[title]2014-09-27 From one of the youtube comments by Gray before disassemble the camera try this procedure first.[/title][body]
[1] With the camera switched off slide the ‘Zoom lever’ to the right (T) position and hold down the ‘Shutter’ button for a few seconds then switch the camera on. You need to still be holding the ‘Zoom lever’ and ‘Shutter’ button.
This seems to force reset the zoom to full extent. Then switch off the camera, the zoom may stay fully extended. Try cleaning the outside of the lens barrels to make sure there is no dirt on them.
[2] Then With the camera switched off slide the ‘Zoom lever’ to the left (W) position and hold down the ‘Shutter’ button for a few seconds then switch the camera on. You need to still be holding the ‘Zoom lever’ and ‘Shutter’ button.
This seems to force reset the zoom to minimum extent. Then switch the camera off.
Hopefully the camera is now in is normal closed off position. Switch the camera on and it should be operating normally. If not repeat the above a couple of times.
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2013-03-17 In case you found black spots on your images and the front lens was clean – clean the back of the lens and ccd.
A few days ago, I left the Lumix ZS8 on the kid’s table and they left a cold drink next to it. The camera was soaking wet with water from the glass. I turned on the camera and the zoom starts to move in-out in a erratic way, then a message “power off and then on again”, I did it and the white screen “system error (zoom)” came up. I checked the internet, there are a few fixes, but none of them works. I took the front and back cover, wiped off all the water, outside-inside visually, then I used hair dryer to dry all corner and the lens, extended and retracted. Left it over night with everything opened. In the morning, everything works again.
