A review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 digital camera
Unbeatable Editor Review

Panasonic constantly strive to improve their products to suit the consumer’s needs and they have certainly stuck to their guns with the Lumix DMC-FZ8. With many improvements to the previous FZ7, you are guaranteed to see some much needed and very welcome changes that make the FZ8 a fantastic successor.

Design

The FZ8 is almost identical to its predecessor, the FZ7, with the minor exception of a few chrome additions around the lens area and on the top with the dials. It has a great strong, solid feel to it although the FZ8 is quite small for a camera with such a large lens; it fits perfectly in your hand making it great for single handed use. The dimensions are 112mm (w) x 72mm (h) x 79mm (w) and the FZ8 has a weight of approx. 310g. In addition, the electronic viewfinder has been hugely improved making it bigger and brighter with 70% more pixels and making it one of the best on the market today.

Features

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 digital camera has been furnished with many features which mirror those on board the FZ7. We compared the two cameras and here are the major differences and improvements: 7.38 mega pixels, a Venus III processor, Raw Mode, higher resolution screen, a larger, higher resolution electronic viewfinder, manually selectable ISO 800 and 1250, new scene modes, SDHC support and 27mb of in-built memory. The FZ8 has the following extra scene modes, Intelligent ISO, Aerial Photo, High Sensitivity (3200), Beach, Sunset and Pet. There is a 12x optical zoom on board which is remarkable and provides the user with the ability to shoot images from a great distance and still achieve excellent clarity and sharpness. The movie mode included is a great bonus and allows you to capture footage up to 2GB. The movies are recorded in QuickTime MJPEG format and the quality is very good indeed mainly due to the Image Stabilisation.

Performance

We were particularly impressed with the overall image quality produced from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8. Colours were reproduced brilliantly, and were sharp with fine details. Digital noise was kept to a minimum; however it did start to appear at around ISO 200 and was evident at ISO 100, but definitely not off-putting at all. The image stabilisation worked really well and images were completely blur free. The battery life is good with 380 shots compared to 320 shots on the FZ7 and the response times were also pretty impressive with a start up to shoot time of 1.8 seconds and focus is very speedy. The speed from power on to shot taken is an outstanding 2.7 seconds and the shot to shot time is 1.3 seconds without the flash on.

Overall Opinion

In comparison to its predecessor, the Panasonic Lumix FZ8 is a very welcome upgrade with some great features for a very competitive price. Along with fast operation, great battery life and the bonus of a very effective image stabilisation, the FZ8 should be very seriously considered.

Pros + Fast operation and responses + 12x optical zoom + Image stabilisation + High quality images produced + Excellent battery life + User friendly	Cons - Noise at low ISO settings
Picture Quality 8/10	Battery Life 8/10
Setup Simplicity 8/10	Build Quality 8/10
Ease of Use 8/10	Overall Rating

Editor Review
April 25, 2007 at 3:09:11pm

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 A fast, long 12x optical zoom lens and easytouse controls help make up a little for the DMCFZ8's imagequality issues.. read

By Philip Ryan at cnet.co.uk April 23, 2007 3:00:00pm