Panasonic FZ3 awesome 12x leica lens

RufusA

Whilst the camera is no longer showing on PhotoOptix's website, they still have a limited number left at the original price (£199.99) which you can order by phoning them:

01708 890723

Also they do a starter packing including a camera bag, 128MB fast SD card and 3 year warranty for an additional £50! Didn't bother myself, but might help someone.

HTH - Rufus.

b_hunter_2

some really good info on this thread and some good finds.

thanks 2 all

manorman

Just bought one over the phone from photoOptix. thanks for the tip

George_Bray

I've hit my first problem with this Panasonic FZ3 camera. I've never had a problem with USB links before.

I installed USB Driver 1.0 from the supplied CD-rom and, for what it's worth, the ArcSoft PhotoImpression application, too.

The USB driver enabled me to see the camera like a virtual drive on my computer, and copy picture .jpg files over to my hard disk. Or I could 'get photos' into the computer via PhotoImpression.

But after one or two days, the computer no longer 'sees' the camera as a drive, and PhotoImpression can't see it either.

So I installed the USB driver again and all is well for another 1-2 days, and so on... what the devil can be going on? I never had this problem with the USB connection to my Polaroid digital camera, which works like a dream.

My operating system is Win98SE.

Regards
George

lellie

hmm usb1??

don't you have a usb 2 port - it's much better to use a camera on usb 2 - usb 1 is often dodgy with things on and off - my web cam wasn't properly compatible with old usb - would work for an hour then stop until reinstalled - with usb2 was fine. plus it's much faster!!

George_Bray

lellie wrote:

hmm usb1?? don't you have a usb 2 port - it's much better to use a camera on usb 2 - usb 1 is often dodgy with things on and off - my web cam wasn't properly compatible with old usb - would work for an hour then stop until reinstalled - with usb2 was fine. plus it's much faster!!

Thank you very much for your comments here. Unfortunately, my motherboard is a few years old now, and only has usb 1. This is the first time the computer has failed to deliver. Perhaps I can buy an accessory to add usb 2.

Regards
George

Sput2001

George_Bray wrote:

Thank you very much for your comments here. Unfortunately, my motherboard is a few years old now, and only has usb 1. This is the first time the computer has failed to deliver. Perhaps I can buy an accessory to add usb 2.

If you've got a spare PCI slot you should be able to install a USB 2.0 card without too much hassle. They're about 20-30 quid...

bleugh

I have a brand new one that was never used (PCI slot USB2 card),
5 portsr ***edit by Board Guide - no private selling on the board, please use PMs ***

i bought it then my old PC went bang before i even got to install it, so i bought a new mobo with usb2 on

RufusA

Ordered yesterday first thing, received the camera this morning, very impressed.

George -> I suspect your problem may be down to the operating system. Win98 does not support generic Mass Storage Devices that later versions of windows does. There are hacked versions of the generic driver from WinME which may work, but I'd hesitate to recommend it. Chipset specific drivers can be used (as per the ones supplied by Panasonic), but in the past I remember having all sorts of problems getting any form of reliability under Win98SE with USB and plug and play. Used to find the order the equipment was connected made a big difference. For example booting the PC up with xxx connected would work, but plugging it in after the machine was fully booted wouldn't or visa versa.

Flashing your MoBo's BIOS to the latest version may help, but it's not for the feight hearted, and (as I have previously found out) can result in a dead machine!

I suspect it may be time to upgrade your machine. If you are using an old OS, and a MoBo that doesn't have USB2 (I presume it will also not have massive amounts of HDD space, memory, fast 2D graphics card etc.) you will probably find it a very frustrating experience doing any kind of photo manipulation on the PC. Dell seem to always have offers cropping up with reasonable spec PCs available for around the £300 mark.

HTH - Rufus.

gromituk

Upgrade to Linux - that'll cost you nothing, but will be an awful lot of fun!