Panasonic DMC FZ8 Features

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.

Basics

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.

LCD

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.

Flash

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.

Scene Modes

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.

Movies

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.

Advanced Features

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.