FZ5 v FZ8

[Pilot_Alex]

Right for Christmas. i just wanted normal stuff a boy could want. including an ipod nano.
But i saw the newest version of my camera roll onto the shelves. costing only 160

[GunnerMan]

I am not familiar with those cameras but the feature you speak of sounds like face recognition. As someone else put it "I don't need that, I should already know whos face im snapping."
Read the reviews I have found many newer models are actually less prefered then their older one.

[Omag 2.0]

I also own the FZ5, but I'd only upgrade to "real" camera's. In other words, save the money you for the FZ8 for a bigger camera... that's what I would do...  ;)

I don't think there will be much difference in quality of the photo's between the FZ5 and FZ8... The new FZ18 however has a big advantage... an even bigger zoom! 18x instead of 12x on the FZ5!

[Souichiro]

I'm with Kris on this one..

His FZ-5 makes wonderfull pics... and so does my FZ-8 I love my camera and you can make wonderful Pictures with it. I am still really pleased with it and it documented Japan beautifully, I am running into it's limitations however... Go with Kris's advice and save up for a DSLR ... be prepared to photgraph a lot though...

[pepper_airborne]

I got a FZ-8 and love it, but i mainly use manual mode, offcourse, this is my own preference.

It would indeed be worth to save up for a DSLR if you really want to improve the quality.

I saw the FZ-18 yesterday, kinda looked like a usefull extension of the family.