Photographers need love too: Get your Valentine’s deals here, including Panasonic G5 kit for US$498!
posted Monday, February 4, 2013 at 6:48 PM EDT
Valentine's Day is almost here: are you looking for a surprise gift for that special person in your life? Or perhaps you want to show your camera bag a little love! Either way, a few deals crossed our inbox today from IR affiliates Adorama and Amazon that seem too good to pass up.
Just a few days ago we completed our Panasonic G5 review, and found a lot to like: Panasonic definitely stepped up its game with this mirrorless camera. The G5 offers excellent image quality, blazingly-fast autofocus, and plenty of worthwhile features in a compact, lightweight body. Ordinarily, Panasonic lists it in a bundle with a G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 MEGA O.I.S. kit lens for US$800. If you act quick, though, you can save a lot of money by purchasing the G5 from Adorama. After you account for the value of an included US$100 gift card plus a US$100 instant rebate, they're offering the Panasonic G5 for US$498 shipped, including both the 14-42mm kit lens. That's a truly spectacular price for a really great camera!
The G5 is pretty attractive not just for stills, but for video as well. If you're a videographer first and foremost, though, you'll want to step up to the flagship Panasonic GH3. We've not yet completed our review, but loved the preceding GH2, and were impressed by how seriously Panasonic is taking the professional video market with the GH3's design. Adorama has the Panasonic GH3 in stock too, priced at US$1,298 shipped, body-only.
And it's not just Micro Four Thirds fans that have good news. If you're shooting a Fuji X-Pro1 or X-E1 compact system camera, Adorama now has the Fujinon XF 14mm F2.8 R lens in stock now, priced at US$899 and you'll also get free shipping. Although our sister site SLRgear.com hasn't yet tested this lens, which has a 21mm-equivalent focal length after accounting for the crop of an APS-C image sensor, we've come away mightily impressed with the performance of Fuji's other XF primes. If you're a wide-angle fan, you'll want this lens in your camera bag.
The deals aren't all at Adorama, though. Amazon.com also has a couple of tricks up its sleeve today, too. Perhaps the most exciting of these is the Nikon AW100, shipping for US$194, with a list price of US$300. That price is only for the camouflage version, however. If you prefer a color you won't struggle to find should you lose it in the undergrowth, the orange body is your best bet at US$215, which is still quite a discount. One note of caution: our review sample of the AW100 developed a water leak when shooting our Waterproof Shootout 2012, so you may want to consider this as a splashproof, shockproof, freezeproof, and dustproof camera, rather than a waterproof model. That's still plenty of lifeproofing; likely more than enough for most purposes, unless you really need to shoot underwater.
Amazon also has the Nikon S3300 available at just US$69, not bad for a pocket-friendly camera with a 6x optical zoom. If you're looking for something extremely affordable for the kids, you won't find anything with a brand name you recognize for much cheaper than this.