Review on Panasonic DMC ZS8 Digital Stabilized 3 0 Inch Camera & Photo by Aaron Lewis

I wanted to like this camera after reading so many rave reviews of the Panasonic Lumix range. So far I've tried apparently every P&S digital camera known to man (besides Fuji or Nikon). I had Kodak, Samsung, several Sonys and 3 Canons. I've come to the conclusion that I just have to use my old Sony models (DSC-S75 and DSC-V1) for normal shooting. daily shots of people and pets etc and use my 2009 Sony DSC-H20 model for videos as this model has great audio and video quality but doesn't seem to be able to capture movement in photos. Anyway the Panasonic ZS8 is a fast camera, it focuses and works well capturing the movement of children and pets etc. After leaving it idle for a few months after purchase and using it a little more in September, I decided to use it for Christmas 2011. very disappointed with the picture quality. When you preview photos on a PC, they initially look fine until you zoom to 100% in Photoshop. The interior photos, taken in broad daylight in a brightly lit room, had so much noise it looked like a painting! I snapped a photo of my niece halfway across the room, using the zoom lens only halfway, and the photo was blurry and grainy. (Not blurry because I'm moving the camera, just blurry because of noise.) At 100% in Photoshop, I could even see tiny greenish-black spots on her arms and pink t-shirt! In addition, the colors appeared slightly washed out. I think my Canon SD1200 takes better photos than these - at least this camera's "noise" is more like coarse sand than the muddy color you get with this Panasonic. The models do great outdoors in daylight, which is probably why I initially liked the ZS8 as the only photos I took in September were outdoors in a leafy courtyard. Excellent. It's really no better than my Canon SD1200. But this seems to be a common problem with all new P&S models in recent years, I keep reading the same thing in Revain reviews about different camera models and brands. So I pretty much stopped looking at new P&S camera models until these stupid camera makers STOP the megapixel war and start making cameras with fewer megapixels in a bigger sensor. How difficult is it? I know the SLR will probably produce better images, but I need something small enough to carry around, not expecting it to be smaller than a deck of cards or anything. ZS8 Pro:* Solid construction and design* Good performance and relatively fast movement and focus. Cons:* Photos are noisy and of mediocre quality in low light or indoors* Photos become blurrier when zoomed in further* Somewhat strange menu interface (why the dial shows options When you have the Capture and Setup menu options on the same screen (On most Cameras (the general setup menu is a completely separate menu item.)* Quite a strange combination of image sizes and aspect ratios. For example, you can't use a 3:2 aspect ratio for all image sizes.* The video mode is fine, although the image quality is a bit disappointing Found grainier than my Sony H20 or even my Canon sd1200.The sound quality seemed fine but I haven't tested it in concert or anywhere else which would really complicate it.