I highly recommend:

http://www.cameraaction.com.au

Their prices are very good, and so is their service. But I'm sure you'll always find someone cheaper---just be careful who you deal with.

Some places in Australia may quote you a cheap price but then they try and recoup some by charging you taxes! (There should be no taxes if the cam is an export.)

Okay frank, but the price they have on the mx350 is nearly
2100.00 US. That is sort of high as far as I can tell. I'm just trying to get plenty of options to determine the best price. I agree with you though, integrity and service are more important than the lowest price.

Jojo,

First: don't deal in US dollars.

Second: e-mail them for the price in Australian Dollars.

Third: go to your US bank and ask how much a Austalian M.O. for that amount will cost in US Dollars. (You will find that doing it this way is a lot cheaper).

Fourth: send the Australian M.O. to them.

Fifth: give them your CC details for the FEDEX shipping charge.

thanks I'll remember that for any OZ dealer I do business with.

Currency exchange is a funny thing....

Because I was buying AU Dollars with Canadian Dollars, (the Canadian Dollar is higher), I got to save a bundle.

Now if I had to convert from Canadian to US, I'd be losing a bundle. But for Americans buying this way in Canada or Australia, it'll be a steal.

If you actually bring US Dollars to Canada or Australia, and have it converted at a bank (in Canada or Australia; to Canadian or Austalian Dollars), you will even get a better rate of exchange.

According to Allan Rejoso the MX500EN could be available directly from Japan as early as next week. Be interesting how the prices compare to Aussie resellers.

Really? That's good news, and yes, the price should be a lot cheaper---like maybe $500 US or even more (from the best Aussie price). Let's wait and see. Perhaps Tim will look into this PAL version from Japan for us. Personally, I'm again rethinking whether I should buy PAL again, instead of NTSC. I posted over at the NLE forum about Vegas Video, and it seems this great program also converts between PAL and NTSC (that's a good thing).

The price is terrible. Laox is going to sell the MX500EN for Yen190,000. It will be available within November.

Regards

OHh..., terrible, eh? Okay. Back to Australia, then. It seems like Japanese Domestics are the cheapest on the planet, and everything else made for export doubles or triples! (Triple in the US for some Pana USA models, like with the older AG-EZ1 and AG-EZ30.) At least with me, I don't buy things which are a rip. Best bang for the buck..., that's the way to go. Tim's MX5000 price ($1650 total), is still the best bang for the buck for North Americans. We just have to get used to the Japanese menus.

I wonder when Pana will get their BIG head screwed on straight. (I've given up on JVsee USA. That's been a lost cause for 3 years now, in my opinion.) Thank God that Canon actually improved their already great GL1 with their GL2. For the size of it, you can actually hold it: "Look Ma, one hand!" I can't say the same thing about the TRV950! (If you can't hold a hand-held, why call it a hand-held?)

MX 500 is now on the selves at Camera Action and other Melbourne stores (see other post)
Ticket price is a low $3795 which I expect could be haggled down to a street price of around $3400 (less overseas as there should be no GST component).
That's a good deal lower than the MX300 - the original RRP of the MX300 was $4600 although I did manage to do a great deal with Camera House for $3570 but I think that was a 'one off' error somehow.. :-)

BUT the MX500 is currently around $1000 less than the Sony TRV950 down under - I know which cam I would rather have evn if the prices were equal!

All prices Australian Dollars...