Here's A Thought For You Panasonic!

Dear Panasonic;

Considering the fact that you have a dedicated following on what
I believe to be one of the best if not THE BEST forums on the
internet today in regards to cameras and their reviews
along with the input of a plethora of talented amateur and
professional users of your great products........

Consider this...........................

Why not send out a handful of the new "product" to those
that have been standing up for not only your current product,
along with past products, but your company as a whole, for many years...
in order to let THEM test your cameras in the best way possible?

As an example, once the release information has been handed
down to the masses, why not take a small portion of the many
"millions" of units that you expect to flood the market with,
and send them to select patrons of this great site, so that they
may in fact can test them out in a proper, uncontrolled manner?

We could then have a first hand account of just what the
new product is capable of.

Control of such previews can surely be gauged in some
form or fashion before the "mainstream" product hits the shelves
and trust will be based on the those that have been a trusted
and true client over the years...either by warranty information
or a "lottery" run type of contest, to justify a worthy tester.

Panasonic...if you're listening...

Most people that purchase your cameras are visiting THIS
site more than they are visiting the Panasonic.com site
when it comes to Panasonic cameras.

In fact, I'd hedge a bet to say that the vast majority of your patrons LIVE here
and visit THIS site on a daily basis in order to keep up
with the latest and greatest coming down the pipes MORE than they
do visiting your corporate site!!!...and as much as I don't mean that
in a bad way, the fact is, it's most likely the simple truth!

Also, the majority of Panasonic camera users are posting some
much greater results with your product than those that were
"paid to do so" on your site as a ONE TIME OFFER...and yet these
dedicated Panasonic patrons do it HERE on a regular, if not daily basis
for FREE!!!...and what results they are!!!
Take a look Panasonic!...You'll see for yourselves.

Would it not be in your best corporate wisdom's benefit to capitalize
on what WE, the end users of that in which you have to sell to,
use this opportunity to your advantage?

The times they are a "changin" and maybe it's time that
you at least consider the possibility of cashing in on a
WIN WIN situation.............

Have a competition if you feel the need...in order
to garner info and great images to allow those great responders
here the opportunity to try out the new models before the release
date. Pick and choose as you will...but at least give those that
have patronized your goods and stand by your name, the chance
to have their say in a sound and realistic manner.

You just may be in for a surprise...and an increase in sales before
the next new product even hits the shelves...
(Point on this premise is this...........If you had done so...I suspect that
you'd still be making FZ50's in my opinion).............

I certainly do not consider myself to be the first name on the list of recipients
of newly released products, but, as a daily observer, I would
surely be willing to mention a number of contributors here that would
be worthy of just such an opportunistic venture of this magnitude!

Keep an open mind Panasonic!..

Thanks
Kim

--
Shoot first and ask questions later!

Hello Mr. Panasonic,

Please send me a free 65" 3D TV for review. Thank you.

Regards,
Happy Customer

Panasonic's reply:

When testing is complete, please return camera in original condition. Also post a positive review on this forum.

Thanks

Yup, send me an LX5 and I'll honestly review it with direct comparison to my LX3.

Trouble is you may get the LX3 back in the box at return time.

Regards............. Guy

This idea has already been accepted by Fujifilm. They have been handing out their new models (currently F300EXR) to at least one respected member here. His name is Hugo Poon and he is a fantastic photographer.

Fujifilm also gets him to display his photographs (via huge wall mounted prints) in public exhibitions in HongKong.

Guess what... they have been putting this idea in practice since the days of their classic F31fd!

I also think this is a good idea. The logistics do not have to be so complicated. Just browse through this forum once in a while and look at the work of some of the members here.

I think it would be a better idea to only let the members here shoot photographs with the new camera in a wide variety of conditions and comment to people's questions in an honest manner. It wouldn't be wise to let them do camera comparisons in uncontrolled conditions.

And yes, it doesn't make sense to expect the tester to return the cameras back even if return postage is paid by the company. Compared to the cost of even a single page of advertising in local print media,,, the cost of a compact camera is but a fraction of it.

......
Click

Thanks Click,

I think that my original statement has been taken
somewhat as a jest towards Panasonic and the
products overall that they manufacture?...
Quite possibly a jest towards myself as well for bringing up the
topic...but I'm okay with that...simply because I believe
in the previous statement that I put forth to begin with.

I didn't mean it in that regard, and I thank you
for understanding my diatribe in relating
something that appears to be somewhat
whimsical in it's approach.

My personal feeling is this, that with all of the
recent negativity regarding the recent release
of Panasonic's new line-up of their coveted
"FZ series" of cameras, I just thought I'd mention
this as an option for consideration...at this point,
it seems to me that they (Panasonic) could use
some help, and as I am one of their customers,
just thought I'd bring this option to light.

As you have illustrated, if other companies allow
themselves to extend the opportunity to those
that WILL and DO know how to use their
fine products, as you say, would it not make sense
for Panasonic to do so, simply because it isn't an expense
that needs to be considered compared to a massive
Ad Campaign that pretty much fails to reach more
than 10% of it's target audience?

A small number handed out here to the select few
that are a great part of the Panasonic forum, surely
are worthy enough of having the chance to trying
out the new releases, in order for them to form
an unbiased review of sorts...at least for the rest
of us?

Thanks again Click
Kim

--
Shoot first and ask questions later!

MooCows said:

In fact, I'd hedge a bet to say that the vast majority of your patrons LIVE here
and visit THIS site on a daily basis in order to keep up
with the latest and greatest coming down the pipes MORE than they
do visiting your corporate site!!!...and as much as I don't mean that
in a bad way, the fact is, it's most likely the simple truth!

Click to expand...

You would lose that bet. The users of this site make up an extremely minute segment of Panasonic's market. More so, the views reflected by enthusiasts are typically the views of the minority and thus not of much relevance to a company marketing towards the majority for the sake of earning profit and not for the sake of pleasing a small handful of enthusiasts such as ourselves.

Psych0path said:

MooCows said:

In fact, I'd hedge a bet to say that the vast majority of your patrons LIVE here
and visit THIS site on a daily basis in order to keep up
with the latest and greatest coming down the pipes MORE than they
do visiting your corporate site!!!...and as much as I don't mean that
in a bad way, the fact is, it's most likely the simple truth!

Click to expand...

You would lose that bet. The users of this site make up an extremely minute segment of Panasonic's market. More so, the views reflected by enthusiasts are typically the views of the minority and thus not of much relevance to a company marketing towards the majority for the sake of earning profit and not for the sake of pleasing a small handful of enthusiasts such as ourselves.

Click to expand...

Good point Psych!..........you are correct!!!!!!!!!

...AND THAT, my friend, is where Panasonic makes an otherwise grievous error!

Especially in the spot light that they appear to be found in at this particular point.

I may lose the bet...but Panasonic stands the chance of losing a helluva lot
more simply due to their ignorance in simply overlooking and bypassing
a great number of talented users that they could use to their advantage.

Sad to see that major corporations still "don't get it", when it comes to the

satisfying the target audience that they initially set out to capture in the first
place.

Thanks
Kim
--
Shoot first and ask questions later!

That's the mystic of maketing ;-)))

Ha-ha!

If the vast majority of Panasonic owners live on this forum, Panasonic would be out of business and won't see your request. So ...

1. If most Panasonic users are here, Panasonic is out of business and can't send cameras
2. If most users are not here, they won't send cameras.

Good try!
--
http://www.pbase.com/morepix

Don't forget us enthusiasts get asked by numerous people which camera to buy and the same goes for salespersons who always had a save bet recommending Pannies to any customer.

One bad model can shift the opinion and have these people getting back to recommending Nikons and Canons like in the 'old days' or any other brand for that matter (Sony, M43 price-point factor etc..).

It will take time but by year when the new models come out, be them better or not doesn't matter any more, Panasonic might have lost their 'spotlight'.

So I wouldn't say a minority loses for a fact so easy. Remember this is not the only site covering camera's and to my knowledge most sites share the same view and pretty much use the same techniques to compare and review camera's. The reader-crowd is large and it does matter when a whining-rampage is going on.

Things are silent now because it's weekend and all the boxes are being shipped so there is only so much that can be done but you can bet a firmware update will be out very, very soon.

That being said there is still a lens issue which cannot be fixed with mere firmware updates. People choosing FZ45/100 will be stuck to that. However the lens of the DPR test seems to have other problems than design(read choice)-flaws. Off-centre sharpness going to bitter-oof on most of the frame is weird.

the joke is that, each one of us, who have ever owned a panasonic item of equipment, have bench tested that piece of equipment,in the real world, and, PAYED THEM FOR THE HONOUR,
--
the world's in your camera.