The Panasonic DMC FZ8 is a seven megapixel digital camera with a 12x optical zoom lens. Optical image stabilisation is available. This tends to come into its own with lowlight photography when the camera is handheld.

The zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 36 - 432mm in 35mm format. There is also a 4x digital zoom available.

A small number of colour effects are available. These are Cool, Warm, Black and White and Sepia. You can also appear in a photo yourself by using the self timer. This can be set to a two or a ten second delay. There is also a setting that fires off three shots after a ten second delay.

Special settings are available. These allow you to take photos that are a good fit for playback on a wide angle television or for printing on 6 x 4" paper.

You can adjust levels of contrast, sharpness and saturation before a photo is taken. You can also apply noise reduction.

A further option lets you record five minutes of sound with a photo.

After a photo has been taken you can add up to ten seconds of commentary to the shot.

Focusing
You can choose between auto and manual focusing. Continuous focusing is available too. For close up work the DMC FZ8 can focus from 5cm away from the subject.

As well as a 2.5 inch LCD screen and electronic viewfinder is also available for composing your shots. The LCD screen is made up of around 207,000 pixels.

The pop up flash unit has a maximum range of 6m. This falls to 5.4m when the zoom lens is in use. The flash modes are: on, off, red eye reduction, automatic and slow synchro.

As with just about all compact digital cameras there is a range of scene modes available. By selecting a scene you indicate to the camera the type of photo you are about to take. The camera will then adjust its settings accordingly. The scene modes are Portrait, Soft Skin, Scenery, Sports, Panning, Night Portrait, Night Scenery, Food, Party, Candle, Baby1, Baby2, Pet, Sunset, High sensitivity, Starry Sky, Fireworks, Beach, Snow and Aerial photo.

You can capture TV quality movies. There is a special aspect ratio (848 x 480) that lets you shoot movies for playback on a widescreen television. The maximum speed for movie recording is thirty frames per second. Movies can be recorded until the memory card is full. Sound can be recorded, but zoom can only be applied before recording starts.

The first point to make about the advanced features is that you have fully manually exposure available. Aperture and shutter priority modes can be used too. Shutter speeds work in the range 60 seconds to 1/1000 seconds in manual mode and 1 second to 1/2000 seconds in automatic mode. The aperture can be set to Wide: F2.8 - F8 Tele:F3.1 - F8.

Other settings you have access to are ISO (Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1250 (High Sensitivity Mode : 3200)), white balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Halogen, Flash, White Set1/2, White Balance Adjustment (2-axis adjustable, +/-9steps each, Blue/Amber and Magenta/Green bias)), exposure compensation (1/3 EV step, -2 - +2 EV), auto bracketing (+/- 1/3 EV -1EV step, 3 frames) and light metering(Intelligent Multiple/ Center Weighted/ Spot).

There is a burst mode capable of shooting seven photos at a top speed of three frames per second. There is also a continuous shooting mode that allow you to keep shooting until the memory card is full at a lower rate.

All the cables and software are supplied to connect the DMC FZ8 to a television set, compatible printer and computer.

Description:	7 megapixels with a 12x zoom lens
Ease of Use:	8
Features:	9
Colour:	9
Macro:	8
Indoors:	9
Value for Money:	9
Style:	8
Movie Mode:	8
Image Quality:	9
Build Quality:	8
Total:	85
Verdict:	"The Panasonic DMC FZ8 is one of the best super zoom digital cameras I have tested. It is also available at a very reasonable price. Picture quality is very good indeed. There are a wide range of features, but Panasonic have still managed to make the DMC FZ8 easy to use."
Review Date:	May 2007
Click for:	Specification Sample Images Features

Camera	Rating
Panasonic DMC FZ28	86
Panasonic DMC FZ8	85
Canon Powershot SX100 IS	85
Olympus SP-570 UZ	84
Canon Powershot S5 IS	83
Panasonic DMC FZ18	83
Panasonic DMC TZ5	83
Panasonic DMC TZ4	83

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Panasonic DMC FZ8