Sunday, July 12 Update: The deal is off again.
You can currently get a blue Panasonic G1 two-lens kit for $692 shipped at Amazon. That's less than the body only price for the Olympus E-P1! Here's how:
- Click here to go to the Amazon page for the blue G1 with 14-42mm lens kit
- Scroll down to where you see "Save $250 on the Panasonic 45-200mm Lens when you purchase 1 or more Panasonic G1 Digital SLR offered by Amazon.com" and then click on the associated "Add Both to Cart" button.
- Proceed to checkout, and you will see the instant savings applied.
Thanks to 1001 Noisy Cameras for emailing me that our readers might be interested in this deal!
Featured comment by Gregory Travis:
You can get the deal with a black body -- I just did. What you need to do is search for Panasonic G1 - when it comes up select the black model and find the offer sold from Amazon itself (which lists a ship date of "1-2 months") and is slightly more expensive than the non-Amazon lowest price of $699 (amazon charges $712.96).
After that, pick the zoom lens. Then proceed to checkout and see that you have a black camera body/standard lens plus the zoom lens plus a $250 credit. My total was $760.65 for the camera, 14-45 lens, AND 45-200mm lens (I chose free shipping). A little more than $672, but still a hell of a deal.
Shipping estimate is August 3-August 18.
Logging you in...
whee · 825 weeks ago
amin 67p · 825 weeks ago
Eolake 33p · 824 weeks ago
Harris · 823 weeks ago
Eolake 33p · 822 weeks ago
gregory Travis · 822 weeks ago
After that, pick the zoom lens. Then proceed to checkout and see that you have a black camera body/standard lens plus the zoom lens plus a $250 credit. My total was $760.65 for the camera, 14-45 lens, AND 45-200mm lens (I chose free shipping). A little more than $672, but still a hell of a deal.
Shipping estimate is August 3-August 18.
amin 67p · 822 weeks ago
gregory Travis · 822 weeks ago
"Save $250 on the Panasonic 45-200mm Lens when you purchase 1 or more Panasonic G1 Digital SLR offered by Amazon.com"
"offered by Amazon.com" being the key phrase. I noticed hat when you pick a black G1 on the page, it says it ships from 17th street photo, not Amazon. Hence no deal.
But if you search Amazon you CAN find black G1s offered and sold by Amazon itself -- they're just slightly more expensive and not in stock (which is why Amazon doesn't show them when you use the dropdown). But you CAN order them and, when you pick the lens, you get the $250 discount.
What you don't get is instant gratification. I can't wait for August!
Gregory Travis · 821 weeks ago
"Hello from Amazon.com.
We are sorry to report that we will not be able to obtain the following item(s) from your order:
"Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 12.1MP Digital SLR Camera with Lumix G Vario 14-45 mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Mega OIS Lens (Black)"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001FSKDWG
Though we had expected to be able to send this item to you, we've since found that it is not available from any of our sources at this time. We realize this is disappointing news to hear, and we apologize for the inconvenience we have caused you.
We have cancelled this unavailable item from your order.
Please visit the product detail page above to see if the item is available from other sellers.
Note: If you took advantage of a promotional offer when placing this order, this cancellation may affect your order's eligibility for that offer. If this is the case, please contact customer service; if we determine that you should still receive the offer, we'll reimburse you for the value of the promotional discount. Please note that this will not apply if all items in the order were cancelled.
For more details about the status of this order, please visit "Your Account":
http://www.amazon.com/your-account
Your credit card will NOT BE CHARGED for this item because you only pay for items when we ship them to you."
Looking at my account, the 45-200mm lens is still on order but the G1 and the associated $250 credit for ordering the 45-200mm lens along with the G1 are both gone and they're about to charge me $279.69 for the lens alone.
Like I said, this stinks to high heaven. Their offer said "Save $250 on the Panasonic 45-200mm Lens WHEN YOU PURCHASE," not "When we actually ship it to you, if we ever do."
Anyone else ever have something similar happen? I'm going to call them and pitch an absolute fit. I at least want the lens minus the $250 credit. I've already spent a couple hundred dollars in other G1 accessories in anticipation of getting it, such as a Minolta MD/MC lens to micro4/3 adaptor, etc.
Gregory Travis · 821 weeks ago
Long story short: they cancelled my black G1 order which I had placed along with an order for the Lumix telephoto to get the $250 credit. When they cancelled the camera, it also automatically cancelled the credit but not the extra telephoto lens.
They shipped the lens to me today and charged my credit card ~$300 for it. So I had a lens that I paid full price coming for a camera I did not have coming.
Long story short, Amazon agreed to apply the $250 credit to the lens. So now I have a brand-new 45-200mm Lumix lens coming to me from Amazon for less than fifty bucks.
Now I just have to find a camera for it!
Eolake 33p · 821 weeks ago
So far I've just played with it, but it really seems like a *lovely* camera.
... And I'd actually forgotten it has a hinged screen! I love that.
Gregory Travis · 821 weeks ago
And prices are up. Amazon is now showing the black G1 at $799 (with the kit lens), up from $712.96, and you still have to wait a month or so before they'll ship it.