Having just spilled for another 170 it's obvious I like the camera. But it pisses me off that Panasonic management are so ignorant of their employees lack of written English that they continue to write critical instructions that have to be guessed at. All with disclaimers that they will take no responsibility if you get it wrong and (for instance) do a software up-date incorrectly.
Examples of this arrogance can be found in everything that Panasonic writes, however this evening I updated (for the first time) my 170's to the latest firmware. The detail of how to go about this was simply atrocious. Updating camera software is not something I do without some trepidation. The manual was barely helpful, and caused a great deal more worry than if it had been written in legible English. If Japanese consumers were delivered the level of literacy that Panasonic deliver to English speakers they would be laughed out of town. Any high school English teacher could proof-read the Panasonic stuff and correct it for them. Why the hell do they treat their English speaking customers like poor relations. And why do we suck it in for them?
Maybe Jan (and Barry etc) could explain to Panasonic that instructions in well written English would be highly regarded? PS I have written politely, tactfully and at length to Panasonic Japan about this in the past, and received in response only a standard 6 page questionnaire. Is anybody home?
Examples of this arrogance can be found in everything that Panasonic writes, however this evening I updated (for the first time) my 170's to the latest firmware. The detail of how to go about this was simply atrocious. Updating camera software is not something I do without some trepidation. The manual was barely helpful, and caused a great deal more worry than if it had been written in legible English. If Japanese consumers were delivered the level of literacy that Panasonic deliver to English speakers they would be laughed out of town. Any high school English teacher could proof-read the Panasonic stuff and correct it for them. Why the hell do they treat their English speaking customers like poor relations. And why do we suck it in for them?
Maybe Jan (and Barry etc) could explain to Panasonic that instructions in well written English would be highly regarded? PS I have written politely, tactfully and at length to Panasonic Japan about this in the past, and received in response only a standard 6 page questionnaire. Is anybody home?
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