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Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8
Digital Camera Review
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Manual Control Options
For a budget point-and-shoot, the LZ8 offers a surprising level of manual control, including Program, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and a full Manual mode. This is certainly a camera entry-level users can play around with to learn about camera functions.
The manual mode of the LZ8 uses the 4-way control
to set the shutter speed and aperture
Focus
Auto Focus (6.25)
The LZ8 has a good number of autofocus options. Face detection automatically detects the person’s face and adjusts the camera’s focus and exposure accordingly. While this is a convenient feature found on most modern point-and-shoots, the feature is a bit hidden in the autofocus modes. Many cameras, even in this price range, automatically detect faces.
Several auto focus modes are on offer
Other autofocus options include 9-area focusing, 3-area and 1-area high speed focusing for quicker autofocus, 1-area focus for focusing on the center of the screen, and spot-focusing, which focuses on a limited narrow area in the screen.
Macro mode, selected using the bottom button in the multi-selector when in a manual control mode, allows users to autofocus on close-up subjects from 0.16 to 3.28 feet.
Manual Focus (0.0)
There is no manual focus option on the LZ8.
ISO (7.0)
The DMC-LZ8 offers a reasonable ISO range for a point and shoot camera, ranging from 100 at the low end to 1600 at the high. As you can see in our performance section, noise becomes a problem at the higher settings, but it's good to at least have the option to bump the ISO up high if you need it.
White Balance (4.0)
The LZ8 also has a good selection of white balance controls. As well as the usual auto option for white balance, there are presets for sunny, cloudy, shade, incandescent and evaluative. That's a nice selection of choices, and you can see how well the white balance controls worked in our performance section.
A decent selection of white balance presets are available
Exposure (8.5)
The Lumix LZ8 allows users to adjust exposure compensation in every mode except Manual and Auto, including the Movie mode. Access the exposure compensation by pressing the top button in the multi-selector. Exposure compensation can be adjusted up to 2 steps in 1/3-step increments by pressing the +/- key on the 4-way controller.
Metering (7.0)
Metering options can be found in Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program, Manual, and Movie modes. Multiple is the automatic mode, and is employed in Intelligent Auto mode – it measures the most suitable exposure by analyzing the overall brightness detected. Center-weighted averages the light zones, but focuses on the center subject, and Spot is fixed at the center of the LCD frame.
The usual selection of metering modes are available:
evaluative, center-weighted and spot
Shutter Speed (7.0)
Shutter speed can be adjusted in the Shutter Priority and Manual modes, found in the A/S/M tab on the mode dial. Press the Exposure button above the multi-selector to choose between 1/2000 of a second to 8 seconds in 1/3 steps. The aperture will automatically be adjusted based on the shutter speed chosen.
Aperture (4.0)
Aperture can be adjusted in the Aperture Priority and Manual mode, also found in the A/S/M tab on the mode dial. Press the Exposure button and use the left and right buttons on the multi-selector to choose an aperture setting from f/3.3 to f/8.0 at the wide end of the zoom range and f/5.9 to f/8.0 at the telephoto end. The shutter speed will automatically be adjusted based on the aperture setting chosen.
| Page 7 of 13 | Image Parameters | ||
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