Just wondering - various postings around the web refer to B&H having pre-order available for the GH2 ... however presently their website just offers "Notify when available".

Was there at one point in time a pre-order option, that has now ended? Or were those web-posting inaccurate?

Yes - in fact I checked myself yesterday and it was there.

When I checked (yesterday, and just now), I see product pages for the various GH2 configurations, but no option to pre-order. Just "Notify when available"...

Whereas for the AF100 (for example) you can actually pre-order it - lay down cold, hard cash - with 6-10 weeks anticipated delivery.

??? Is this some super-double-secret squirrel club thing? I've asked this question on two fora and got no answer. Surely someone knows whether or not B&H offered an actual GH2 pre-order option in recent days/weeks???

Edit: Bill, if the option was there yesterday I apologise. All I can say is that when I looked yesterday morning, it did not appear to be available.

Why on earth does it matter if they did or not? They don't now. You can pre-order on Amazon.

Because if they had a pre-order, and ended it, it would suggest to me that they are so heavily oversubscribed that they anticipate it taking some time to catch up with demand. It's a straightforward question, so I don''t apologize for asking.

I've been curious about this as well. It was a legitimate question.

Checked B&H this morning and "Add To Wishlist" and "Notify When in Stock" was all that was there.

Searched Adorama for GH2 to see if they were taking pre-orders and it says "Add To Cart" for both black and silver, with 14-140 or 14-42 lenses. I added one to the cart to see if it would say pre-order or not in stock, it didn't. I didn't click on pay though.

The Adorama option appeared a few hours ago. I pre-ordered this morning and the order went through fine.

(It's bizarre that there are 25,381 websites out there saying that B&H has pre-ordering available for the GH2 ... I still can't seem to find out whether they did for a while ... or not.)

Edit: OK I've finally confirmed that all those websites are incorrect. B&H have not so far offered a GH2 pre-order. Here in the US, Amazon has had pre-order available for several weeks, Adorama's began today. I also learned that with the GH1, Amazon was one of the slowest to actually begin shipping their pre-orders.

After speaking to a sales associate at Adorama, I ordered the gray with the 14-42. They told me it should be in stock starting NOV 1st. I don't really care if that's accurate, they bill you only when it actually ships (unlike another store in NY). I have a gh13, I'll wait. And if they do ship first week of NOV ,,,,GREAT. Just need a little bit of patience.

Carlo Zanella
The Santa Fe TV Show (http://www.santafetvshow.com)

@Carlo - it sure looks like Adorama are about the ship the grey models - did they tell you anything about the likely timing of the black ones???

What 'grey' models? Grey market?

The GH2 is being released in black or silver, according to all the ads I've seen ..?

GB

Yeah, sorry, I meant silver. The silver ones appear to now be in stock at Adorama. The black ones are still listed as awaiting arrival from manufacturer. There is a post on 43Rumors from a guy who was told silver units would start shipping Monday.

They told me they should be in stock starting NOV1st, but I really don't count on it. I continue to use my GH13 and I'll be happy when I'll get the 2. In other words, I would NOT plan any session based on what they told me. If I get it soon GREAT, if not, I am ready to wait. I think is going to be worth the wait anyway!!! As far as the black ones, I didn't even ask. I rather get the silver (it should ge al little lesshot whan exposed at the New Mexican sun...-:)

Oh, by the way, yes, they look like they are in stock but, after placing the order, you will get a backordered msg. I was expecting that since I spoke to a sales associate before ordering it on-line. They charge your credit card only when they ship anyway, and ...free shipping.

Best regards.

Carlo Zanella
The Santa Fe TV Show (http://www.santafetvshow.com)

On a DPReview forum, people are reporting that Amazon has canceled theirs pre-orders of the silver version.

Looks like it'll have the same supply issues of the GH1.

I just pre-ordered the GH2 from Adorama, and they told me that the sequence that the orders come in will be the sequence in which the orders are filled (sounds basic, but figured I'd share that). My experience has been that Adorama has a much better inventory system than B&H or Amazon. Very often Adorama has stock when neither of the other two do.

The GH2 is starting to trickle in to Canadian dealers. B&H doesn't have them yet.

I ordered a body (only $630!) from Panasonic and they we vague but indicated they "Thought they were in stock".

We'll see if the GH2 is the latest game changer.

I just went to the website, the bodies are $900. How in the world did you get it for $630?

$630 is basically the corporate price. A lot of companies who usually buy a lot of products from Panasonic can have a deal in which they can get the products for much cheaper and a lot of them will provide those discounts to its employees.

Some people have used a certain website to sign their company up with Panasonic and their are users finding people online with those discounts and taking advantage of that. It does seam like it's getting abused a little bit.