I purchased this because I was very unhappy with the new Canon A3300 that I also purchased just a week before this one. I did extensive photo tests with both cameras because I felt the Canons overall sharpness was bad. Both cameras are 16mp and although i'm a Canon fan I have to say they failed on the A3300. Even with setting custom sharpness, contrast and saturation, the normal straight out of the box settings on the Panasonic were way better.

The two big problems with the canon were most photos even bright outdoors had way too much noise. The other problem was no matter what setting and focus type, only the center areas were in ok and i mean ok focus. All four corners of the photos were on the blurry side and that's just unacceptable. Compared to this Panasonic...wow, much better and much sharper. When fully zoomed in there was a bit of noise but its expected. Night shots depending on how you take them also have noise but again depending on how and what you can work... Read more

Lot's of positives for this camera:

Advertised as 8x optical zoom but that's video. It's 10x in photo mode, 22.5x if you employ the digital zoom as well.

16.1 mp is amazing for a camera in this price range. I actually used the max digital zoom and still got good resolution photos.

About 2 dozen scene modes (portrait, beach, sunset, etc) that work well and are easy to select. Text scrolls across the screen explaining its use as you you move from mode to mode.

Very easy to use. About 1/2 hour with the manual and camera and you can understand and begin using all the features.

Image stabilization sems very effective. I shot every thing hand held even at max zoom and liked the results.

Great battery life. I chrged it 1x on a week vacation but that was just in case. Could have gone all week with 100s of shots.

Like most digitals the camera has very little built in memory so you need to buy a memory card. I chose... Read more

I don't offer too many reviews, but this one was worth the effort. If you are looking to purcase a point and shoot, the Panasonic DMC-FH25 is probably the best camera for the money. I did quite a bit of research and was taken by the 8x Zoom and 16.1 MP. And it wasn't much more money than those cameras with fewer megapixels and features! It's easy to use - whether you are taking close-ups, or panoramic shots, the controls are intuitive and handy. With flash, without flash, macro, zoom... it's really just a few simple clicks and your taking great shots. Right out of the camera with no touch up the photos are well balanced and accurate.(I've uploaded some of the shots on the Panasonic DMC-25K page above.) I didn't even bother to read the manual, I was too excited to start playing with the 16.1 Mega Pixels! :) I've seen some reviews where the reviewer was less than enthusiastic about a feature or two... these are probably the kinds of people that complain about everything! They... Read more