The 12.1-megapixel DMC-TZ8 features a 25mm wide-angle 12x optical zoom f/3.3-4.9 LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR lens (35mm camera equivalent: 25-300mm) in a compact body. The 25mm wide-angle lens has about twice the shooting area of the standard 35mm lens. The powerful 12x zoom can also be used in motion picture recording. In 3-megapixel resolution mode, the Extra Optical Zoom function provides additional magnification, extending the zoom power to 23.4x by using the center part of the CCD.

The Intelligent Resolution (I.R) Technology gives a high resolution look to digital zoom images as well as ordinary images. The image is divided into contour areas, texture areas and smooth areas. And optimum image processing is applied to each type of area. This enables 16x Intelligent Zoom that achieves about 1.3 times the usual zoom magnification with almost no loss of image quality. The Intelligent Resolution Technology also achieves sharp images in modes that use fewer pixels to enable high sensitivity and high speed.

The POWER O.I.S. nearly doubles the hand-shake correction power of conventional MEGA O.I.S. So you can take beautiful night shots without blurring. Activating POWER O.I.S., Intelligent ISO Control, Face Detection AF/AE with Face Recognition, Intelligent Scene Selector with Sunset Mode, Intelligent Exposure and AF Tracking, the camera does all the work in the iA Mode. And Happy Mode is newly added to the DMC-TZ8 and optimizes color saturation and brightness for vividly memorable scenes.

The DMC-TZ8 can record HD movie (1,280 x 720 pixels at 30 fps in Motion JPEG format). The pixel mixed readout method enables bright motion-picture recording even in low-light settings.

Manual control function is added to the DMC-TZ8. Aperture-priority Mode lets you open the aperture up wide for stunning portraits with softly focused backgrounds. Shutter-priority Mode makes it possible to express the dynamic power of a flowing stream by slowing down the shutter speed. And Manual Exposure Mode gives you total control of special shots, allowing you to achieve a higher level of photographic beauty.