camera-buying overseas

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Hello!
Thanks to my brother I got to knew this site today (great! bookmarked.) and fell in love with the Panasonic Lumix-FZ30.

I`m currently doing a one-year-exchange in Japan and go back to my home country, Germany, in less then a hundred days.

The japanese internet shop "Mister Direct" sells the "Panasonic Lumix-FZ30" for 42000 Yen (=280 EUR, 357 USD) --> http://mr-direct.jp/SHOP/DMCFZ30.html

This is much cheaper than in Germany.

As far as I know, the japanese Battery-Charger works as well in Germany, I only have to buy an adapter. If that`s not the case, please correct me.

What I`m curious about right now, is:

- If my camera crashed when I`m back in Germany, can I make use of the japanese warranty?

- Is the "Panasonic Lumix-FZ30" sold in Japan EXACTLY the same than the German one? I was told before, that there are sometimes little differences between cameras bought in two different countries, even if the name is the same.

- Will I have to pay money for the camera when going back to Germany, taxes (at the airport?)?

- Can I switch the camera`s language to German or, at least, English?

Would be great, if anyone would be so nice and answer some questions. Thank you in advance!

With best regards,
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[JimC]

Your best bet is probably going to be sending an e-mail to Panasonic in Germany and ask them if they'd service it under warranty if it breaks.

Some manufacturers will refuse to service a model not intended for the country you're trying to get it serviced in, even if you are willing to pay them for the service. They know by the serial number if it was intended for sale in a given region.

For example, Nikon USA and Nikon Canada have this policy (and they may in other regions, too).

The regional distributors (for example, Nikon USA, Nikon Canada, Nikon Europe) are setup as a separate profit center. So, when you bypass the authorized dealer network in a country, they don't make any profit on the sale.

That's probably one reason they don't want to expend resources on supporting them and take a tough stance to discourage gray market imports, since dealers often import cameras from another country to bypass them.

You'll have to dig for the contact info (sorry, I don't speak or read German).

http://www.panasonic.de/home/flashver/ct_home.aspx

[JimC]

I missed your language question. You can select from English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, or Japanese via a Language menu choice you'll find in the Setup menu.

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Thank you for you answer, JimC!

I read a bit more about the Panasonic and also about the Canon PowerShot S3 IS.
I changed my opinion and think I`ll buy the PowerShot.

So would be great, if someone could answer these questions concerning the Canon PowerShot S3 IS:

- If my Canon PowerShot S3 IS crashed when I`m back in Germany, can I make use of the japanese warranty?

- Is the "Canon PowerShot S3 IS" sold in Japan EXACTLY the same than the German one? I was told before, that there are sometimes little differences between cameras bought in two different countries, even if the name is the same.

- Will I have to pay money for the camera when going back to Germany, taxes (at the airport?)?

- Can I switch the camera`s language to German or, at least, English?
(my hostfather here uses an Olympic digital camera, it only supports Japanese and English! So I`m quite concerned if the Canon PowerShot S3 IS (bought in Japan) supports German, too.

Thank you in advance for your answer!
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