I ordered a Panasonic DMC-FX9 first thing Monday morning. I ordered it from one of those “prices a little too good to be true” New York web sites, the sort that passes off grey-market imports as US products and pressures customers into buying ridiculously overpriced accessories. On Tuesday I read about Thomas Hawk’s horrible experience with a different NY vendor and got nervous, but my camera arrived Friday afternoon.
I went with the potentially shady vendor because I wanted an imported model, Panasonic doesn’t offer the red version in the US. Black and Silver are boring and I’m still bummed that I couldn’t find my car in red.
Anyhoo. The camera seems to be the same size as the FX7, but it feels lighter and less “substantial” — probably because the body is now plastic instead of metal. The battery and port covers seem more robust. The battery design is different, so my charger and extra batteries from the FX7 are useless to me. Nothing else leaps out at me as being different from the FX7.
I’ve got a fresh 1GB SD card and an autocross this Sunday so I should have plenty of pictures soon.
