Panasonic SZ8 review

Panasonic's entry-level camera gets a 12x zoom and Wi-Fi

Panasonic SZ8
A dedicated camera that keeps things simple

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

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With a reasonably wide angled lens, the SZ8 is ideal for taking on your holiday with you.

Panasonic Lumix SZ8

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The overall impression of detail is good, but if you examine closely at 100%, you can see some areas of this picture suffer from image smoothing.

Panasonic Lumix SZ8

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Use the zoom to get closer to the action, with a 12x optical range giving you lots of flexibility.

Panasonic Lumix SZ8

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Colours are bright and punchy directly from the camera without displaying too much saturation.

Panasonic Lumix SZ8

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The camera's optical image stabilisation system helps when you are photographing a moving subject, or you are moving yourself.

Panasonic Lumix SZ8

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Here we can see the camera's metering system has coped pretty well with the strong backlit subject to give a pretty accurate exposure.

Panasonic Lumix SZ8

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Colours from the camera are strong and vibrant, without needing work on them post-capture to bring out the contrast.

Panasonic Lumix SZ8

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Use the camera's macro focusing mode to get nice and close to a subject and fill the frame with detail shots.

Digital filters

Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Expressive

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Retro

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Old Days

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

High Key

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Low Key

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Sepia

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Dynamic Monochrome

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Impressive Art

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

High Dynamic

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Cross Process

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Toy Effect

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Soft Focus

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Panasonic Lumix SZ8

Star Filter

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Amy Davies

Amy has been writing about cameras, photography and associated tech since 2009. Amy was once part of the photography testing team for Future Publishing working across TechRadar, Digital Camera, PhotoPlus, N Photo and Photography Week. For her photography, she has won awards and has been exhibited. She often partakes in unusual projects - including one intense year where she used a different camera every single day. Amy is currently the Features Editor at Amateur Photographer magazine, and in her increasingly little spare time works across a number of high-profile publications including Wired, Stuff, Digital Camera World, Expert Reviews, and just a little off-tangent, PetsRadar.