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Are Panasonic digital cameras any good?

I am looking into purchasing a Panasonic DMC-FZ8K Black 7.2 MP Digital Camera 1/2.5" CCD 2.5" 207K LCD 12X Optical Zoom 4X Digital Zoom. Looking for reviews and people who have actually owned a Panasonic. Also, the price is 289.99. To me that seems not to bad, but like I said, I am looking for people who actually know these things! I have read nothing but good reviews so far and was just going to check here to do more research! When you answer this question, could you also tell me what you use this camera for. Obviously taking pictures, but where, when, how often. I am doing reseach to get the best deal I can! Thanks so much in advance!

Public Comments

1. i got a panasonic model LZ7 this spring. ive taken about 650-700 shots, mostly of hummingbirds. i like the quality of the camera and the price was 175, on sale. id have to recommend it , its easy to use, and its fast enough to get some really nice hummingbird action shots. O, and the color is nice, very nice in the direct sun.

2. usually digital cameras are just point and shoot types... of course u probably have figured that out. u can do some pretty neat things with the little point and shoot digitals with the features that they put on them these days; pretty much built for the snapshot crowd. however if u want a more professional type shot, i would go for a DSLR. those are digital also, but u can change lenses and the aperature on them, also the shutter speed. theyre pretty expensive however. i know that nikon (which i prefer myself) makes a great line of point and shoot digitals that are in the same price range as the panasonic that ur looking at, and they have image qualities that rival the quality of a DSLR type. i would suggest not buying one from walmart... go to a store that specializes in cameras and such, such as a local ritz or wolf camera. they have professionals who can show u each different camera and also their special features, and are always willing to help someone new to photography (whether its snapshots or professional) learn what they can and cant do. the prices are about the same as walmarts, but they have way better customer service, and usually the cameras come with extra little perks like maybe a little tripod, or something. u get more for ur money, and ur time. also, if u buy a camera through them, u can get what is called an ESP- extended service plan- which covers everything from getting ur camera cleaned for free, all the way up to replacement if anything happens to it. its worth a shot, shop around and ask them anything u can think of. i hope this helps!

3. It’s absolutely a GREAT camera. I mainly use it for pictures of my kids (inside and outside), but with 12x optical zoom, you can get awesome pictures of things that are really far away as well (ie, cool pictures of the full moon). It’s also the only one I’ve seen with a 60s max exposure giving you some great shots it near complete darkness. I did one in my backyard and I have a field behind my house, and it’s completely black at night. It’s got the best optical image stabilization out there and the Leica Lens on this thing is the best there is. Better than any Canon, Olympus, Sony, or Fuji. It has the best menu I’ve seen, the control layout is fantastic, with quick access to the settings you use most often (ie. ISO, Focus, White Balance, Quality etc.) This camera also shoots in RAW mode (only one) and I’ve used the SILKYPIX Developer Studio 2.0 SE program to get pictures that are better that the .jpg equivalents. The only short coming, and quite frankly its not that bad, is the noise levels at ISO 400 and up (400 really isn’t that bad). When I say shortcomings, it’s only “bad” when viewed at 100% on screen with ISO 400+. When you print these out, you can’t see the noise at all (4x6) and at 8x10 you can barely see it at 800. I wouldn’t use 1250 as it’s a stop too far and kills some of the whole picture color as well, but so do all the other brands out there at there highest setting. You can get also edit that out really well with Noise Ninja or Noiseware (and it leaves them looking as good as a DSLR for noise). In my opinion, it’s the 2nd best “bridge” type of point and shoot camera out there with the FZ50 being a slight bit better in terms of picture quality (and 10M vs 7.2M). With that said, the FZ50 has a smaller screen, and its larger and a whole lot more expensive. One last thing, it’s made in Japan, not China and its build quality reflects that.

4. After having owned an Olympus (wasn't overly happy with it) and then a Nikon (was mostly happy with it) we went looking for a new camera today (had planned to get another Nikon) and spend around $200. Had been to Walmart which had a lot of cameras and what seems like good prices and Best Buy which seems to always have stuff on sale, and then to Wolf Camera. Like someone else said, the expertise and advice is far superior to any other store! After looking at all the different cameras, we were drawn back to the DMC-TZ3.

The main reasons we liked it were the 28mm wide-angle lense with a 10x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom and extended zoom options without loss of quality; extra large 3" LCD display (you loose the viewfinder but we mostly use the display anyway); superior macro lens (photographed a piece of paper in the store at one inch and the grain in the paper was visible on the picture) and general ease of use made it an easy choice.

I see that the camera you are looking at has more zoom and a few other features, but staying in a very compact size was also a major concern for us. The FZ8K is probably a slightly superior camera, but the difference didn't seem significant enough to us to give up the compact size and weight (only 9 oz) of the TZ3.

The cost was more than we had planned to spend but we were very impressed with this camera compared to the other cameras we have bought. Depending on when you plan to buy, it may come down in price soon as I haven't seen it on sale yet.

We do a variety of photography from very close-up to sports/action shots to scenic and the Panasonic line seems to handle all of them very well. We also have a marine aquarium and the pix from this camera are as close to the real thing as you can get. No other camera including my 35mm Canon ElanII EOS comes close.

Overall, I think you will be pleased with any of the Panasonic Lumix cameras.

5. check out the list of prices from the link below.
I am proud of you for doing so much research.