Panasonic Lumix FZ8

Today, I finally got hold of the Panasonic Lumix FZ8 I ordered online when my cousin arrived from the US. Prior to this, my 6-year old Kodak digicam and a brandless one I bought in Singapore 3 years ago (I got duped) had already been destroyed. Hence, the closest thing to a digital camera I had was my Sony Ericsson K800i. Though this phone packed a 3.2 megapixel Cybershot camera, it was insufficient for a frustrated photographer like me.

I bought the FZ8 online from Amazon.com for around $229 (exclusive of shipping fees), which was a bargain compared to the prices in the Philippines. (I was in Manila last week and the cheapest price of the same model was around P23,000 [$548]).

Prior to the purchase, I did some research on the Internet. I wanted a digicam that was kinda between a point-and-shoot and a DSLR. I still plan to own a DSLR, but right now that's just too expensive for me. In the end, I was choosing between a Sony H7, a Canon S5 IS, and the Panasonic Lumix FZ8. The former two are considerably more expensive than the latter. The H7 costs $292 while the S5 IS costs $314. Interestingly, while Sony and Canon are considered "branded", the FZ8 had better online reviews and actually rated higher than the 2 others. To cite an example, dpreview.com gives it an rating of "highly recommended" and an overall value of 9/10, while the S5 IS was merely "recommended" with a value of 8/10 and the H7 was "above average" with a value of 8.5/10.

Add the fact that the FZ8 was quite cheaper, it was a no-brainer decision on my part. Though the S5 IS had more features (including the hot shoe adapter which I really liked) and the H7 had a better zoom (15x), the FZ8 features were not bad either. Among the features of this cam are the following:

- 12x optical zoom (with an 18x extended optical zoom) plus 4x digital zoom (total of 72x)
- 7.2 megapixels
- intelligent image stabilizer
- 2.5" LCD with full 207,000-pixel resolution
- electronic viewfinder

I also liked the fact that this camera uses an SD or SDHC (unlike the Sony H7) as external storage and had the option of using RAW format.

I'm simply amazed at this camera (though I really don't have a basis for comparison). The images were crisp and the zoom was incredible. After the first few hours of testing the camera, I already had taken more than a hundred photos. (At first I had to settle with its 27mb internal memory, though later I used the 256mb SD card from my old cam). I have yet to fully read the manual and I'm still in the process of experimenting. Here's one of my first-ever photos with this camera (which I took from Bethel's Filomena Restaurant):