Panasonic GF8 Review

Panasonic GF8 Review -- First Impressions

by Zig Weidelich
Preview posted: 02/15/2016

A little more than a year after the award-winning Panasonic GF7 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera was unveiled, the Panasonic Lumix GF8 has been announced.

The Panasonic GF8 appears to be a minor update to the GF7, which is perhaps why there are currently no plans to release the camera here in the US. The main difference between the Lumix GF8 and its predecessor are additional beauty functions which should make the GF8 even more appealing to female buyers, particularly those into selfies.

The Panasonic DMC-GF8 retains the GF7's 180-degree tilting LCD for convenient selfie shooting, and it includes the GF7's Self Shot features that use face-detection based tools to trip the shutter for you at the ideal moment. The new model also includes its predecessor's Soft Skin, Defocusing and Sliming effects, although we don't know yet if these features or effects have been enhanced.

What's brand new, though, are added Beauty Retouch functions. In the new Aesthetic Retouch mode, various effects can be applied to a captured face including clearing skin texture, whitening teeth and "lifting up the face". In the new Make-up Retouch mode, users can adjust the color of foundation, lips, cheeks or eye-shadow.

As far as we can tell, the Panasonic GF8 otherwise offers the same features as the GF7, along with the same imaging pipeline, performance and controls, but we'll update our coverage if/when more info becomes available.

Offered in silver, brown, pink and orange finishes, the Panasonic GF8 has been announced in Japan for Asian and Australian markets, however pricing and ship date have not been disclosed at the time of writing. We've been told it won't be officially coming to the US, though we've noticed the black on silver GF7 is already listed as discontinued by some major US retailers, so we wouldn't be surprised if the GF8 eventually does make it to our shores.

Since the Panasonic GF8 is so closely related to its predecessor, see our Panasonic GF7 review for more details.