today i was all set to buy this camera. but when we got to the shop that had it at the right price, we discovered the shop is closed on sundays. peter has heard that some of the shops selling this camera have a version of the camera that doesn't have an english menu, only a japanese one. this makes very little sense, and i suspect those shops may be selling the japanese model, as we did see a japanese version of it at some of the shops. but we won't know for sure until we go in to have a closer look at the camera.