alf_italy
03-04-2005, 02:16 PM
Hi!!
I am a new FZ20 owner. I just got my black Fluzi with a 512Mb Ultra2 and, while waiting for the first battery charge, I write some notes here, after lurking this forum since ages.
First, I surely have to thank so many people here that I can't name all. A special mention is for Gene (genece), whose posts always answered my questions before I had time to write out them (yay!). Time to build your own digital photography site, Gene, containing only your old posts and links...! :-)
Also, I found this forum is not only full of precious information, but also easier to browse; it's a hard thing reading from Steves or DPreview (ouch!!!) when you have a bare 56k on a noisy phone line.
While looking for a decent ultrazoom camera, I happened to write a few HTML pages (in Italian) about my investigations (which caused intense e-mail traffic on my mailbox), and finally found that I just needed a FZ20 to go :-) I was eventually able to solve some focus questions from readers of my home site without having an FZ20 here :-) (btw, nothing special: also here there's people who doesn't RTFM - Read That Fantastic Manual).
Next step will be getting a Raynox DCR6600 and an adapter (and, maybe, some other cool stuff); it seems that I'll have to order them on bugeyedigital (it's almost impossible to get them here in Italy in reasonable times and at a reasonable price and in the same moment).
n.b.: it has 72mm front threads; I will need a stepdown ring to use a smaller polarizer onto the 6600, or can I stack pola+6600 in a different manner?
Price... I got the Fluzi for 541 euro (currently about 715 US$); prices here are always higher than US ones. The electronics and cameras shop here sells it at official Panasonic price (699 euro, that is more than 925 US$, now, March 2005!!!). By our law, products sold in Italy must extend general warranty to 24 months (this is the only reason to pay such a price). Anyways it's hard to find out a Fluzi in Europe for less than 480-500 euro, and here the customs duty for imported (non-EEC) things is 20% plus 3-5% for extras (ouch!).
A few retailers here have different pricing for black and silver ones (black ones cost 20-40 euro more), but everyone here knows that this is due to the higher availability of the silver one (read: we also think that a black body means a "more professional" look... and Raynox add-ons are black as well) :-) On their sites they eventually place a single page for selling FZ20 units, showing a photo of the silver one, and when you request a black one they tell you: "duh, it's in back-order; we have only the silver one available just now". And so they are selling (finally) lots of silver ones... :-)
I got only one Italian feedback stating "I wanted the Silver because it's nicer than the Black"; in dozen of emails, this means that upcoming Pana models have to be absolutely black!
Some days ago, two friends looked at me, with a weird voice, saying: "Panasoooonic?". They think that only Nikon and Canon and (maybe) Kodak are good cameras (lots of people don't understand yet that digital cameras are not just a "lots of megapixels CCD" and a Famous Brand label attached on them!). I'll show 'em they aren't that right...! :D
Well, it's almost time to start clicking the shutter button... I think I won't post again until I'll run off battery and I'll don't have to work for some minutes :-)
alf
p.s. -- duh... some time ago Jeff wrote about a Lumix: "first time I said: you can have your cake and eat it too". For this FZ20 I have my cake, eat it too, and have two cakes :D :D
I am a new FZ20 owner. I just got my black Fluzi with a 512Mb Ultra2 and, while waiting for the first battery charge, I write some notes here, after lurking this forum since ages.
First, I surely have to thank so many people here that I can't name all. A special mention is for Gene (genece), whose posts always answered my questions before I had time to write out them (yay!). Time to build your own digital photography site, Gene, containing only your old posts and links...! :-)
Also, I found this forum is not only full of precious information, but also easier to browse; it's a hard thing reading from Steves or DPreview (ouch!!!) when you have a bare 56k on a noisy phone line.
While looking for a decent ultrazoom camera, I happened to write a few HTML pages (in Italian) about my investigations (which caused intense e-mail traffic on my mailbox), and finally found that I just needed a FZ20 to go :-) I was eventually able to solve some focus questions from readers of my home site without having an FZ20 here :-) (btw, nothing special: also here there's people who doesn't RTFM - Read That Fantastic Manual).
Next step will be getting a Raynox DCR6600 and an adapter (and, maybe, some other cool stuff); it seems that I'll have to order them on bugeyedigital (it's almost impossible to get them here in Italy in reasonable times and at a reasonable price and in the same moment).
n.b.: it has 72mm front threads; I will need a stepdown ring to use a smaller polarizer onto the 6600, or can I stack pola+6600 in a different manner?
Price... I got the Fluzi for 541 euro (currently about 715 US$); prices here are always higher than US ones. The electronics and cameras shop here sells it at official Panasonic price (699 euro, that is more than 925 US$, now, March 2005!!!). By our law, products sold in Italy must extend general warranty to 24 months (this is the only reason to pay such a price). Anyways it's hard to find out a Fluzi in Europe for less than 480-500 euro, and here the customs duty for imported (non-EEC) things is 20% plus 3-5% for extras (ouch!).
A few retailers here have different pricing for black and silver ones (black ones cost 20-40 euro more), but everyone here knows that this is due to the higher availability of the silver one (read: we also think that a black body means a "more professional" look... and Raynox add-ons are black as well) :-) On their sites they eventually place a single page for selling FZ20 units, showing a photo of the silver one, and when you request a black one they tell you: "duh, it's in back-order; we have only the silver one available just now". And so they are selling (finally) lots of silver ones... :-)
I got only one Italian feedback stating "I wanted the Silver because it's nicer than the Black"; in dozen of emails, this means that upcoming Pana models have to be absolutely black!
Some days ago, two friends looked at me, with a weird voice, saying: "Panasoooonic?". They think that only Nikon and Canon and (maybe) Kodak are good cameras (lots of people don't understand yet that digital cameras are not just a "lots of megapixels CCD" and a Famous Brand label attached on them!). I'll show 'em they aren't that right...! :D
Well, it's almost time to start clicking the shutter button... I think I won't post again until I'll run off battery and I'll don't have to work for some minutes :-)
alf
p.s. -- duh... some time ago Jeff wrote about a Lumix: "first time I said: you can have your cake and eat it too". For this FZ20 I have my cake, eat it too, and have two cakes :D :D