billgreen
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I just purchased a GX8 n Japan. The menu is Japanese only. Can I add English with firmware?
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billgreen
Member
Correct. No tax for tourists. And not all business offer this perk. Don't remember the store name and the receipt is packed away. It was not a big electronics store. It was a photo store only. They offered, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Fuji, and more. Only name they didn't have was Sony.
Hiphopapotamus
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So long as you're happy with it, it's really none of my business.
pannumon
Senior Member
We are all different. In this case it's mostly about how we handle uncertainty.
Person A sees the deal on this camera as a threat. When turning the camera on, this person will always feel frustrated that the camera is in language he/she does not understand.
Person B sees the deal on this camera as an opportunity. When turning the camera on, this person will always get a positive feeling because the Japanese language reminds he/she about the trip and the great deal he/she made on the camera.
This does not mean that person B would not change the language to English if it was possible. Most of us would prefer to stay in our comfort zone when using luxury items such as modern digital cameras, anyway. In fact, I think comfort zone is more important than uncertainty, although the first highly affects the another.
Hiphopapotamus
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OR none of the above. It will always be an issue when you go into the menu and want to change things. It might not be an issue for you who doesn't delve into doing advanced things that require different manual settings. It most definitely would be an issue for me.
I use Japanese things every day, including products from even more deftly Japanese companies such as Nintendo. I live in an international world, I am an academic, I studied North East Asian diplomacy at an undergraduate level and I work in the international world. It has nothing to do with comfort levels of working with Japanese things, or Asian people... It has everything to do with having more pork on my fork than I know what to do with at the moment. I'm doing post-graduate things most people don't understand and need not understand... This keeps me busy.
I don't need to learn the Chinese alphabet at present, besides which point at age 5 language acquisition t follows a different pattern than when second-language acquisition begins at age 25 or at age 15, it also takes a person more than 600hours to even begin to be reasonably coherent in a language, the real factor with full language immersion is more than 2 years with full language immersion, living breathing, eating and sleeping in a foreign language. I am not 5 years old anymore, nor do I have the time at the moment for that on top of everything else.
In a perfect world we would all learn a second language. Unfortunately the vast majority of the western people on this forum live in the UK, Australia and the United States. Most of these countries don't have a progressive language ideology unlike most of continental Europe, South America and Asia... So what do you know? The ideology that is fails us form the beginning. That's not my problem either.
Saying that I am uncomfortable with foreign things is about the most ridiculously wide of the mark statement that anybody could ever level at me... Mind you... This thread is not above me. So, lets leave it at that shall we? I hope that wasn't uncomfortable.
I use Japanese things every day, including products from even more deftly Japanese companies such as Nintendo. I live in an international world, I am an academic, I studied North East Asian diplomacy at an undergraduate level and I work in the international world. It has nothing to do with comfort levels of working with Japanese things, or Asian people... It has everything to do with having more pork on my fork than I know what to do with at the moment. I'm doing post-graduate things most people don't understand and need not understand... This keeps me busy.
I don't need to learn the Chinese alphabet at present, besides which point at age 5 language acquisition t follows a different pattern than when second-language acquisition begins at age 25 or at age 15, it also takes a person more than 600hours to even begin to be reasonably coherent in a language, the real factor with full language immersion is more than 2 years with full language immersion, living breathing, eating and sleeping in a foreign language. I am not 5 years old anymore, nor do I have the time at the moment for that on top of everything else.
In a perfect world we would all learn a second language. Unfortunately the vast majority of the western people on this forum live in the UK, Australia and the United States. Most of these countries don't have a progressive language ideology unlike most of continental Europe, South America and Asia... So what do you know? The ideology that is fails us form the beginning. That's not my problem either.
Saying that I am uncomfortable with foreign things is about the most ridiculously wide of the mark statement that anybody could ever level at me... Mind you... This thread is not above me. So, lets leave it at that shall we? I hope that wasn't uncomfortable.
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traveler_101
Senior Member
I just can't see dealing with a menu in Japanese to save some money, but then I would never buy a GX8 either - big, bulky and unattractive camera. People are different, which isn't such a bad thing.
One possibility, noted earlier in this thread: perhaps as you fool around with google translate you can begin to learn some Japanese. That would kind of be cool and you could write a little book - "How I learned Japanese, or, a recent instance of chaos theory". You know the chaos theory "butterfly effect" - a butterfly flaps its wings in China and the U.S. gets a tornado? Your theme could be something like "the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd tries to seal off the Japanese market and I learn Japanese."
traveler_101
Senior Member
Do you (we) have much choice?
I guess if you live in the world it is international by definition. Most of us actually live in countries 95-100% of the time. Perhaps you're in orbit.
That's right people are all people - correct? No point in thinking that we are different (thankfully) and there may be discomfort and disagreement among us. Only racists think that way.
Well la-di-da-da. It's a good thing that there are some people out there like you doing "things" for the rest of us.
I learned a language, not Chinese "mind you", and had "no time" to do it. By the way, you never simply "learn" a language. The more you become engaged with it there more you find you need to learn. It is a lifetime process of learning.
Ideology or advantage? English is the most powerful lingua franca thanks to the rise of Britain and America. It might have been different if Britain hadn't been such a successful imperial power or if the Allies had lost the 20th century world wars. Not endorsing these events, just stating an obvious underlying fact: English-speaking peoples often don't learn foreign languages because they don't have to.
Hiphopapotamus
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Just stating the obvious but as a multi-ethnic person, learning a second language is beneficial for lots of reasons including brain development and intelligence, it's not a matter of having to, it's a matter of it making you a more well rounded person if not for the fact you learn a second language but for the fact of cultural immersion which generally changes your mind on "things..."
It just so happens like the other 2.5billion people in this world I wasn't born in Asia, so I have had no exposure to Kanji in my life other than the poorly assembled conglomeration of things you find on restaurant menus, on TV and in your daily life.
Learning the full alphabet in Kanji makes the 24 letters of the English alphabet look like a walk in the park. so whopdidoo yourself... By the way being an English language ideologue and sitting on your high horse with a why bother attitude about everything else actually shows more classical signs of racism than anything I've said so far... Well done.
The fact that China and the rest of North Asia including South Korea and Japan as well as the subcontinental power of India, make up the majority of the worlds population and the majority of the worlds economy now might light a fire cracker up your backside to get off your high horse. The era of colonialism and western-imperialism by sheer weight of numbers is well and truly over.
It just so happens like the other 2.5billion people in this world I wasn't born in Asia, so I have had no exposure to Kanji in my life other than the poorly assembled conglomeration of things you find on restaurant menus, on TV and in your daily life.
Learning the full alphabet in Kanji makes the 24 letters of the English alphabet look like a walk in the park. so whopdidoo yourself... By the way being an English language ideologue and sitting on your high horse with a why bother attitude about everything else actually shows more classical signs of racism than anything I've said so far... Well done.
The fact that China and the rest of North Asia including South Korea and Japan as well as the subcontinental power of India, make up the majority of the worlds population and the majority of the worlds economy now might light a fire cracker up your backside to get off your high horse. The era of colonialism and western-imperialism by sheer weight of numbers is well and truly over.
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it will keep your brain power trained for years.
if it will be, in the long run too much for you, you still can use it as christmas gift for your japanese neighbour who could train the language skills of their kids with it.
still one question I do have: do the pics it makes differ from american language cam - americam letters are mor straight than japanese, so, japanes cam pics might have better bokeh.
good luck!
br gusti
pannumon
Senior Member
Here are comments from my perspective.
Similarly I am happy with my µ4/3 kit, although I might lose 2 or 3 shots per year because of the limitations in my setup. Contrary, there are people who absolutely need to have the latest FF camera with f/2.8 lenses, just in case.
By comfort zone and uncertainty I meant situations where you are randomly put into situations where you don't feel comfortable. Some people protect walls so that this does not happen, while others almost seek for these challenges.
Every graduate student should read The importance of Stupidity in Science by M. Schwartz. It deals the subject.
Personally, it's difficult for me to use a camera if I don't understand what all the settings do. It drives me nuts when people don't read the manual or go through the menu's item by item. However if the option would be GX8 in Japanese or no GX8, I would happily choose the GX8 in Japanese. My glass would be 90% full, given that it would be my only camera.
Similarly I am happy with my µ4/3 kit, although I might lose 2 or 3 shots per year because of the limitations in my setup. Contrary, there are people who absolutely need to have the latest FF camera with f/2.8 lenses, just in case.
Wow, I have never thought that someone would not use a product because it's made abroad. On the other hand, I come from a small country where no-one questions the importance of foreign trade.
By comfort zone and uncertainty I meant situations where you are randomly put into situations where you don't feel comfortable. Some people protect walls so that this does not happen, while others almost seek for these challenges.
Every graduate student should read The importance of Stupidity in Science by M. Schwartz. It deals the subject.
Seems reasonable.
Hard to comment on this one. My second language is English, and I'm definitely happy that
You are correct. I was not talking about you. I was generalizing.
Day Hiker
Forum Pro
Hi Marcus,
Maybe a bit of quiet reflection:
While I understand the annoyance, I suggest you remain with Panasonic until the company does something that affects you so directly that the situation becomes untenable. You might find that you stay comfortably with Panasonic for many many years.
If Panasonic's general marketing policies make your current equipment undesirable, so be it. Olympus makes great stuff.
Jim Pilcher
Summit County, Colorado, USA
Life is good in the woods. All paths lead forward.
Marcus Sundman
Forum Enthusiast
It already does. Twice I've had to buy a replacement camera while in an NTSC region, and many times I've wanted to record 30 fps with my cameras bought here in the normal (PAL) regions. And of course my mix of cameras don't work well together, since half of them shoot PAL and half of them shoot NTSC. I didn't think it would be so annoying, but it's turning out to be very.
And as for Olympus, their video still sucks, although the em1mk2 is getting close to usable.
Day Hiker
Forum Pro
It seems you have a situation where neither side of µ4/3 is serving your needs well. Not being a video person, I have no idea where you go next. Canon? Sony? Red(!)? The video on my Pen F could be completely broken and I would never discover it.It already does. Twice I've had to buy a replacement camera while in an NTSC region, and many times I've wanted to record 30 fps with my cameras bought here in the normal (PAL) regions. And of course my mix of cameras don't work well together, since half of them shoot PAL and half of them shoot NTSC. I didn't think it would be so annoying, but it's turning out to be very.
And as for Olympus, their video still sucks, although the em1mk2 is getting close to usable.
Good luck in your search.
Jim Pilcher
Summit County, Colorado, USA
Life is good in the woods. All paths lead forward.
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Marcus Sundman
Forum Enthusiast
Or Panasonic could stop insisting on messing with their customers needlessly and release firmware updates for all their cameras enabling both PAL and NTSC on all models, and also including all languages. It would probably take 1 person less than a week to implement those updates for their whole lineup, considering they already have the needed structures in the software since they have a couple models that do both PAL and NTSC. People would love them for it, but do you think they will? Probably not.It seems you have a situation where neither side of µ4/3 is serving your needs well. Not being a video person, I have no idea where you go next. Canon? Sony? Red(!)?It already does. Twice I've had to buy a replacement camera while in an NTSC region, and many times I've wanted to record 30 fps with my cameras bought here in the normal (PAL) regions. And of course my mix of cameras don't work well together, since half of them shoot PAL and half of them shoot NTSC. I didn't think it would be so annoying, but it's turning out to be very.
And as for Olympus, their video still sucks, although the em1mk2 is getting close to usable.
peppermonkey
Veteran Member
To change Pal to NTSC via some button combination. Not vice versa. Never tried it myself though so can't confirmOr Panasonic could stop insisting on messing with their customers needlessly and release firmware updates for all their cameras enabling both PAL and NTSC on all models, and also including all languages. It would probably take 1 person less than a week to implement those updates for their whole lineup, considering they already have the needed structures in the software since they have a couple models that do both PAL and NTSC. People would love them for it, but do you think they will? Probably not.It seems you have a situation where neither side of µ4/3 is serving your needs well. Not being a video person, I have no idea where you go next. Canon? Sony? Red(!)?It already does. Twice I've had to buy a replacement camera while in an NTSC region, and many times I've wanted to record 30 fps with my cameras bought here in the normal (PAL) regions. And of course my mix of cameras don't work well together, since half of them shoot PAL and half of them shoot NTSC. I didn't think it would be so annoying, but it's turning out to be very.
And as for Olympus, their video still sucks, although the em1mk2 is getting close to usable.
peppermonkey
Veteran Member
Marcus Sundman
Forum Enthusiast
Yes, as I hinted at in my first post, it's possible to put the camera into factory install mode during which it will use NTSC no matter which region it was bought in. But usually I want to use PAL on my NTSC cameras, which doesn't work (and I've tried).
Thanks for bringing it up though, in case this is exactly what some reader here is looking for.
Corkcampbell
Forum Pro
You should have checked here before purchasing as there have been umpteen threads on this over the years. If you bought it in Japan, didn't you notice that there were "international" versions of cameras (at a higher price, of course)? The sales staff at places such as BIC are very good and probably would have warned you. I remember seeing signs in one of the stores in English stating that it's Japanese only. When you look at postings for Japanese market cameras on eBay, the sellers always make it clear the cameras have Japanese menus. It's always been stated that there was a tax reason for the Japanese-only versions (which would explain they make is so it is impervious to a FW update, as anyone could update it and sell it for more money. But I don't know if that tax) is the reason.
Another issue, mentioned by at least one other poster, is how much resale you've lost by buying this kind of camera; why would anyone buy it on eBay or a store take it as a trade-in for something?
When I shop in Japan (or anywhere else) where I don't go often, I always test everything not only in the store, but in the hotel room or wherever while I'm still in the return period.
Your only course is to download the English manual for the camera and start memorizing how to use the Japanese menus, testing each menu choice to make sure it is the same as described in the manual.
--
"Knowledge is good." Emil Faber
Another issue, mentioned by at least one other poster, is how much resale you've lost by buying this kind of camera; why would anyone buy it on eBay or a store take it as a trade-in for something?
When I shop in Japan (or anywhere else) where I don't go often, I always test everything not only in the store, but in the hotel room or wherever while I'm still in the return period.
Your only course is to download the English manual for the camera and start memorizing how to use the Japanese menus, testing each menu choice to make sure it is the same as described in the manual.
--
"Knowledge is good." Emil Faber
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billgreen
Member
As I stated to an earlier post with your same concerns (resale, difficulty using, I was "taken"). When I posted this question I was merely asking if there was a way to change firmware to ge English. It was not a panic call. I was duely informed by the seller of it being Japanese only. I knew what I was getting and willing to live with it (if necessary) to save 30%. If there was an easy way to get English on it, all the better. If not, no big deal. I've been using Lumix for years. I am quite familiar with the camera's menu so it's not such an issue.
I use cameras until they are next to worthless anyway. I don't buy cameras based on resale value. I use them to take pictures, not to resell.
In the first hour of this thread I learned installing English wasn not possible. I'm fine with that. I'm way past that now. But as always, there will be a certain number of people who like to preach that someone else made a dumb mistake because they themselves would not have done it.
Im happy with the camera and the $500 savings (to buy another lens).
I use cameras until they are next to worthless anyway. I don't buy cameras based on resale value. I use them to take pictures, not to resell.
In the first hour of this thread I learned installing English wasn not possible. I'm fine with that. I'm way past that now. But as always, there will be a certain number of people who like to preach that someone else made a dumb mistake because they themselves would not have done it.
Im happy with the camera and the $500 savings (to buy another lens).
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