First off, let me start by saying, Panasonic has about the best line of P&S (Point and Shoot) style cameras on the market currently! They offer far more features for the money then any of the other brands (Canon, Fuji, Olympus, Nikon, Kodak, etc.). This is primarily due to the fact that they use Leica designed lenses on the lower end models and Leica designed and made lenses on the higher end models. The lenses allow them to capture more details, better contrast, and more accurate colors then the competition does.

Panasonic also offers true/real Image Stabilization with their O.I.S. Most companies offer image stabilization, but what they actually do is automatically raise the ISO up to get a faster shutter speed, thus added more noise & artifacts which results in less details and an over all poorer image quality. Panasonic actually uses a mechanical lens image stabilization so that your ISO stays low and you maintain all your details for greater over all image quality.

One of the best bang for the buck P&S style cameras currently is the Panasonic DMC-FZ8. It can be had for ~$250US. This sounds cheap, but the camera is far from it! It offers image stabilization (IS), great software including Industry leading RAW conversion software SilkyPix, full auto controls for the beginner as well as full manual controls including manual focus for the Advanced/Professional user, an incredibly accurate white balance, and the best feature of all.. the ability to shoot in RAW format! The FZ8 also offers super fast start up and shutdown times and very fast (dSLR like) shot to shot times. It can also shoot a burst speed for 3fps or 2fps until the card is filled up! Aside from all this you also get an amazing video  mode with true wide screen format that you can choose!

But enough about the camera and to the important stuff. Panasonics typically get a bad rap for noise, which can be true if you use the default settings that the camera has out of the box. But if you follow this simple guide your image quality will improve greatly and your noise will decrease!

First of all  it is best to set your ISO to 100 and leave it there, unless you absolutely need to go above that. Never go above ISO400 though if you can help it. Now, make sure your picture size is set to the maximum and that your Quality is set to the maximum as well.

Next, make sure you turn OFF digital zoom!! Digital zoom is a bad thing and it greatly destroys image quality! You only want optical zoom!

Next, go to your picture adjustment (PICT.ADJ. on most or maybe Color Mode on some) and set it to Natural  instead of the Normal default.

Lastly, some, but not all, models allow you to control the amount of in camera noise reduction. You want to turn this to the lowest setting possible. Now, your images will have a bit more noise of course, but you will also have far more details. Now, to remove the noise you want to buy or just use the Demo of Neat Image with the profile for your camera model. This will remove the noise easily while retaining the greatest amount of details.

These simple steps will allow your Panasonic P&S style camera to perform at its best ability!