GX7 upgrade?

SkiHound wrote:

I think Panasonic's naming has created much angst. Many people were unhappy with the GX8 when it was released as a successor to the GX7. Many thought it was too big and heavy. Many street photographers were unhappy with the fully articulated screen. It wasn't the upgrade a lot of GX7 users expected or wanted. The GX85 seemed to have been released to be the GX7 upgrade. In Japan it was named the GX7 mark ii. Now I'm speculating but I suspect Panasonic's plan was to have two lines of rangefinders. Although many who own it love it, I don't think the GX8 was a big seller. It got an almost immediate reputation for shutter shock. And again I'm only speculating, but I think Panasonic is consolidating the GX line into a single body. The GX9 is named the GX7 mark iii in Japan. For those who wanted a GX8 upgrade that had most of the features of the G9 in a rangefinder body, the GX9 is a huge miss. IMO, it simply is not that camera. I don't recall the opening price for the GX8 but it was considerably higher than for the GX9. IMO, the GX9 is an upgrade to the GX80/85/7ii. And it's only an incremental upgrade. Right now, the GX85 almost certainly offers the most value of any m43 body. But people are comparing the current price of the GX85 with 12-32 to the current price of the GX9. The GX85 was at least $200 more when released. Panasonic seems to be kind of blowing them out. All that said, for a person who does mostly stills, and who wants a relatively small, light, body for things like street photography and travel, the GX9 is a fine tool. So I think the GX9 is really a return to the GX7 line and the inconsistent naming put lots of folks off.

I fully agree.  If you put the GX7, GX85, GX9 and GX8 together on a table with no model names on them, it'd be pretty obvious that three of them were more similar to each other than the fourth.

Ignore the naming.