Pany G7 vs G85 vs G9

Trevor Carpenter wrote:

I'm afraid I come from the Ebenezer Scrooge school of money management. I'm not actually tight but I do like to think I am getting value for money and I hate being ripped off. Because of that and my immense satisfaction with the g80 (I was more than happy with the G7 before it) I decided to forego the G9. There are things about the G9 that I would so like but I feel both Panny and Olympus are taking the mick a bit when it comes to pricing policy. I know people will argue that the G9 and the EM1-2 are incredible cameras but as I see it the difference in manufacturing costs are probably no more than 30% more. Distribution cost, marketing and retail costs are the same yet the G9 is three times the current cost of the G80 and even when comparing launch day cost it is 2.5 times. The EM1-2 was nearly twice the E1 on launch. I have no way of proving it but I suspect that if the G9 had been about £1100 it would have been a sales sensation and Panny would have still made out like a bandit.

+1

There are things about the G9 that I too would like, but my credit card would not. The G7 was and is an incredible bargain but the cost of the upgrade to G80 was I think justified because of the substantial (depending on your shooting style) improvements it offered.

This time round I'm with Trevor; the marketing model followed by Panasonic and Olympus seems to be aimed at the top 5% of users for whom price is not an issue. I'm with the 95%.