bobhoffman
Member
Thought some of you might find this amusing. Trying to buy a camera turned into a true trial of perseverance.
This was over a month more or less. I ended up with the 130a.
Always into videos, but always used the cheap consumer models. Finally decided to buckle down and buy the best I could afford. This is my story.
Looking to spend not much over 2000 dollars I found there were no pro models in that range, so I slowly upped the ante. I finally stopped near 3,000 dollars when I found the HMC150. After reading dvxusers forums I got the sense it was a great camera.
Since I always use amazon, thought I would buy it there. Only one seller selling it, so I bought it. It came, brand new, awesome. While in transit I went and bought lots of accessories including the hmc150 hard case.
Trying to register my hmc150 ran into a snag. "equipment does not match delivery result" was the error on their site. Quite a vague error message. After 30 minutes on the phone going from one panasonic rep to another one guy came on and explained gray market items to me.
I was freaked out. Very upset. I got screwed. Luckily I bought through amazon and the seller was 20 minutes away. After raising a stink with both, the seller agreed to a full refund. Whew.
I drove down to his warehouse to drop it off as a return. His warehouse is in a very bad part of town. When I got there I found his warehouse to be a simple set of small 1 car garage style warehousing units. There were a lot of 'workers' walking around loading and unloading tons of giant tvs and other electronics.
If you ever saw goodfellas, this would be 'jimmy's warehouse' for sure.
I asked one worker if they worried about all this electronics in this neighborhood. He laughed and said 'everyone knows us here and no one is dumb enough to try'... yikes.
Well, I got the refund and gave them the unit back.
I bought a battery from adorama camera at this time, from amazon. They sell it as a 5800. It is a lie. It was a 5400 gray market. Should have read the reviews. Very upset about this gray market junk now...livid.
Got home and immediately started working on getting a legit hmc150. I went to panasonics site to find an authorized dealer. I could only put in a zip code and it would only show dealers within 12 miles or so.. I inputted various zipcodes for the southeast florida area and got a list of 15 dealers.
Out of 15 dealers, only 3 had websites that worked. The rest came up as website not existing. 2 of them were event planners and one actually had items for sale (no prices though).
I sent emails to all 15, most came back as undeliverable except for the one that had items for sale, he responded in minutes. No one else did.
So I called all 15. 12 were either dead numbers or new businesses had taken over the number and the dealer was gone.
I called panasonic and they assured me all 15 were dealers and I must be mistaken...groan. I asked about other online sites, how would I know if they are authorized. They said to check the panasonic website by putting in my zip code. <facepalm> Eventually she said the only way was to find an online dealer, put in their zipcode and see..or just manually call panasonic ot verify.
Was getting really teed off now, this was getting stupid.
They say 'try it before you buy it'.... Well, there was only one authorized dealer within a few hours range of me so I asked about trying them out. He had none for trial. He had one boxed hmc150 and would have to order a 130a or 160a which I was now considering.
so, impossible to try.. Worse, I was thinking of the ac130a. But would it fit in my 200 dollar hard case I bought for the hmc150? Decisions.
I called bhphoto's website and asked if they were a dealer, and confirmed with panasonic. The guy on the phone said he could do better than the website prices and asked if he could send me a quote for the hmc150 and one for the 130a. I said sure. He got my name and email...and phone number..and started asking me question after question like 'what editing software do you use', etc.. I said, 'look, just send me a quote so I can buy this thing please'.
two days later, no quote. Lots of reading on dvxuser forums though, and leaning to the 130a now.
So I call bhphoto and say what is up? The guy on the phone said he would send me a quote, said he saw it there and did not know why it was not sent.
But first he wanted my mailing address, my physical address, phone numbers, what I did for a living..etc. I told him, send me the quote or I will buy this elsewhere...he never did.
So, I ended up at the only local panasonic dealer in my area that actually sells ac130a's and hmc150s. I ordered the 130a.
Now I have the hmc150 hard case, will it fit? The other accessories will go with it (mic, etc). I bought the 85 dollar hmc150 book...great, will they exchange it for a 130a book??
Finally the ac130a arrived. First thing I noticed the ac130a book is there...thank god, not having to spend another 80 bucks.
First thing when I got home, right to panasonics site and registered..It was not a gray market!!!...whoo hoo.
Seocnd thing, lets see if it needs a firmware update. The firmware on my 130a is 2.05...panasonic's site? They have a link for '130 series cameras' and the only firmware is 1.11. Huh?
Called panasonic and asked why my firmware is 2.05. I also joined a facebook group about the ac130/160 and none of their versions are 2.05.. But all of theirs are higher than 1.11.
My call to panasonic resulted in lots of wait time as they kept passing the call higher. Finally they said they needed to do research to find out what is going on and what version is the latest for their 130a cameras.
holy moly.
The camera might be great, but panasonic has 90% of its dealers misrepresented on its site for my area, have no idea what version their newer cameras firmware is....holy moly.
banging my head....banging my head.
Now, what about the hard case for the hmc150, did the ac130a fit? Well, it did. I had to cut out a huge section by its back end since it was a little longer. I have to take off the viewfinder cover or the folding arm of the case mushes it when closing. I also have to take off the mic holder since it is basically on top of the camera and adds an inch or so. It is a very snug fit. The height is almost too much.
The ac130a came with a real battery, so had to make a bigger hole for that.
But it fits...so money not wasted. Just have to put viewfinder and mic extension on each time I take it out.
Ready to film now.
Guess this is what happens when you enter a new arena, you have to pay your dues. I gratefully learned about gray market items, authorized dealers, an inability to ever try before I buy, and how to bang my head while reading a pdf manual on the ac130a.
whoo hoo...
This was over a month more or less. I ended up with the 130a.
Always into videos, but always used the cheap consumer models. Finally decided to buckle down and buy the best I could afford. This is my story.
Looking to spend not much over 2000 dollars I found there were no pro models in that range, so I slowly upped the ante. I finally stopped near 3,000 dollars when I found the HMC150. After reading dvxusers forums I got the sense it was a great camera.
Since I always use amazon, thought I would buy it there. Only one seller selling it, so I bought it. It came, brand new, awesome. While in transit I went and bought lots of accessories including the hmc150 hard case.
Trying to register my hmc150 ran into a snag. "equipment does not match delivery result" was the error on their site. Quite a vague error message. After 30 minutes on the phone going from one panasonic rep to another one guy came on and explained gray market items to me.
I was freaked out. Very upset. I got screwed. Luckily I bought through amazon and the seller was 20 minutes away. After raising a stink with both, the seller agreed to a full refund. Whew.
I drove down to his warehouse to drop it off as a return. His warehouse is in a very bad part of town. When I got there I found his warehouse to be a simple set of small 1 car garage style warehousing units. There were a lot of 'workers' walking around loading and unloading tons of giant tvs and other electronics.
If you ever saw goodfellas, this would be 'jimmy's warehouse' for sure.
I asked one worker if they worried about all this electronics in this neighborhood. He laughed and said 'everyone knows us here and no one is dumb enough to try'... yikes.
Well, I got the refund and gave them the unit back.
I bought a battery from adorama camera at this time, from amazon. They sell it as a 5800. It is a lie. It was a 5400 gray market. Should have read the reviews. Very upset about this gray market junk now...livid.
Got home and immediately started working on getting a legit hmc150. I went to panasonics site to find an authorized dealer. I could only put in a zip code and it would only show dealers within 12 miles or so.. I inputted various zipcodes for the southeast florida area and got a list of 15 dealers.
Out of 15 dealers, only 3 had websites that worked. The rest came up as website not existing. 2 of them were event planners and one actually had items for sale (no prices though).
I sent emails to all 15, most came back as undeliverable except for the one that had items for sale, he responded in minutes. No one else did.
So I called all 15. 12 were either dead numbers or new businesses had taken over the number and the dealer was gone.
I called panasonic and they assured me all 15 were dealers and I must be mistaken...groan. I asked about other online sites, how would I know if they are authorized. They said to check the panasonic website by putting in my zip code. <facepalm> Eventually she said the only way was to find an online dealer, put in their zipcode and see..or just manually call panasonic ot verify.
Was getting really teed off now, this was getting stupid.
They say 'try it before you buy it'.... Well, there was only one authorized dealer within a few hours range of me so I asked about trying them out. He had none for trial. He had one boxed hmc150 and would have to order a 130a or 160a which I was now considering.
so, impossible to try.. Worse, I was thinking of the ac130a. But would it fit in my 200 dollar hard case I bought for the hmc150? Decisions.
I called bhphoto's website and asked if they were a dealer, and confirmed with panasonic. The guy on the phone said he could do better than the website prices and asked if he could send me a quote for the hmc150 and one for the 130a. I said sure. He got my name and email...and phone number..and started asking me question after question like 'what editing software do you use', etc.. I said, 'look, just send me a quote so I can buy this thing please'.
two days later, no quote. Lots of reading on dvxuser forums though, and leaning to the 130a now.
So I call bhphoto and say what is up? The guy on the phone said he would send me a quote, said he saw it there and did not know why it was not sent.
But first he wanted my mailing address, my physical address, phone numbers, what I did for a living..etc. I told him, send me the quote or I will buy this elsewhere...he never did.
So, I ended up at the only local panasonic dealer in my area that actually sells ac130a's and hmc150s. I ordered the 130a.
Now I have the hmc150 hard case, will it fit? The other accessories will go with it (mic, etc). I bought the 85 dollar hmc150 book...great, will they exchange it for a 130a book??
Finally the ac130a arrived. First thing I noticed the ac130a book is there...thank god, not having to spend another 80 bucks.
First thing when I got home, right to panasonics site and registered..It was not a gray market!!!...whoo hoo.
Seocnd thing, lets see if it needs a firmware update. The firmware on my 130a is 2.05...panasonic's site? They have a link for '130 series cameras' and the only firmware is 1.11. Huh?
Called panasonic and asked why my firmware is 2.05. I also joined a facebook group about the ac130/160 and none of their versions are 2.05.. But all of theirs are higher than 1.11.
My call to panasonic resulted in lots of wait time as they kept passing the call higher. Finally they said they needed to do research to find out what is going on and what version is the latest for their 130a cameras.
holy moly.
The camera might be great, but panasonic has 90% of its dealers misrepresented on its site for my area, have no idea what version their newer cameras firmware is....holy moly.
banging my head....banging my head.
Now, what about the hard case for the hmc150, did the ac130a fit? Well, it did. I had to cut out a huge section by its back end since it was a little longer. I have to take off the viewfinder cover or the folding arm of the case mushes it when closing. I also have to take off the mic holder since it is basically on top of the camera and adds an inch or so. It is a very snug fit. The height is almost too much.
The ac130a came with a real battery, so had to make a bigger hole for that.
But it fits...so money not wasted. Just have to put viewfinder and mic extension on each time I take it out.
Ready to film now.
Guess this is what happens when you enter a new arena, you have to pay your dues. I gratefully learned about gray market items, authorized dealers, an inability to ever try before I buy, and how to bang my head while reading a pdf manual on the ac130a.
whoo hoo...
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