i had almost decided on buying a GH-1 here Mathers Of Lancashire (http://www.mathersoflancashire.co.uk/page59.html) as it seemed like a really good price when i noticed that the japanese version works out about 300-400 euros cheaper!

i can get a friend to bring one back from japan soon but.. wondering just how difficult its going to be for me with a japanese only camera?? does anybody know is (almost?) all the everyday stuff needed quite easy to navigate around with icons, how would it be if you dont understand any of the text??

of course i can write down translations of all the menus and subsets to keep in my camera case but i dont want it to be a major hindrance if i need to change something important quickly at critical moments..

any thoughts appreciated!

(also im sure the answer is no but would there be any way do you think to install an english firmware upgrade to the japanese version??)

problem is that device is localized (means there is a different model for PAL or NTSC) , so buying in Asia is not a good thing since you will get a 30/60i/s while in europe you get a 25/50i/s model.
unfortunately the european model is also crippled to record only 30 minutes at once.

Let's see if some hacker will deliver a firmware update to make the device universal or just to move from NTSC version to PAL. (lots of user would prefer to have a 25p to convert to 24p instead going from 60i to 24p)

in fact it should be pretty simple by just comparing firmware of both model to see where differece are. I doubt there is any hardware involved in the change.

Some folks bought Japanese cameras because they were out sooner. I had a chance to play with one for a few days before the English version came out.

It is do-able. Especially if you download the English manual and get used to the icons. The icons are universal, so you can largely figure things out. It'll be making things harder on yourself, and limiting your resale value, but it can be done.

Perhaps the bigger problem for you is that the Japanese version doesn't do 25p/50p so your footage won't be directly playable on your television.