Shopping Again for a Camera

ok, i've been drooling again. at first, it was the panasonic dmc-fz18. then the panasonic dmc-fz28, which, fairly obviously was the next in the line after the fz18. those were both very nice cameras with 18x optical and 8 megapixel, among some other nice features.

now, bear in mind, i'm NOT looking for an slr, digital or otherwise. too many lenses and other accessories to lug around, lose, damage and have to fool around with. so, the near-slr's appealed to me quite a bit; lots of features without all the extra expense and parts and so on. i can buy a small case and wear it on my belt (which is where i carry my current one). so, i've been trying to justify the expense of yet another camera. the fz18 and fz28 were ones i kept looking at online but never quite bit the dust to purchase.

being a while since i'd shopped around for cameras, i went on dpreview again recently and found... oh boy, 24x opticals!! **pant** **drool**. that's the equivalent of a 624mm telephoto lens. these little suckers are sweet! i found two, both at 12 megapixels, the nikon coolpix p90 and the kodak z980. there was also an olympus at an even greater optical, but i didnt like some of the other things about it. still, here's the page i looked at to compare these: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compa...1&remove=1 .

bottom line, i decided i liked the kodak. it shoots in raw and the movie resolution was higher. plus, my current camera is a kodak and i've been mostly pleased with it.

but, that's where the warm feelings end. i found that i was missing data. one of the reseller sites listed accessories for the kodak that indicated that the camera had lens threads, those threads on the end of a lens that allows the attachment of filters and such. so, i wanted to find out if this was so or if the reseller had this wrong or was misdirecting in order to make extra sales. so, i looked up contact information for kodak. i found a phone number for customer service. i also found an online live chat feature. ok, those seemed good. i called the number: "The current wait time is 20 minutes". ok, that sucks. so, i tried the online live chat feature. "required fields: name, address, email address, and all those other personal things i dont care to give out just to get a question or two answered". so, i went back to dpreview to see if i could find the answer there. i also tried calling the reseller. closed. ok, it's sunday; i can understand that one. so, looking around more, i still couldnt find my answer and decided to call kodak again. this time, the wait queue was up to 30 minutes plus. lol. so, i glued the phone to my ear and watched some more of the hockey game and to play around on the computer while i waited. when i finally got through, over 30 minutes later, i found myself talking to someone who could barely understand english, a decidely indian accent. i had to ask my question in several different ways, explaining terminology and technique. finally, the person seemed to understand what i was asking and excused themself to go find out the answer. after a few more minutes, he returned and gave me the answer. now, i think i understood the answer and it seemed to conflict with what the reseller was selling, but there was some question about even that. i'll call the reseller tomorrow and see if i can find out.

now, all of this reminded me of how service used to be in stores. customers used to be king. a person in a store was senior to someone on the phone. you could always find a sales person and in most cases, they found you before you ever needed them. now, it's 'online' or 20 minute waits on the phone to someone in india or even more remote who can barely speak your language and customer service that makes you feel like YOU owe THEM your business. and what's with requiring an email address on everything! in a time when economics are tight and identity theft is somewhat rampant, you would think sales people would be begging you to wash your feet and privacy would be supreme!

lol. around here, we do business face to face, for the most part, or at worst on a cell phone where you're still talking to the principals. now, dont get me wrong, i like that there are e-stores and online shopping. it's quite convenient and saves a company money. that's good. but, what is missing is that in lieu of doing business face to face you cant substitute in poorer service; it, in fact, has to be even better than face to face. alienating your customers with demands on invasion of privacy and breaks due to language barriers and long waits, in order to just get a question answered, are not conducive to business and with as competive as the camera industry is and with the market place being a bit depressed right now, if i were the CEO of Kodak, i would be re-thinking my customer service dept about now.

bottom line, i'll probably still go with the kodak, but i may just wait for a while and look around some more. i'm suddenly not drooling quite so much as i was.

amen, sister