Where to buy.

Looking at Panasonic and Sony cameras.

Where is it less expensive....Bkk area...

Lotus,Power buy,Panthip,Fortune....

Anybody went through the same thing?

Any info appreciated.

Nicolai

Consumer electronics in Thailand is *very* strictly price controlled. It doesn't matter which retail shop you go to, it will be the same price. One exception is Sony Shops, which are showrooms, and charge *more* than usual.

If you want to be able to haggle, you'll have to go to the shops located outside of malls, the ones on the streets. These places have more leeway, but I have no idea which shops would be foreigner-friendly. One popular group of shops is located in the sois next to Big C, across from WTC.

Thats a bit different to my experience. I was looking for a Sony HC32E, and shopped and price compared etc.

I got the best price at of all places the Sony Shop in Pantip.

That's a bit strange. I've always seen a 3-5% markup at all Sony Shop showrooms... the big ones, at least. For example, you could go to the Bangkapi Mall, and go to the Mall itself, and see Sony products sold for one price, and then go to the big Sony Shop on the second floor, and see them slightly marked up, and then walk a bit to the side to a Sony dealer, and see normal prices again.

That's a bit strange.  I've always seen a 3-5% markup at all Sony Shop showrooms... the big ones, at least.  For example, you could go to the Bangkapi Mall, and go to the Mall itself, and see Sony products sold for one price, and then go to the big Sony Shop on the second floor, and see them slightly marked up, and then walk a bit to the side to a Sony dealer, and see normal prices again.

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Same at Emporium. Prices at Sony "showroom" there is approximately 5% higher than the same product sold at the PowerBuy two floors up in the same building.

The place NOT to buy is at the Bangkok Airport!!!

In my experience the Sony shops are good.

Well,i've narrowed it down to 2 choices.

Sony HC 42 or Canon Optura 50.

But apparently the canon isn't here yet.

So i will propably go for the sony.

Almost bought one at MBK,but it was an Imported model,with no warranty.

So i'll propably buy at the sony shop,or maybe lotus....

Best price is apparently is 23990.-

THanks for all advice.

The Sony HC 42 is a good choice. I've bought one recently. The video is great even when taken from a moving vehicle or in poor night lighting. I priced the camera in Dubai and Bahrain and for once Thailand is cheaper. I also saw it in the Sony shop in Ubon for B24,490.

Don't forget to pick up a memory stick, or an I Link cable if you want to transfer your video to DVD. Prices for the I Link cables at Ladpro were B2,000 for the laptop cable and B3,990 for desktop cable.

Strange thing about the HC42 compared to the HC32 (the cheaper model) is that camcorderinfo.com tested both, and the HC42 actually turned out to be *inferior* to the HC32 in some video tests. A word about the HC32/42 is that they leave out a few things, such as connections on the camera, and there'e no mic port (I know since I have one), but this is a result of them being the lowest range models for Sony's DV camcorders. In my experience, the top model of a range (ie the HC42) is really not worth the extra $$$, and it's better to get the middle model (ie the HC32) but not the lowest model (HC21) since a lot of necessary things are taken out.

Forget about the memory stick... camcorders take lousy stills, and even if you want to take stills, the included 16mb stick is more than enough. Maybe lousy is not the right word to describe the stills... godawful is a better word. And for heavens sake *DON'T* buy the *SONY* i-link cables. Buy generic firewire cables, they're only around 150-200 baht, for the same thing. Trust me, I do extensive firewire transfers.

Canon camcorders, for some reason, are not easy to find in Thailand. You'll find a few at specialty shops, but that's about it. I have no idea why, since there *is* a Canon Thailand, and their still cameras do a brisk business.

Well,i ended up with a Panasonic NV GS75 e,3 CCD.

Partly because of the missing connections on the 42.....Mainly mic in.I have a pro stereo m/s mic.

Seems like a good buy....

We'll see,i never played with a video camera before,so thats gonna be fun.

I would never buy expensive FW cables.....They are mostly the same....

Thanks fo all advise:-)

Nick

Last bit of advice: The DV tapes sold at retail shops are also way overpriced. You can get a 5 pack for 600 baht in Chinatown.

Cool.Thanks.

Been meaning to go there for a while.