am a "prime guy" and only use zooms for convenience when traveling or when money is on the table and I'm looking for speed/efficiency.

Regarding the continuous AF it matters for me because I've gotten used to how well it works on a Sony and I find the efficiency and operation speed of the Sony Alpha system changed how I worked efficiency wise. I'm still primarily a "photo guy" but the S1 isn't quite there yet in continuous use. I believe that it'll get there as the processors get more powerful to where DFD isn't a large enough compromise to tell the difference with the added benefit of not having to worry about the potential for PDAF artifacts in those rare cases. Another place it matter is videos and using the camera on a gimbal. Right now PDAF is still king and matters.

In any case I'm really pulling for Sony, Panasonic, and Fuji to survive and thrive the camera wars... and that's not to say I'm hoping others fail. These just happen to be the companies that are making the products that speak the most to me. They're all putting out exciting products (IMO) and are pushing the industry forward the most. They all have things I feel they need to correct from a perception standpoint for instance Sony needs to address a more up to date menu and offering additional form factors. Panasonic needs to tackle the perception that they only care about video and address the real shortcomings of their DFD/CDAF system. Fuji needs to work on the perceived quality of their products and the impression that they're selling a lot of beta products that are being "firmwared" to completion. Of course this isal perception that I've heard or read over the years but that's what they're dealing with IMO.
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
It is possible, but that seems pretty unlikely to me. They just announced the S1H...if sales were so dire that they decided to shut down the entire line, I imagine the first thing they would do would be to cancel the release/announcement of any new cameras. I am not sure of the sales numbers, which seem to be entirely anecdotal, but most of the reviews I have read of the cameras have been very positive. I would hesitate to infer too much from a single camera store's sale. There could be any number of reasons they might do something like this...if they were just trying to sell out their stock, why would they restrict the sale to in-store only?
I agree that it's unlikely that they drop the Lumix S line after a year. I'm sure they produce cameras to scale for their expected sales and I'm sure that the S1H will be their most successful body. So I was thinking it would also be exciting if they made a S1X which would be a S1 in a "rangefinder" style body. It's essentially the interchangeable Leica Q people have wanted for years. Imagine if Sigma brought out 24/2.8, 90/28, and 180/4 compact Contemporary Lenses to go along with this form factor. That would be a hot seller.
 
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