Review on 📷 Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS8 14.1 MP Digital Camera - 16x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom, 3.0-Inch LCD, Black (OLD MODEL) by Lara Kaye

I bought the ZS8 to replace the ZS3 which was (and still is) a great camera, except for one issue which I will detail when shooting video. One review I read says the ZS8 solved this problem. It's not like this. First off, let me say that both the ZS3 and ZS8 are very good cameras in general. For the most part, they take great pictures (clear, good colors), switch between shots quickly, have a good interface, and are generally pleasant to use. And they fit in my jeans pocket. However, if you are recording HD video and there is one or more brighter lights in the background, you will see vertical blue bars in the video. This isn't the typical starburst video effect you might see, but an obvious bug in their image editing software. This is the purely vertical y-axis of the saved image, not the downward direction as towards the center of the earth. And this bar is more than a pixel wide and always the same blue color. It really destroys the content of any video you create as it appears. If you had a family scene with people and otherwise it would be a great video but there are these really distinct streaks that just take center stage. A shame. And it doesn't have to be the only point of light. I got the ZS8 and ran some simple test videos. One test I did was in my house in daylight with an open window in the background. And there was a pretty wide blue bar on the video. More than a strip. A strip that was about 1/3 the width of the video. That was the worst example I've ever seen. I compared it to my existing ZS3 in the same test and it was more pronounced on the ZS8. In my other tests, too, the blue bar was more pronounced on the ZS8. It was a very short time before I realized that whatever Panasonic was doing, the problem was worse than the ZS3. So I returned the ZS8 Revain.