Why Panasonic forces me to shoot my next documentary with a Canon instead of using the GH2.

[shoplink 20322 ebay][/shoplink] For a long time we had to struggle to find the GH2 in Stock in US and Europe. But in these days I am experiencing another frustrating story with Panasonic. I have to shoot a new short documentary between March 3th and March 5th. That’s why I ordered some new GH2 batteries at a well known German online shop on January 20th (yes January!). It wasn’t in Stock at that time but the cruel news is that they still don’t have it in Stock after 6 weeks of waiting! And you know what? Not a single german online store do have it in Stock right now (Source: idealo). I searched on eBay and found one [shoplink 20322 ebay]eBay shop accepting preorders for five of them (Bayern Fotoversand)[/shoplink]. Sadly they said that they don’t have them in Stock right now  and they have no idea when they will be in Stock again!!!

What’s next?
As I am shooting on the border between Italy and Austria I contacted both Panasonic Italy and Panasonic Germany:
Panasonic Italy said that “we didn’t notice that there is a supply problem” and “our PC systems says that delivery time is unknown“.
Panasonic Germany gave us a phone number to an external distributor. We called the distributor that also wasn’t really sure about when it would be available (They said maybe 1-2 weeks).

What am I going to do?
Friends from the company helios.bz will give me the Canon 5DII with a huge pack of batteries.

Resume:
I don’t post this story to blame Panasonic, I posted it because I want them to acknowledge that they have some serious problems at the dsitribution level. The Panasonic GH2 has a much better video quality than the Canon 5DII but you really have to:
a) Increase the production of the GH2 cameras and related accessories.
b) If that is not possible at least inform us (and also inform Panasonic employers and online retailers) when those will be in Stock again. It’s pity I can’t use make a profesisonal use of the  [shoplink 16254]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink] because of that.

P.S: GH2 battery links to [shopcountry 20323] (in Stock only in some US stores and not in european stores).