Any new information on US intro of DMC-FZ1

[billfire]

Does anyone have a (good) guess as to when the DMC-FZ1 might show up on the Panasonic website? Or when it might have a quoted US price?

[Herb]

I've no idea when, though I'm hoping that Steve will be able to review it soon. There's an outfit called Japan Direct that quotes a price on it -

http://www.japan-direct.com/cartitem.asp?prodid=398

[billfire]

Thanks for the link Herb it was very interesting. I too am waiting for a full review of this camera. ...Bill

[Sanpete]

Panasonic hasn't decided yet whether to sell the FZ-1 in the US. Judging from comments posted by a Panasonic employee at the Other Digicams Forum at dpreview.com (where there has been a lot of discussion of this camera), Panasonic hasn't yet been able to get a large chain like Best Buy or Circuit City to sell the camera. The only review I'm aware of is in Japanese. There are sample shots available (more can be found at the dpreview forum):

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/do...010/yamada.htm
http://home.impress.co.jp/magazine/d.../fz1/index.htm

If you buy direct from Japan you'll probably not be able to use your warranty (except in Japan), and you may have a few compatibility issues.

[DavidBuster]

I am looking the whole time for the battery pack of the DMC FZ-1, but I can't find anything about that. Is it possible, that the battery pack of my Lumix DMC-F7E, the CGA-S101A, will match with the one of the DMC-FZ1???

Please help, because I am looking to buy the camera and I want to know, if the battery pack is the same, so that I do not need to have an extra battery.

[steve]

My final FZ1 review has been posted:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/fz1.html


Ritz, Wolf and Camera World (all the same now) show it as available for $449.


-Steve