Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 – Unattractive Looks But A Genius Inside

Digicam — on December 6, 2009 at 9:45 pm | Comment Now

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Fast start up, great battery life, low shutter lag, great battery life, superb performance.

Thumbs Down:

You might get your finger in between the lens when you are shooting, everything else about the camera rocks!

Inside the Trunk:

Software discs, USB/AV cables.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 is a 12.1 mega pixel camera, it has light sensitivity ISO 80 , ISO 100 , ISO 200 , ISO 400 , ISO 800 , ISO 1600 , ISO auto , ISO auto (1600-6400), 4x digital zoom, The camera has built in 40 MB of flash memory and you can put in more through SD memory card.

Shooting programs are pet, snow, baby, candle, scenery, clipboard, softskin, starry sky, night scene, aerial photo, portrait mode, hi-speed burst, high sensitivity, food, beach, sunset, pin hole, fireworks, film grain, flash burst, sports mode, party/indoor, self-portrait, night portrait. Special Effects are cool, sepia, vivid, black and white, warm, neutral. Pictures are stored in JPEG format and videos are stord in MJPEG/QuickTime format.

Video capture resolutions are MPEG – 640 x 480 , MPEG – 320 x 240 , MPEG – 848 x 480 , MPEG – 1280 x 720. Image resolutions are Fine , Standard JPEG 4000 x 3000 , JPEG 4000 x 2672 , JPEG 4000 x 2248 , JPEG 3264 x 2448 , JPEG 3264 x 2176 , JPEG 3264 x 1840 , JPEG 2560 x 1920 , JPEG 2560 x 1712 , JPEG 2560 x 1440 , JPEG 2048 x 1536 , JPEG 2048 x 1360 , JPEG 1920 x 1080 , JPEG 1600 x 1200 , JPEG 640 x 480.

Additional features – DPOF support, face detection, Date/time stamp, cropping an image, resizing an image, built-in help guide, USB 2.0 compatibility, digital noise reduction, in-camera red-eye removal, camera orientation detection, direct print, audio recording, built in speaker, histogram display, PictBridge support, face detection AF/AE, digital image rotation, RGB primary color filter, intelligent scene selector.

Connectors on the camera are – 1 x USB, 1 x DC power input , 1 x Composite video/audio output, 1 x Component video output. There are a few included softwares like Drivers & Utilities, ArcSoft Panorama Maker , ArcSoft MediaImpression, Panasonic PHOTOfunSTUDIO 4.0.

Razzle Dazzle:

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 is available in three colors – silver, red and black. The camera doesn’t have anything out of the box appearance wise it is just like a regular camera. But we must mention that it is quite thin and will fit easily in to your pockets. Lens doesn’t come out of the camera because it is all internal which adds to the ergonomics.

Panasonic lumix dmc-fp8 digital camera

Inside Dope:

The exterior of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 might make you think that this is just another camera that Panasonic has made to keep their pockets jingling. But a closer look at the features will reveal that the camera has been worked up in three main departments and all of this makes the camera a lot better.

To start with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 boots really quickly. We have never seen a camera which starts up in less than a second. Just click the switch on button and you are ready to go. The lens of the camera is all internal affair which means it doesn’t peep out of the camera. But you have to careful while clicking photos because you might your finger in the way of the camera.

Controls of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 are quite easy to use and even newbie will find it easy to use. The power button is on the top of the camera for switching it on and off. There is a Panasonic’s Intelligent (iA) mode which decides by itself which is the best mode to shoot. It also helps to correct focus, blurring and brightness problems. There is a dedicated button to go to the Movie mode but iA also lets you switch between them. So if you are using iA mode to shoot pictures you can choose Movie mode in the camera and then quickly move between the two modes.

The buttons of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 light up when the camera is powered on. This is good when you are shooting in the dark. You would think that this feature would come at the cost of low battery life. We also thought the same way but later we found out that the battery life was exceptional. Also the blue color in the dark looks quite soothing.

The right side of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 has a compartment for three ports – USB/AV out, DC in and component out. There are only cables of AV and USB. You will have to buy the DC out and component out cables separately.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8, as said earlier is user friendly and it won’t take much time for you to adapt to it. There are settings for light metering, white balance, exposure, focus, color effects and ISO. There is a feature called Movie mode which can capture good HD video and you can use the optical zoom feature while recording.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 is a great for the performance and it has a good price for the features it is offering. The shutter lag is 0.4 seconds in bright conditions and will take double the time in low light conditions. For consecutive shots the cameras take 1.9 seconds between them without the flash and 2.4 seconds with the flash.

If you are buying a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 to print photos which are larger than 8X10 inches then this is the camera for you. The best photos will come when you set at ISO 200. Till ISO 800 the photo quality is decent. But anything about that is bad quality and the camera will be under used on resources. So don’t take the sensitivity beyond ISO 800.

Nitty Gritty:

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP8 is good for photo and video quality and speedy performance of the camera sweetens the deal. The only letdown is the unattractive looks. But if you don’t care much about the looks and want a good performer, go buy this one!