Panasonic FZ18 Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

We’d been itching for our biennial camera upgrade, the selling of the old on Ebay, and the purchase of the new. The Sony DSC-H1 hadn’t been any more unsatisfactory than its Olympus predecessor, but the Sony H7 offers a 15x zoom and more megapixels. If we could get a decent price for the H1 on Ebay, the upgrade would only cost around $150. When the Sony H1 sold for a little more than my asking price, it was time to buy new. After a convoluted series of events including some hands on examinations of cameras, price checks, and research, we eventually opted for a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 over the Sony H7 and the Olympus 550UZ. We were swayed by the Panasonic’s 18x zoom, its use of a non proprietary SD memory card, and its rechargeable lithium battery. We also liked its ergonomics, feel, and placement of controls. A great price on Amazon including free shipping sealed the deal.


What It Is

This Panasonic is unexpectedly light and easy to handle for a camera with such a long zoom. It weighs just under a pound and measures 4.6 by 3 by 3.5 inches. The FZ 18 comes in both black and silver. I like basic black because it doesn’t show fingerprints, but would have bought the silver had it been in stock at the time.
The 8.1 megapixel resolution is a step up from the 5 megapixels of the Sony it replaced.
The photographer may frame the shot using either the viewfinder or the 2.5 inch LCD screen on the back of the camera.
The FZ 18 uses the readily available SDHC /SD memory cards.
The rechargeable LiIon battery has a stated battery life of 400 shots. I take some pictures almost daily and go weeks between rechargings.
Shutter on time is 3.1 seconds. I haven’t timed it, but the camera turns on quickly.
The 18x optical zoom (28-504mm equivalent) coupled with a 4x digital zoom gives this camera an incredible reach.

External Controls

Most users, even a picture taker like myself, can start taking pictures with this camera out of the box. The more precise and esoteric controls are accessible through the menu. On the top of the body is the on-off slide switch, the dial control for preset modes, the zoom lever, shutter button, AF macro/Focus switch button, and the AF/Mf button.

On the back of the camera us a push flash open button. The flash pops up so forcefully that I sometimes brake it with a finger to ease it up.
A small, not easily accessed diopter adjustment dial is next to the viewfinder. Fortunately it’s a seldom made adjustment.
Also on the back are a small joystick used to access some menu functions, a menu button in the middle of universally recognizable cursor buttons, a delete button, single or burst mode button, the LCD monitor, the speaker, and the AF/AE Lock button.

On the bottom of the camera is a tripod receptacle and an easily opened door for access to the battery and memory card.

In the Box
The Panasonic camera
Shoulder strap
Lens cap and attachment string
Lens hood/adapter
Rechargeable lithium-ion battery and charger
USB cable
AV cable
Printed manual – The 146 page black and white manual is illustrated and mostly easy to understand. There have been situations during which I’d have appreciated a little more elaboration. Maybe I’m just too dense.

Software CD with Lumix Simple Viewer, Photo Fun Studio, USB Driver (Windows), ArcSoft Panorama Maker, ArcSoft Media Impression, and SILKYPIX Developer Studio.
It’s a nice set of software, and from previous experience I’ve grown to enjoy ArcSoft products.

Features

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 has more features than I’ll ever use or master in a lifetime of picture piddling. Only a sampling of the seemingly endless array of features follows. Many of these are standard on today’s digital cameras.

Basic – 8.1 megapixel CCD, 18x optical zoom, 4x digital zoom, 2.5 inch color LCD monitor, electronic viewfinder, Program automatic exposure, aperture and stutter priority modes, full manual exposure mode, built in flash with red-eye reduction, SD card compatability, 27MB internal memory (it’s not much) USB connection, rechargeable lithium-ion battery and charger.

More Features – RAW and RAW + JPEG options, extended optical zoom, Intelligent auto mode with optical image stabilization, intelligent ISO, Face detection, and Scene detection, multiple continuaous shooting modes, shutter speeds from 60 sec to 1/2000 sec, LCD brightness adjustment, adjustable flash intensity, Warm,Cool,B/W, Sepia color effects, live histogram, slideshow in playback, advanced scene modes, movie recording with sound, wide angle and telephoto accessory lenses and filters available.

Thoughts and Observations of a Picture Taker

Mainly I chose this camera for the 18x zoom and I haven’t been disappointed. I’ve taken some pictures of birds that would have been unthinkable with most other cameras. Combining the 18x zoom with the 4x optical produces details that aren’t even visible to the naked eye. As luck would have it my 1.7 Sony tele-conversion lens actually fits the add on lens adapter tube purchased separately for the Panasonic for around 20 dollars.
Even the Panasonic’s image stabilization feature, a tripod is necessary when using the tele-conversion lens in conjunction with full optical an digital zoom.

I recently discovered that the optical zoom can be extended even further by entering the menu and reducing the image size to 5 or 3 MP. At 3 megapixels one can obtain a 28.7 optical zoom with little loss of quality. The picture is just smaller.

Overall I’d say picture quality with this camera is good, though not outstanding in comparison to other cameras. Some of the pictures taken are amazing, automatic keepers, but many more are maybes and deletion bound. Most credit for the bad shots must be given to the blundering picture taker.

I wish that the flash were more intuitive. One must manually pop up the flash whereas on many digital cameras, the flash will engage as needed. Panasonic does allow the user to adjust the intensity of the flash.

Red eye reduction is good, but again not outstanding.

I have difficulty focusing on some complex subjects, such as a bird among branches, but again this may be the fault of the picture taker. Taking a picture of a friend’s dog behind some limbs, I got crystal clear tree limbs with a blurry dog in the background. It actually turned out to be a great looking shot.

I enjoy playing with the special scene shots in the scene mode setting. One can choose from the following situational settings: food, party, candle light, sunset, high sensitivity, baby 1, baby2, pet, panning, starry sky, fireworks, beach, snow and aerial photo. One can even fine-tune these settings. The possibilities are endless. In the pet mode one can enter the name of the pet and its age also.

I don’t like that the self-timer is accessed via the menu. I’d prefer an external control.

To use add on lenses, one must purchase a Panasonic adapter tube. I bought mine from Amazon along with an extra battery (generic, cheap, and still in the package) and some Clear-Touch anti glare film (great stuff).

Finally

Even thought it’s not the perfect camera (such a beast doesn’t exist), I don’t regret my decision to purchase the Panasonic Lumix DMC- FZ18. It’s a fun toy for a picture taker and offers creative control for the knowledgeable photographer. With its tremendous zoom, one doesn’t have to lug around an assortment of lenses for that distant shot.
Some reviewers love it and even the nitpickers like it. I think the FZ-18 warrants a higher place in the Consumer Reports rankings (18), but I’m not the expert.

Likes – the zoom, the occasional perfect picture with excellent color saturation, quality of photos overall, grip, feel and location of controls, great results from the “Intelligent Auto Mode”, battery life, SD memory card, relatively easy to navigate menu with large icons, visual and audio quality of movie clips.

Irritants – noise in low light pictures, clarity of LCD from some angles, manual engagement of flash, non-inclusion of a filter adapter, fickleness of image stabilization in long zoom shots

Don’t cares (very subjective) – RAW feature, histogram, ISO sensitivity of 6400 max, no zoom in movie mode, face detection, two grid displays, the tulip shaped hood, travel date setting, world time, pict bridge printing compatibility.

UPDATE: I noticed that this model is a PC Magazine editor's choice for superzoom camera's in the November 2008 issue.