I've been looking for a GH2 (body) and my usual outlets for video gear (B&H, Adorama) have been showing this as backordered. has been like this for a while. Is this due to the recent troubles in Japan or is a newer model on the not so far horizon?

I checked my local camera shop and they have a bunch in stock. Only a few $$ more than the larger online retailers. May have to pick one (or two) up before they are gone.

They are available here and there, they go in spurts, that's all. I just got another one from Samy's, and I believe they have a few, unless they sold out over the weekend.

I should add I got the silver one, and I really like it better than black, it's just cooler looking to me!

I've been looking for a GH2 (body) and my usual outlets for video gear (B&H, Adorama) have been showing this as backordered. has been like this for a while. Is this due to the recent troubles in Japan or is a newer model on the not so far horizon?

I checked my local camera shop and they have a bunch in stock. Only a few $$ more than the larger online retailers. May have to pick one (or two) up before they are gone.

Hi Reed,

Even though it's hard to find at Adorama, Amazon, B&H, JR or the other big internet retailers, the GH2 is often in stock at smaller (but still reputable) online stores.

The black body-only is in stock for $900 at OneCall and Unique Photo.

With the 14-42mm lens, it is in stock for $1000 at Unique in black or $999 for silver.

Good luck,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution (http://hybridcamerarevolution.blogspot.com)

I have watched the supply situation of the GH2s for a long time and the smaller retailers appear to get them more often and in greater numbers than the "big boys" do. The only explanation I have for this is the smaller retailers do not have the clout to demand deeper discounts than the "big boys" do of their suppliers. Now if you are Panasonic and can sell everyone you get shipped to the States, it would be foolish to deliver to a more heavily discounted account, than your smaller retailers who are paying you listed wholesale prices.

That is the only logical explanation I can come up with why B&H, Adorama and Amazon seem to be sucking hind teet when it comes to having GH2s in stock.

Chip -- I think it's simple supply and demand. I did a Google Trends comparison (http://www.google.com/trends?q=Adorama,+Amazon,+B%26H,+OneCall,+%22Unique+Photo%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0) of searches for "Adorama" vs "Amazon" vs "B&H" vs "OneCall" vs "Unique Photo", and the results were:

1 for Adorama

220 for Amazon

4 for B&H

0 for OneCall

and

0 for Unique Photo.

So for every search for Adorama, there were 220 for Amazon and 4 for B&H -- and the numbers for the smaller retailers were so small that they didn't register.

If this is even close to the relative web traffic going to each of these retailers' sites, it is no wonder that Amazon and B&H can't keep the GH2 in stock. When high demand items become available, the search engines and blogs uncover them -- and the big retailers' inventories are quickly 'swarmed by locusts' and picked clean.

Cheers,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution (http://hybridcamerarevolution.blogspot.com)

Thanks for the research Bill. Guess that explains the "shortage".

I'm fortunate to have B&H and Unique Photo about 30 mins (±) from me here in NJ. Mail order from NYC can save me some serious $ on high priced items like cameras which is probably another reason some of these retailers sell out.

Still, I guess I'll be paying a visit to Bergen County Camera to pick up a GH2 body tomorrow.

Reed

Bill normally I would agree that the largest got their allotment and they went right out the door leaving them with no stock. But I followed another board and thread on this that today is now 107 pages long discussing the availability of the GH2 for months now. People got on there as they received their orders/pre-orders updating everyone on wait times and where they got them/didn't get them. No one was getting any from Amazon nor B&H until recently. Many of these people had pre-orders in several places hoping to get one from somebody. The group was like those here, serious "camera geeks". Collectively they scoured the net looking for anywhere with a website that sold GH2s and took a credit card. It was rather interesting to watch, as guys found places I had never heard of, nor had any reason to. :-)

The one common opinion of the GH2 supply situation though has been that Panasonic is really screwed up and needs to get their "stuff" together.

I was lucky enough that my local camera shop got one in the day it was released. Funny thing was no one there knew anything about it.