Panasonic Europe support problems

Ok, I'm going to keep the camera. I managed to get some good footage from it. Here is the story.

I have a history as a studio still photographer and so I am very careful regarding exposure. I expose with a light meter and then, check histograms on the camera for anything important. A belt and braces approach.

So when I got the 151 the first thig I did was turn on its exposure meter, the zebras. From then on I used the zebras to set all exposure in all the tests. After all, thats what a good photgrapher does.

However, the zerbras in the 151 are set by default to 80%, thus I was underexposing the image by 20%. Holy cow batman. I only found this out when I thought Id do one last trip through the menus to see if I had missed anything.

Now many of you will no doubt say "Ha, told you so, user error", and thats right. But at every stage in this process, both on this forum and directly to Panasonic, many times, I have stated that I was using the zebras and the camera was at its default settings. So I was at fault, but so was Panasonic for not telling me that the defaults on the camera are stupid, and so were all those who read my posts, saw my replies about using the zerbras and never thought to tell me to change their stupid default settings.

It still doesnt chnage the fact that Panasonic service had been abysmal though.

So I guess now we can close this thread.
Thank you to all those of you who read and replied.
Happy shooting.
 
shows you for playing by the rules :)

hmmm- 80% is playing it way too safe. I guess in an effort to avoid overexposure, they have users underexpose at that setting, which backfires by introducing noise. Although I will agree overexposing video is worse than underexposing it. I will be checking my 150 when I get home and setting it to 95%

Ed
 
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So the last laugh was on me.

MrFluffy said:
My free battery arrived this afternoon :)
Click to expand...

My Camera came back yesterday but without its battery. I queried this and after I have just got a reply that the battery they sent me was not a "good will" battery, but my own battery, so I wont be getting any more.

They are unbelievable.
"Camera turn around is 5 Days" - was actually 21
"Have a new battery as an act of goodwill" - Sent back my own battery.

I guess that Panasonic dont need to communicate with customers, tell the truth or get any goodwill.

You know what they say "Caveat emptor" !
 
This is my first Panasonic and based on stuff I've read on the web and from consumer groups I think Panasonic is average or better and they get high marks for listening to customers input.
Panasonic America does anyway.


Have you started filming anything yet and working with the settings to address the noise issue?
 
Hidef1080 said:
Have you started filming anything yet and working with the settings to address the noise issue?
Click to expand...

I started a new thread about the noise issue as it seemed other had similar problems:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=159850

Ive only shot a few minutes worth of video since I had my cam back just to test it out. Providing you keep the scene well lit you get nice images, not noise free, but good enough.

Of course, if you shrink them down at all the noise disappears. This may be why people say they cant see the noise, most people cant display a 1080 image full size on their monitor, so they display a smaller version which inherently reduces the noise.
 
Good deal.
I'm sure you'll find some setting tweaks that can give you the look you need or come close to it anyway.


Good luck to you MrFluffy. :beer:
 
MrFluffy said:
I guess that Panasonic dont need to communicate with customers, tell the truth or get any goodwill.

You know what they say "Caveat emptor" !
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, Panny's USA Tech Support is not much better. I have put in 2 calls to them over the last 4 days. They don't let you talk to tech support when you call, you have to wait for them to call you. Each time I called they said that a representative would call me "sometime tommorrow". (Anyone here work for a living? Can you afford to stay home all day and wait for their call?) Fortunately for me, my issue was solved already, not that they know that.

Anyway, 4 days now and no response. I absolutely love The HMC, but Panasonic just supplanted Sony at the bottom of the customer service barrel.
 
I thought this was all sorted, but alas its not.

After contacting Panasonic about the battery mistake they said that they would send it out. And they did! It arrived today. Its a big one.

Wow, thinks I, a high capacity battery, I'll go charge it.
Ho hum......
it doesnt fit the charger....
oh dear does the larger battery have a different charger...
maybe ....
Hang on, its not the right battery.

HMC battery is VW-VBG6, they sent CGA-D54s.

ROFLLMAO ........

They cant even get their good will gestures to work.

Now, time to fire off another email......
 
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