As I've said elsewhere, I was very pleased with Night Owl Camera (and their prices). I'd recommend that you call them first. That was what really impressed me with what type of business they were.
As we went through the process of me pre-ordering my Panasonic FZ5 digicam, I had a conversation with their manager who explained that they were dealing with a massive gov't order for the same camera. (To me, that says something about their legitimacy.) He explained how he was trying to balance that order with the needs of regular online customers like me. I got all sorts of background trivia about the way Panasonic is parceling out that new FZ5 model to various big and small retailers.
Also, I found that (at least in my case) they preferred calling me when it was ready to ship rather than send email to verify that I was still interested. There was no attempt to "upsell" overpriced accessories. When I said I could get the OEM Panasonic battery elsewhere at almost half their price, the caller completely understood.
On the other hand, they called me back again when it was set to ship and I got an incredible deal on a 1GB San Disk SD card because the generic SD card I ordered on sale wasn't in the same warehouse with the camera. I got free shipping because of the amount I spent. But in order to save themselves the shipping cost of having to send 2 packages from 2 warehouses, they offered the superior SanDisk at the same sale price. So I took 2 of them!
As for service and returns, I haven't needed that yet. But EVERY time I spoke to someone there, they always stressed the need to keep ALL of the original packaging in case of returns. In light of their stressing that and the "personal touch" feeling that I got from them, I just really liked the vibe I got from them. That, and the fact that they had their website set up for dealing with regular purchase orders from gov't, schools, & businesses just gave me a feeling that they had a bit more credibility than the types of online dealers I was trying to avoid.
I was very pleased with everything about them. That's why I'm bothering to report this stuff back to this forum. I got a lot of help from skimming the various threads here at DCRP when I was trying to decide which camera to get and where to get it. This is my way of returning the favor.
Where TO buy online?
Night Owl is pretty good for price and service.
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