Panasonic - Lumix DMC-FZ8 Review

My first digital camera, a Mavica, bit the dust about two months ago. It was a heavy sucker, weighing in at over a pound, but I liked it because the picture quality was just right for shooting stills of my eBay stuff. It also accepted close-up lenses which is good for small stuff you want to sell. It also recorded images on those old floppy disks, of which I have a shoebox full, so I liked the idea of using something alreay on hand.

When the disk drive in the Mavica quit working, I took it to my local camera store where they suggested it might be okay to use it for skeet shooting practice, but in reality, sending it back to the factory for a repair/replacment would (1) Take a long time (2) cost as much as a new camera. I opted for (2).

My daughter-in-law got a Lumix by Panasonic for Christmas about a year ago and it was pretty snazzy, so I asked the salesman to show me her model (can't recall the numbers right now). It was WAY to bulky and complex for me, so he suggested the FZ8.

Wow! When I first picked it up I knew it was pictures at first sight. Light, with a large viewing screen and a rapid response zoom, it was a no brainer.

I've shot perhaps 500 shots with it so far and am truely amazed at what it can do in the "idiot" mode...It's a heart on the right-hand options dial. The camera figures out ASA, shutter speed, focus and a bunch of other factors...including bracketing the shot for the best average exposure.

I took really difficult pictures of dimly light play scenes and they all came out. The only failures were those scenes where there was very rapid movement. A simple fix, of course, was to set the "film" speed to about 1800. Then the shutter speed could actually begin to freeze the action while delivering superbly crisp shots.

The camera even did a good job of compensating for the wild color gels in the on-stage lighting.

Importing the pictures is as simple as plugging in the USB cable and attaching it to the camera. I found the USB port a bit small as I'm 65 and need glasses for fine work like that.

I found I could "open" the camera in Windows and suck the photos into a handy editing folder on my computer, or do it through any of a number of picture editing programs, including Photoshop. The software that comes with FZ8 will also download the photos.

Over all...this is a wonderful intermediate camera for the serious amateur.