Yes 4 means death in Japan, kinda how hotels some places don't have 13th floors. I had a nice conversation about this just yesterday since I came across these at softmap in tokyo. I was with the misses on a promise I was only checking one thing, so I didn't have time to fiddle with the controls to see what was all there.. plus it's always tricky trying to guess through the Kanji menu. I will try to get a better look soon.

ISO comparaison : GF5) http://www.fotopolis.pl/index.php?n=14692 GF3) http://www.fotopolis.pl/index.php?n=13427&p=6

Do I live in a cave, or did they skip the GF4?

Personally it is hard to get excited over the low end of the camera market. The more they come, the more they all look the same, and that is how I feel when I swing by Akihabara or Shinjuku. That is the same feeling I get when I look at the Japanese phones, and then in the same store(s)...you really can see the differences like night and day.. the Apple difference. No wonder, on any Sunday, the Apple store in Ginza is always packed. Truth is the low end of the camera market is being eaten alive by iPhone and clones from Samsung. And the disappearing low end market with its volume is a real problem for all these camera companies. The low volume high end DSLR market is not sustainable unless there is a lot of volume somewhere else to fund R&D. More worrisome is those phones keep getting better.

1080/60p?

I'm not sure if GF5 have full manual control, as GF2 there is no real full manual control ?!

@Vitaliy_Kiselev, well, for this question you are right +1 ...

@Vitaliy_Kiselev, GF3 has no stereo mic, no hot shoe ... compared to GF2, GF5 looks more like GF3 but i like the "miniature" recording (GX1 also) good for time lapse (not a real time lapse but ...)

Has anyone found raw or high res samples yet?

I got GF2 cause GF3 is mono ... :-( They add some features but remove some other important ones ... Hope GH3 will not be a "Downgrade" ...

But its getting harder to get excited over any Panasonic announcement recently. Its all a bit stale.

Excitemtnt means some marketing error :-) Normal acconcment must be, well, normal..

I'm wondering if camera manufacturers are starting to hit a wall (each newer model is becoming less of a improvement over the last) or tightening their money belts (same shit different package).

I hear same things for years. They hit the wall, break it and go up to next wall. It is nature.

They should let go of the lack of manual video controls in lower models (never hurt sales of nex/alpha line) but then I think Panny have too many models on the go and this could be the problem.

I completely understand lack of video manual controls in such cameras (does not mean that I like it).
As results of their presence in cheap system camera can be very costly for support.

I can understand that its for a certain market. Not for the Rangefinder/DSLR fanboy thats for sure!

But its getting harder to get excited over any Panasonic announcement recently. Its all a bit stale.

I'm wondering if camera manufacturers are starting to hit a wall (each newer model is becoming less of a improvement over the last) or tightening their money belts (same shit different package).

They should let go of the lack of manual video controls in lower models (never hurt sales of nex/alpha line) but then I think Panny have too many models on the go and this could be the problem.

I wait to see how the GH3 is. Im not hoping for much... just better photo ability. Video is already great.

Nice they finally made a better screen though! ;-D

@Vitaliy_Kiselev

Yeah, Panasonic is the most value in this mirrorless market. They are doing good, still I think the easy part for the entry level can be made much easier and open up the market for them even more. I'm so used to getting great UI experience from mobile (phone) OS, that less experience is not so great experience. If you really want to differentiate models, I think UI would be the step to go. Also most people don't need many functions, they just want to point and shoot, take great pictures every time. Many people don't want to think. Then also tackle the constant overlap in price between the Panasonic models.