Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8 Digital Camera Review

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8

Digital Camera Review

Jun 17, 2008 - By Jennifer Nelson
1.8 The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8 is an 8-megapixel, entry-level point-and-shoot with a budget-friendly $180 price tag. Key features include a 5x optical zoom lens, a well rounded selection of Scene modes, and Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto mode. While the camera may be made for beginners, however, the LZ8 gives new photographers the opportunity to grow with program and manual modes. But does the Lumix DMC-LZ8 deliver in terms of image quality? Read on to find out.
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Auto Mode (6.5)
Panasonic calls the LZ8’s Auto mode “Intelligent Auto.” Everything on this mode is “Intelligent” – the Intelligent Scene Selector detects certain shooting situations, such as Portrait and Landscape, and adjusts the camera’s settings accordingly. Intelligent ISO automatically selects a sensitivity setting. Sure, it’s smart. But can it do your homework? The Auto mode locks out the majority of settings, making this the ideal setting for a newbie. Flash can only be turned on or off, picture size can be altered, and color settings can be set to black and white or sepia. That’s about it.

Movie Mode (7.25)
Movies can be recorded with sound in 4:3 aspect ratio at 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 pixels at 30 or 10 frames per second (fps). Using 16:9 aspect ratio, movies can also be recorded at 848 x 480 pixels at 30 or 10fps.

These are standard specs for a Movie mode on a budget point-and-shoot. Optical zoom is disabled in Movie mode, which is unfortunate but common. Digital zoom can be enabled, but seeing as this wildly decreases image quality, we wouldn’t recommend it.

In the Recording menu of the Movie mode, users can select color effects (black and white, sepia, cool, and warm), white balance, metering mode, autofocus mode, and can enable or disable image stabilization.

Playing back movies on the LZ8 is a little weird – in Playback mode, press the up button on the multi-selector to begin viewing the captured video. The left and right buttons control fast forward and rewind, and the bottom button stops the playback.

See our Testing/Performance section to see how the LZ8 performs in the Movie mode. As far as settings and options, though, this Lumix does well. We would have liked to see optical zoom offered, rather than lower-quality digital zoom, though.

Drive / Burst Mode (6.25)
The Burst mode on the LZ8 captures a claimed maximum of 3 fps for up to three frames at full resolution and five frames at a lower resolution.  Continuous Burst mode captures images at 2 fps until the memory card is full. Flash is automatically disabled in the Burst mode. We found that the actual figures were a little slower in our tests: see the Performance section of this review for details.

A High Speed Burst mode can be found in the Scene modes grouped in the “SCN” option on the camera’s mode dial. It records 5.5 fps, but at a lower 2.5 or 2-megapixel setting. Flash, again, is disabled, and the burst can continue until the memory card is full.

Playback Mode (6.4)
Access the Playback mode by using the small vertical switch on the camera’s back. The 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD allows for a decent view of captured images in the Playback mode.

Images can be viewed one at a time, or in groups of 12 or 30. Pressing the zoom toggle to the left, the view switches from single image to 12, then 30. Pressing the zoom toggle to the left one more time brings users to the Calendar View, which is useful if you’re looking for an image you know you took on a specific day. 

When viewing an image, press the zoom toggle to the right to zoom in for a closer look, up to 16x. Move around the zoomed images using the four multi-selector buttons.

Playback Mode Menu
 
Calendar
See photos in a Calendar view
Title Edit  
Add titles to photos: Single, Multi 
Text Stamp
Shooting Date, Age, Travel Date, Title: Single, Multi
Resize
Reduce 4:3 images to 5M, 3M, 2M, or 0.3M; 3:2 to 4.5M or 2.5M; and 16:9 to 3.5M or 2M: Single, Multi
Trimming
Zoom to crop image
Aspect Conv.  
3:2, 4:3 
Rotate Image 
Horizontal, Vertical
Rotate Display Off, On
Favorite
 On/Off
DPOF Print
 Single, Multi
Protect
 Single, Multi
Copy
 From Built-in Memory to Memory Card, From Memory Card to Built-in Memory


Custom Image Presets (8.5)
The LZ8 has a dizzying number of custom image presets, or Scene modes, to choose from. Scene modes automatically adjust settings for the given conditions. The majority of the camera’s Scene modes can be found on the “SCN” portion of the mode dial on top of the camera. Options here are: Food, Party, Candlelight, Self Portrait, Sunset, Baby 1, Baby 2, Pet, High Sensitivity, Beach, Starry Sky, Fireworks, Snow, Aerial Photo, and High-Speed Burst.



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The LZ8 has 15 scene modes


Three of the most common Scene modes – Portrait, Night Portrait, Scenery, and Sports – are found in their own spots on the mode dial, represented as a person, a person in a dark frame, a mountain, and a running man, respectively. It’s a little odd to have the Night Portrait separate from the Portrait mode, but making these commonly-used options readily available can be convenient once the user gets used to it.

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4 of the scene modes can be accesssed from the mode dial
on the top of the camera body. Each of these modes has sub-modes


Within each of these modes are sub-modes to further distinguish the shooting situation. When in Portrait mode, a drop down menu appears on screen with options for Normal Portrait, Soft Skin, Outdoor Portrait, Indoor Portrait, and Creative Portrait, which allows users to control the aperture.

In Night Portrait, users can choose between Normal Night Portrait, Night Scenery, Illuminations, and Creative Night Portrait, which allows some control over the aperture setting.

In Scenery, users can choose between Normal Scenery, Nature, Architecture, and Creative Scenery, which allows some control over the shutter speed.

In Sports, users can choose between Normal Sports, Outdoor Sports, Indoor Sports, and Creative Sports, which allows the user some control over the shutter speed.

Overall, this is a very in-depth list of options. Users should be very satisfied with the number of Scene mode options available on the LZ8.

Design / Layout Page 6 of 13 Control Options
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