FZ5 Availability - ANYWHERE in the U.S.?

No one seems to have it.

Try Ritz camera, or Wolf camera. I just picked my FZ10 up last Friday from Ritz (wty work), and had the opportunity to play around with a silver FZ5.
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Regards,
Kirwin
http://timebandit.smugmug.com

Try Onecall.com. I bought my there on Sunday morning and they were great about it.

You're the fount of all wisdom, Keith. I thought I'd NEVER find a black FZ5 anywhere in the country. Of course I'll see it when I believe it (free FedEx 3-day shipping!!) which should be Thursday. Thanks for the tip.

Keith Plechaty said:

Try Onecall.com. I bought my there on Sunday morning and they were
great about it.

Click to expand...

I got one a week ago at Ritz in a mall here in Portland, Oregon. (Clerk said they had gotten first shipment the previous Wednesday.)
BTW... some impressions

• I'm a Canon 20D (and Leica Digilux 2) user who was looking for a small camera with fast focus and little shutter lag for street shots. Read the DPR review and decided to buy. I am not disappointed: it finds focus very quickly and has almost no lag, especially compared to Digilux 2, which is not really acceptable as a street camera. Images are great, although not even near the same league as Digilux.
• Battery life is very good.
• Downside: feels light and cheap.

Onecall - pretty good reputation.

Jerry Rasmussen said:

Keith Plechaty said:

Try Onecall.com. I bought my there on Sunday morning and they were
great about it.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

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Olympus C8080WZ, W/FL-36 flash, DR 300D 18-55, Panasonic FZ5K, FZ15K, Qimage, PSP 9 and four cats

Smile and nod at those who say it can't be done
http://www.pbase.com/ramblin_mo/galleries

Image quality of FZ5 diesn't compare to Leica Digilux. Could you expand on that? In what respects? And while you are at it, would you say a few words about FZ5 image quality next to Canon 20D? I am really serious, even tho I may not sound it!

Can you post some FZ5 shots. I have fz1 but use 10D now-a-days. I am looking for a small camera like fz1 but with more pixels and fz5 seems like a right choice.

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Bobby

http://bobbyz.smugmug.com

Thank you.

It seems strange that major vendors like B&H and J&R in New york City do not yet have it.

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Kodak DC-4800
Panasonic FZ-10 and FZ 20
T Con 17 --C210--Tcon 14B -- Raynox 2020 pro -- Tcon 14 --DCR 720
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Just trying to learn and it's slow going!
Gene

Tri-state camera, NYC should have it. Check them out...I bought mine there.

Got mine from Tri-State last week. They were great and even had a great price on Sandisk Ultra II 1GB SD cards.

Ordered from Onecall.com. Black is my favorite color for a digital camera. Could only find silver from the others I've found.

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the omaha kid

John:

Unlike most of the rest of the world, apparently, I'm actually LOOKING for a silver one, and all I can find are the black ones!! I live in the desert southwest (US) and have seen reports that heat is the enemy as far as CCDs go, so ... black camera + lots of sunshine = hot sensor = more noise. Where are you seeing all these silver ones???

Actually, the little Panasonic does a pretty decent job considering its cost. It has image stabilization and a 12X zoom aided by the wickedly fast focus and very small shutter lag. I was using it yesterday in the rain and it did a fine job in pretty low light... just the P setting. It locked on everything I saw, whether 10 feet away or a block away. It doesn't have a lot of manual features, but I'm very happy with it as a street digital... small, quick to shoot, all of that.

Compared to the Digilux 2, it outperforms in terms of speed of focus and shutter lag. However, for me the Digilux 2 has excelled in the area of portraiture and landscape, when speed is not such an issue. I'm sure the Leica lens has a lot to do with it, but the photos out of the camera are sharp, colorful and nuanced. I'm not a real techie, but there is something very satisfying about using the Digilux and I always marvel at the "sophistication" of its output. I guess I mean by this that it seems to read a scene just the way I see it and it is rare that sharpening or even color tweaking is required. However, it doesn't like low light and has a noticeable shutter lag.

The Canon 20D is another animal. It is hard to compare it to the other two cameras since its excellence is so mixed in with the variety of lenses available and its whole DSLR level of performance, as has been documented by all the rave reviews since its release. Other elements such as camera raw and support of high "ISO" give it a huge edge over any point and shoot. (I tend to think of the Digilux 2 as a p&S on steroids since it cannot accept lenses...)

Anyway, I'll try the Panasonic on a portrait or two and see what happens. (That's after the 20D session is complete!) I might be surprised.

I always use the Digilux at some point in a session, just to mix things up, and more than once the real keeper from the shoot was produced by the Leica!

If you're interested, I've posted a lot of personal shots on my Fotolog site, where in most cases I identified the camera used. The last 8 or so are from the new Panasonic... some are PS'd for fun, but there are some flower shots that show it off pretty well...

http://www.fotolog.net/christiemalre/

From a heat transfer perspective is probablly about the same. The color, black or silver, results from the visible spectrum. Heat transfer, and how much the thing heats up, depends on the IR part of the spectrum. The measure of the relevant term is emisivity, which defines how much is abosrbed and how much is reflected back. Most plastics, even shinny ones, are quite dark in the IR part of the spectrum.....

Trust me, I went to a lot of classes for this. (The wine has dulled the explanationa a bit.)

Bottom line is don't leave your camera out in the sun, black or silver, for extended periods of time.

Thanks for the feedback. Good to know, but I don't plan to leave it in the sun any longer than I have to, whichever one I get. It was mostly for if I have it slung over my shoulder during a hike, or whatever. But didn't know about the IR vs. visible bit. So is infrared not reflected by shiny or light surfaces like visible light, or just not as much, or ...? They didn't cover much of that type of info in my landscape architecture classes.

Just ordered my FZ5 from BuyDig.Com for $486 + shipping. Had one on backorder for less at Adorma but they couldn't (wouldn't?) give me a ship date so I cancelled. Given that Adorama is closed for a week beginning Friday I feared that I might not have it for several more weeks and spring bird migration is kicking in now!
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drewbert
FZ5, DX7440

I tried TriState Monday morning. Black is on a 3 to 4 week backorder. Try OneCall. Got mine yesterday, no problem and good service. Shipped same day and no pressure to buy over-priced accessories.

often very different. A good example is light colored shingles, they reflect a lot of visible light (hence the light color) but hey are very 'dark' in the IR range (where most of the enrgy resides). There has been a lot of work in the last decade on 'cool' coatings, primarily for roofs to cut down on AC bills.

Just keep in mind that just because something is bright and shinny it doesn't mean that it is across the em spectrum.

--woody