Panasonic DMC-FZ8 Photos

#1 Nicholas

Sorry, but found noise reduction smearing all over the images.

2:55 am - Thursday, February 1, 2007

#2 Aaron

I think I'm finally going to upgrade from my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20, either with the
Olympus SP-550 UltraZoom or I will go with Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FZ8, which has similar specifications though not the wide-angle and macro capabilities.

As someone with physical limitations, I am unable to effectively use a digital DSLR, though Olympus's new E-330 is a DSLR option I've considered, unfortunately it has many of the ISO limitations of these small sensor cameras. My camera of choice would be a Nikon D80, with their new 18-200mm VR lens, but alas my difficulties necessitate a camera with a live view monitor.

I'm just glad that these manufacturers are making cameras which will allow me to capitalize on my abilities. As we all know, it's not the camera, it's the person behind the camera, that makes all the difference. I just recently started learning to process my photos properly, and have come to realize the range of options available to me with the latest software such as Adobe Lightroom beta, which helped me create these photos with my rather limited FZ-20. I'm hoping that one of these cameras will assist me in taking my digital photography to new levels of excellence.

10:38 am - Thursday, February 1, 2007

#3 Derek

I think the FZ8 is better than I thought, and those images are obviously better than that of my FZ7 and FX07 ...

I might buy one cause I need tele end of zoom without spending USD 1000.

I have had an XTI though , I have bought only 3 lenses ; EF50mm , EF-S18-55 and EF-s 60mm macro.

I am on the fence between Sigma 18-200 and this Panasonic , and I assume that at my local store , this panny will be much cheaper than the Sigma lens ...

BTW, IMHO, the kit lens is a bargain , it can focus very fast and it is light ....

My XTI is much lighter and faster than any of digicam or most of other SLRs.

Plus, I doubt that when you can comfortably use ISO 800 , do you need any kind of AS?

I feel when I use my Canon with the EF50MM F1.8 , I do not feel need of any kind of OIS or AS, just some times when it is really dark , I need a tripod.

Plus , I never shoot any birds or like that .

11:21 am - Thursday, February 1, 2007

#4 Derek

forgot to say thanks for your posting those.

and one thing , I would like to correct what I have written about my XTI is my XTI is smaller and faster than any kind of digicam with long zoom and manual zoom ring such as FZ50 and S9100 of fuji.

11:27 am - Thursday, February 1, 2007

#5 phule

[[I am on the fence between Sigma 18-200 and this Panasonic]]

Why in the world would you buy an 18-200 lens when you already have the kit lens that covers the lower end of this focal lenght?

Buy the 70-300 IS which has superb image quality.

3:41 pm - Thursday, February 1, 2007

#6 Derek

any way , please review this before the corrupted dpreview.com reviews it ....

I do not trust anything about the dpr says any more , Phil Askey is not a fair reviewer.

If he is fair , why does any one complaining about the quality and sincerity of his review, or suggested any one not to invest any money on a dying brand like Pentax have to get banned the forum?

Any way , I think this site, cameralab.com , IR and DCresource.com are all much more fair than the corrupted dpreview.com , well the dp used to be a good site as well though , now Phil is getting arrogant and not improving anything what he does because it is already the msot popular review site of this kind.

10:58 pm - Thursday, February 1, 2007

#7 Derek

70-300 IS , ok thanks for your comment ...

I just am very afraid of changing lenses so I thought putting the Sigma most of time on my canon is the easiest and use very rarely the EF50mm F1.8.

But maybe your right on this , thanks for telling me that , I will check the 70-300 IS up.

Best regards.

11:02 pm - Thursday, February 1, 2007

#8 bertrand eberhard

I'm very deceived by what I see. the full size images seems to be kind of posterized or hyper compressed....I am going to wait for the new olympus SP 550 images samples.. by the way ... any one knwos wher we can see such?

11:00 pm - Sunday, February 4, 2007

#9 John

Can't really tell anything useful from those photos without knowing the how the photos are compressed, etc... useless for making a call whether its good or bad. It will be interesting to see how the Venus III engine interacts with only 7 mp's versus the ridiculous 10 mp's it was asked to deal with on the FZ50. Hopefully, it will handle noise better than the FZ7 did.

6:26 am - Tuesday, February 6, 2007

#10 John

The photos are kind of bland and similar to each other, so there's really nothing here to bite into. I recently lost my FZ5 on a car-camping trip and am undecided about whether to replace it with an FZ8, or just look for another FZ5, which suited my point-n-shoot needs just fine (though MF capability would be nice if that joy stick isn't a pain to use) and is presumably lots cheaper.

9:51 pm - Tuesday, February 6, 2007

#11 Mark Goldstein

Well, the dull Parisian weather and limited shooting time (a couple of hours) didn't really help.

I have processed a few of the better ones over at my daily photo site - http://www.everydayeye.com/
(more to come in the next week or so)

Black and white seems to be the best option for a lot of the shots...

10:51 pm - Tuesday, February 6, 2007

#12 Pikey

In a word - MUSHY.

At least that what these samples are. Whether they were shot properly, whether the weather had an effect, none of that matters - it's the fact that this is what you were able to get, without tinkering.

MUSH.

3:38 am - Wednesday, February 7, 2007

#13 Mark Goldstein

(Posted on behalf of John Wall)

Wow, much better! I'm probably not alone in wanting to see some macro shots too. That's really where the manual focus capability will either prove its worth or its uselessness (for my purposes, at least).

All the best,

--John

11:57 am - Wednesday, February 7, 2007

#14 Mark Goldstein

(Posted on behalf of John Wall)

Looking again at more of your work, I must say that if you did all that with the FZ8, I am impressed! Both with your eye and the camera.

--John

12:08 pm - Wednesday, February 7, 2007

#15 Mark Goldstein

John, most of those photos were taken with my Canon EOS 5D

You can view some EXIF data for each photo by clicking the Comments link (and leave a comment of course).

There will be more TZ3 / FZ8 images posted in the next week on Everyday Eye.

12:11 pm - Wednesday, February 7, 2007

#16 watchme

For Aaron:

You stated: 'I think I'm finally going to upgrade from my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20, either with the Olympus SP-550 UltraZoom or I will go with Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FZ8, which has similar specifications though not the wide-angle and macro capabilities.'

It is to my understanding that there is a big difference between the 18x Zoom from Olympus and that from Panasonic. Olympus has a real optical 18x Zoom with 7MP resolution, while Panasonic only delivers 18x Zoom with a maximum of 3MP resolution! Panasonic calls it EXTRA Optical Zoom... Yee, are they serious?

Are you aware of that Aaron? Please don't compare jewels with stones...

1:25 pm - Wednesday, February 7, 2007

#17 Steve

Panasonics "Optical Zoom" is a misnomer just as Olympus's ridiculous "Digital Image Stabilization" is nothing but marketing drivel for a "sports mode" type selection which forces you into a higher ISO setting, it is not real image stabilization at all, although they have now added a hardware based image stabilizer.

The Olympus SP 550 looks very interesting but why the heck would they put a basic USB port as their I/O instead of high speed USB 2.0?????? Transferring files is gonna be slow as heck with that non 2.0 USB port. Ridiculous that a $500 ultrazoom won't have a 2.0 USB HS port IMO.

2:37 pm - Wednesday, February 7, 2007

#18 Steve

For those who are interested, Digital Photography Review just put up their review of the new Panasonic DMC FZ8 ultra zoom on their website this morning.

2:45 pm - Wednesday, February 7, 2007

#19 watchme

For Steve: You are talking about a camera with a focal range of 4.7-84.2mm (28-504 35 mm equiv) 18x optical zoom (F2.8-4.5). In my vocabulary this is quite impressive. Take a look at http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/olympus/sp550uz-review/index.shtml for a look at the result!
Do you really think that's a misnomer? Could you elaborate on that Steve?

9:59 pm - Wednesday, February 7, 2007

#20 Steve:

watchme: My comment about the 18X optical zoom above was directed at the Panasonic camera, not the Olympus SP 550 which I believe you are referring to. This is what I said above on the matter, "Panasonics "Optical Zoom" is a misnomer ...."

The Olympus 18X optical zoom is indeed impressive. The Panasonic on the other hand is not a true 18X optical, hence I called it a misnomer. Hope this helped clarify my view on the two.

3:27 am - Thursday, February 8, 2007

#21 watchme

Yes Steve, sorry about my hopefully temporarely 'reduced reading capacities'...

BTW, I completely agree with your comment.
I hope that someday those marketing man get a real job... Olympus (and others!) does indeed make strange decisions related to updating there camera's. In case of the slow USB however, it takes probably about the same time to search for your universal super duper card-reader as the USB cable. Even less, because in the mean time you possibly have a lot of USB cables and you'll have to search for the correct one...

5:00 pm - Thursday, February 8, 2007

#22 Steve

to watchme: True. By the way, the new Panasonic FZ8 also comes with the same slow version USB "Full Speed" 2.0 port which is really the equivalent of a 1.1 USB.

5:48 pm - Thursday, February 8, 2007

#23 Freedom Fan

I just ordered the Panny FZ7 from Abes of Maine when the FZ8 was announced. So I sent back the FZ7 unopened. Hopefully this won't be a problem.

The slow USB port won't be a problem for me since I won't be using the new internal memory. One of the main reasons I want the FZ8 is for the SDHC capability use new high density SD cards. I can get a 4 gig at Fry's for $89.

The 7.2 megapixels are sexy, and it doesn't appear that much additional noise is introduced in low light. Plus there is a setting for minimal noise reduction and the ability to take "raw" unadjusted tiffs, for the purist.

Also, I believe the larger, higher quality lens will bring in much more light than any of the more popular compact cameras.

4:25 pm - Saturday, February 10, 2007

#24 Photo Blogger

I just got the camera and sent it straight back. Quite mushy.

11:44 pm - Tuesday, August 21, 2007