Small camera - Panasonic FH8 (aka FS45)?

[Ozzie SD]

Hi everybody,

I'm new on the forum and I hope someone can help me. I'm going on holiday and I need a very small camera to take snapshots / party pictures when I'm going out at night. I have noticed this camera, the Panasonic FH8 (also known as FS45) which is small, looks good and is not too expensive.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/camer...h8-review.html

I've read some reviews about this camera but I could not find full resolution sample pictures. Only samples that were resized to a smaller size. These looked very good.

I currently own a Nikon Coolpix S500 which is very small as well, but it's a few years old now and it doesn't record HD videos. Image quality however is very good I think. Check the Nikon Coolpix S500 samples: http://www.steves-digicams.com/camer...review-14.html.

I've read quite some reviews of other small cameras such as Canon (for example Ixus 500HS) and Nikon (for example S6300), but I don't really like the image quality that much.

So my question is... is the Panasonic FH8 a good camera and is it an improvement compared to my old Nikon Coolpix S500?

I hope someone can answer this question because holiday is coming very soon and I want to buy this camera today!

Many thanks in advance!

[SIMON40]

This customer seems happy....!
http://reviews.panasonic.com/9203/DMC-FH8S/reviews.htm

[Ozzie SD]

Thanks for your fast response Simon. I appreciate that!

Do you think the Panasonic camera will take better images than my old Nikon? Most cameras take good quality pictures with daylight... but at night??? Will this camera be at least at good as my old Nikon?

When I take party pictures at night, I usually take pictures of persons close-by, within 1 or 2 meter and I will have the flash enabled. With the Nikon this is no problem, but I hope this will work with the Panasonic as well.

[SIMON40]

Hard to say for sure- though my little TZ10 flash throttles down nicely at close range when using iA mode- and other Panny's I've used seem fine.