Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 review

The FZ8's 11-point AF system tends to lock on subjects rather quickly, so it's no surprise the shutter lag measured 0.6 seconds in our high-contrast test, which mimics bright shooting conditions, and 1.3 seconds in our low-contrast test, which simulates low-light conditions. In continuous-shooting mode, the DMC-FZ8 churned out 2.12 VGA-size JPEGs per second or 1.47 7.1-megapixel JPEGs per second.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2

1.5 

2.6 

0.4 

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

1.7 

1.5 

0.4 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3

1.3 

2.3 

0.6 

Nikon Coolpix S10

1.9 

1.7 

0.6 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8

1.8 

2.7 

0.6 

 
Image quality
The Lumix DMC-FZ8's image quality isn't quite equal to its performance. But while its ISO noise was probably its worst point, it wasn't as bad as we've seen in the past from other Panasonic models. On the other hand, while the lens is fast enough with its f/2.8 maximum aperture at its widest angle, it also showed more distortion than we'd like at that same 35mm-equivalent setting, so some straight lines may appear slightly bent when shooting wide. Of course, some photographers like that effect, so it's not always bad, but it also shouldn't be this pronounced at 35mm, though we were pleased we saw almost no fringing.

As we often see, the FZ8's automatic white balance yielded yellowish results with our tungsten test lights. The tungsten setting gave much more neutral results, and the manual white balance worked the best. The metering and flash systems work well together, providing a very good balance of fill flash when shooting in a room with some, but not enough, ambient lighting.

Even at its lowest sensitivity setting of ISO 100, we saw some noise in our test images, along with other image artefacts, such as the tell-tale jagged lines that often come along with substandard JPEG processing. Colours were well-saturated though, and we saw an adequate, though not spectacular, level of finer detail. At ISO 200, we saw slightly more noise that, while noticeable on monitors, probably won't adversely affect your prints. At ISO 400, noise begins to pick up, softens fine details, and decreases some shadow detail.

At ISO 800, noise becomes very prevalent, lots of finer detail is lost, and shadows take on a mottled look, holding little detail but plenty of blurred, off-colour speckles. ISO 1,250 yields extremely noisy results with almost no fine detail anywhere in the image. We suggest you stick to ISO 400 and below whenever possible with the DMC-FZ8, and don't expect to get decent prints with the camera set to ISO 1,250.

While the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 has problems with noise, in many other ways it's a very good camera. Its controls make it easy to use, and it packs a very impressive feature set. If you're not picky about noise or image quality, it makes a decent camera for beginner and intermediate photographers to learn on. Advanced shooters who want pristine image quality should look elsewhere.

Additional editing by Nick Hide