panasonic lumix - bilingual?

[shochu]

I am looking at buying a lumix camera, but the after investigating and playing with shop models it appears that Lumix ( well that current line up at least) have only a Japanese menu option. Every other camera: Sony, Olympus, Nikon etc all have at least an English menu and many have more language options.
It seems you must get an international lumix model if you want an English menu, which seems odd indeed.
Has anyone bought a Japanese model lumix before? did it have English menus?
Thanks!

[Kuang_Grade]

http://panasonic.jp/dc/lz10/spec.html

looking at the Japanese specs page for the LZ10 (picked because I have LZ 8 and it does say under languages as just "Japanese", although at least on my US bought LZ8, which has settings for multiple languages, including Japanese, all the menu settings also include icons so you wouldn't be 100% screwed with a Japanese version. Given that is pretty unlikely that there is much gray market exporting OUT of Japan due to the much higher prices in Japan (the LZ10 sells in the US for around $170-150 street price while yodobashi is charging 22,800 yen), it is a curious that they would forgo other languages entirely on this hardware.

Overall, while the panasonic image quality isn't the best I've ever gotten, it has been very good and, at least in the US, the prices on panasonic cameras are usually extremely reasonable. Combined with a good menu interface and easy operation, I've been very happy with the three panasonic camera I've had so far.

[gkanai]

I just got an LX3 (great camera) and the menu's all Japanese. No English.

Pana is trying to close out the grey market. They want overseas units sold overseas.

[r655321]

Hello. I shared your same observation a couple of months ago.

I wanted to pick up a new digital camera for a trip that I'm going on and before doing so I looked on http://www.kakaku.com for places that have the cheaper prices and some reviews (all in Japanese however) and the Panasonic line of cameras seemed to be selling best. Unfortunately, after looking at them firsthand in the store I was disappointed that they didn't have English menu options.

I think Panasonic should be a little more considerate (for a lack of a better word) and include multiple language menus like all the other manufacturers do. I doubt that it's that hard to incorporate into the camera itself.

Suffice it to say, they didn't get my money. And I'm sure they didn't get a lot of other non-Japanese consumers' money as well. Their loss.

[Doctor Stop]

Guys, how about learning some Japanese?

[shochu]

After sniffing around I have found that from this year on some manufacturers have stopped putting English menus on local models of goods and not just cameras.
Why? the obvious guess is that it forces those who want to buy an English model to shell out more and get the international model. Perhaps they had problems with people who bought stuff in Japan complaining they couldn't get servicing on the products overseas?
Foreigners living in Japan permanently, can't just pop into their local store now to buy a camera of certain brand with English menu, they have to got to a big inner city store.

As for learning Japanese, I have a video camera with J-only menu and its 'ok', I can figure it out, learning Kanji, especially some the kanji you would need to know to understand a camera menu needs some serious long term study.
Also I loathe Katakana, even if can read it often you cant understand what the original foreign word was as the Katakana has butchered it. Menus are full of butchered katakana words. I much prefer the ease of reading an unbutchered language.
I prefer English menus, its a shame that Panasonic is one of the makers who have taken this marketing view. I wont be being Panasonic goods from now one.

[Charles]

..As for learning Japanese, I have a video camera with J-only menu and its 'ok', I can figure it out, learning Kanji, especially some the kanji you would need to know to understand a camera menu needs some serious long term study..

Well what the hell are you studying Japanese for, if not to be able to understand the kanji in common everyday devices like cameras? Sure it's got lots of obscure features that you'd rarely use, but the common features should be easily comprehensible once you get used to them. You know, I remember when cameras had NO menus, they just had a shutter speed and an f stop.

I've only been stumped by a Japanese device once, ever. My Zaurus wouldn't turn on, it came up with a warning about replacing the batteries and shut down immediately. It shut down so fast it took me a couple of times to read the warning. So I replaced the batteries. It still shut down with the same warning. I was stumped, so I asked a friend to read it. He said it asked for replacement of a "secondary" battery, a little watch battery used just to run the clock, I didn't even know it was in there.

[TFG]

Nah, I was considering one a month ago, it has only Japanese menus but strangely enough it has a world time setting.
Got a Casio instead but now I want the Cannon G10.

The G10 seems like it is the real deal if you are interested in pro like digital photography in a small non SLR type camera.

Also, this site. Kaku.com will show you the cheapest place to buy any camera and indeed almost anything else.
http://kakaku.com/item/00500211327/

[wuchan]

My cybershot is only in japanese. Not hard to use. Most of the time I don't even need to read, just go by the pictures. My D300 has multiple languages.

[FG Lurker]

I don't know if this is the same for the Lumix cameras or not but... Sony region codes its DSLR firmware files. You can change this with a hex editor though to allow you to flash an English firmware into a Japanese camera.

Speaking of cameras, bought a D700 recently, what an incredible bit of gear!