Compared to... Sony DSC-H5

Below you will find a studio comparison between the Panasonic DMC-FZ7 and perhaps its most obvious direct competitor, the 7 megapixel 12x zoom Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H5. We have included samples at each camera's lowest ISO setting and ISO 400.

Studio scene comparison (FZ8 @ ISO 100. H5@ ISO 80)

• Panasonic DMC-FZ8 : Aperture Priority mode (F5.0), ISO 80, Default Image Parameters, Manual white balance, +0.33 EV compensation
   
• Sony DSC-H5: Aperture Priority mode, ISO 80, Default Image Parameters,
  Manual white balance, +0.7 EV compensation
   
• Lighting: Daylight simulation, >98% CRI

Panasonic DMC-FZ8	Sony DSC-H5
ISO 100, 1/60 sec, F5.0	ISO 80, 1/80 sec, F4.5
3,241 KB JPEG	2,743 KB JPEG

There's no doubt here that Panasonic is saved by the quality of the Leica-badged lens, which pulls an impressive amount of detail out of our studio scene and outperforms the Sony optic by a significant margin.