Panasonic Lumix DMC FP8 Wide

Panasonic is pleased to announce the introduction of the DMC-FP8, heralding a new style of Lumix camera. Boasting a futuristic-design the new addition has a stylish flat body built of high-quality aluminium, providing an attractive design for the camera's rear surface – the part most frequently seen by the user. To further add to its appeal, the FP8 features a blue LED cursor button, adding elegance to the design each time they are pressed. The DMC-FP8 features a high-quality, 12.1-megapixel, 28mm, 4.6x Leica DC lens with folding optics, as well as being equipped with many of the features Lumix cameras are renowned for, such as iA and Power 0.I.S. The DMC FP8 is a stunning all round camera that features both style and quality.

Folding Optics for Futuristic Fashion

The DMC-FP8 features a high-quality LEICA DC VARIO ELMAR 28mm wide-angle lens with a 4.6x optical zoom. This comprises of 10 elements and a prism unit in 8 groups, including 1 ED lens and 5 spherical lenses with 6 spherical surfaces, a difficult feat even by today's standards, this advanced lens unit passes Leica's stringent standards to deliver exceptional optical performance to the edges even adopting the folded optics. The body is flat due to the retracting lens with folding optics without a fixed lens barrel. The folded optics have been adopted to secure the toughness of the lens unit.

If you really want to get up close and personal to the object you are photographing, the Extra Optical Zoom function provides additional magnification, extending the zoom power to 9.1x (252mm) by using the centre part of the 12.1-megapixel large CCD.

Striking design – Stunning Specification

A key feature of the new DMC-FP8 is its high-speed AF, the industry's fastest in class level. Combined with a high-speed start-up of only 0.95 seconds, this gives the FP8 a fast response that helps to catch even the most fleeting photo opportunities. The 2.7-inch large Intelligent LCD offers dynamic and clear view out of its small body.

To realize the ultra high-speed AF, a number of re-engineering and improvements are made including the adaptation of a higher-speed actuator, the optimization of algorithms and the parallelism of software processing element. The result is ultra high speed yet accurate AF performance for users to enjoy a freedom of shooting that has never been experienced before.

In image processing, luminance and chromatic noise are reduced separately before and after signal processing. This is further refined by separating noise two-dimensionally into high-frequency and low-frequency. The circuits then effectively reduce only the low-frequency to minimize the unwanted noise and help produce beautiful, sharp, still motion images.

This multi-task image-processing engine has a super-fast response time. The shutter release time lag is as short as approx. 0.006 seconds, making it easy to capture sudden, spur-of-the-moment photo opportunities. In burst shooting mode, the FP8 can snap approx. 2.3 shots per second at 12.1-megapixel full resolution*4. In High-speed Burst shooting mode, it fires off an incredible approx. 10 shots per second*5 and the Flash Burst mode makes it possible to take consecutive shots with continuous emissions of the flash*6.

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