Bought New Camera- Pana FZ18

After 1 to 2 months of thinking, the day that i was waiting for finally came. I had the intention of getting a better camera since we started planning for our cambodia trip. But not manage to get as there was too little time to do research on the model that i really need and affort to own and also one that suitable for someone who just started to try to improve on the other half of his brain ( art ).

After the cambodia trip, the desire of owning a better camera become more firm as i felt there is a need to capture all the precious moment in the best possible way as it was for future recall.( much better than my compact samsung )which allow me to take sharp and clear picture regardless of the condition(dark or bright). I was all the time looking for Nikon P80 which i consider very good for me and started to research online,tried at shops to have a better feel of the camera. Haha i tried at least 4 times at Harvey Norman and a few times at Court....trying to convince myself that im buying something worth and suitable for myself i guess as not used to hold back to make any decision that long....but not this time, undecided for more than 2 months.

After much thinking, i felt i am ready to buying the Nikon P80. So Sat afternoon i went down to Funan tower to look for the shop named Alan Photo as recomended by the forum kaki in the forum (club snap.com). Hm i went down with Peipei with the plan of just grap and go with the P80 as i had already tried so many times in other outlet as the main intension to go to Funan is because i got to know in the forum that i can get the camera at a much cheaper price. The grap and go intension did not work as after about 10 min looking for the shop, when we reached that shop we were told that the camera is out of stock and will only available next week onwards. What the...We came all the way down from Boon Lay and im sure do not want to go back empty handed this time as it happed once where we went to Aljunied to look for the P80 but didnt manage to get it too...

So much disappointed with the news i decided to look for other shop next to Alan Photo...my logic thinking tell me that, if Alan Photo really sell at a much cheaper price than the other shop...so will be the shop beside / next to it (apportunity of cost to walk to the next shop almost Zero). So we went to the shop opposite it. Opps i forgot the name n now too lazy to get the name card from my camera box.

We went in asking for P80 and yes...there is still stock in the shop....ofcourse what come next in my mind is the cost..hm..selling at SGD575 with 1 4Gb SD card as compare to SGD545 in Alan photo ( didnt ask for detail as we were told that there is no stock available...so only ask for the price n didnt know if it come with any other gift/s) Hm...not bad ( our 1st thinking as there is always room of negotiation...and we believe we can get at a cheaper price)...What come next is another one hour of marketing and lecturing from the saleman uncle...LOL!! But sincerely the uncle is a nice person...For almost 1 hour we stuck in the shop... because of trying to negotiate for the price of other accesories like camera bag ( as P80 didnt come with bag so stupid which cost $20 (canon bag) ), additional Litium battery ($45), screen protector ($8 but at the end we managed to get for free) , tripod ( $28), and some additional free gift like card reader and memory card... that was not the end..

When we were about to buy...uncle then recomend Panasonic FZ18, which is having about the same spec as the Nikon P80...haha but cost SGD595 ( $20 more expensive than P80 but come with panasonic bag so end up even more cheaper than the P80)...so since the uncle saw that we were interested in the FZ18, he started promoting the camera..that's the beginning of 45 min presentation and lecture..haha..

The uncle demo the FZ18, showing the power of leica len by shooting the 2 dollar note in macro mode to show us how fine and close the camera can shoot in macro mode..then the uncle start promoting the other 2 lens ( one of the extra advantage of FZ18 over P80 is that you can add lens on it...haha semi pro camere as compare to totally dull P80). FZ18 enable additional tele len and wide angle & HD len ( the uncle still never gave up to sell the 2 lens at $200 the time we paid for the camera. We ( should be i was) were never thought of getting FZ18..actually not even gone through my mind b4..Zero research. So, dont need to say it required much testing of the camera....try to shoot from normal len to adding the 2 lenses...we spent amost 20 mins there trying the camera that we were not familier with...It was almost 5pm and we had finally made up our mind to just go for the camera ( Fz18) but trying to keep the gifts that the uncle was promoting if we get the camera together with the 2 additional lenses....lots of barganing with the uncle...uncle tying his best from telling us they never charge 7% GST to absorbing the 1% nets charges in order not to give any other extra gifts...At the end, see what i get :

Panasonic FZ 18 --------SGD595 ( come with case and 2x 2GB SD card)
Tri Pod (not mini)------SGD28
46" UV Filter ----------SGD25
Addit Litium Battery----SGD45
Total ------------------SGD693 (2 card readers and 1 screen protector for free)

Paid $690....and went for shooting at Esplanade n Melion in the evening till about 1030 pm..super tiring day but feel satisfy...haha i believe for the next 5 days i will be spending most of my free time playing with my camera...hoping that on Peipei Convo day (24th July)...i can shoot a better picture