Male 60 years married father of five grown ups (24 year old girl still at home) and seven grandchild...
Male 60 years married father of five grown ups (24 year old girl still at home) and seven grandchildren. Retired and disabled former fire officer now spending most of my time with computers, the internet, UK travel, photography and birdwatching.
Member since:30.08.2004
Reviews:5
Having owned the FZ20 for some time I had no hesitation in buying the FZ18 when I saw it in the QVC shop in Birchwood. The price attracted me at £149.99 and then the 15% discount for my pensionable age on Mondays made it an absolute bargain. The only fly in the ointment? They only had the Silver models available but for that money money hey I can live with it.
On first handling it is quite obviously somewhat smaller than the FZ20 and whilst the lighter weight is in some circumstances a bonus it doesn't feel as solid or sturdy as the FZ20. That aside it takes all my Olympus auxiliary lenses with the optional adapter. One good point over the FZ20 is that a 46mm Skylight filter can be left permanently screwed to the front of the lens; something of an oversight on the FZ20. The 18x (even higher if the megapixel raing is reduced) zoom is a real bonus and coupled with my 1.7x Olympus teleconverter
it produces exceptionally long shots. Mind you at that focal length it becomes a real test for the Image Stabilisation system and a test that it fails, sadly. Without the converter the image stabiliser works pretty well and using a tripod has to be accepted with anything over the standard lens. Which makes what I am about say absolutely surprising. Panasonic have produced one of the longest digital lenses on the market yet they do not fit a remote shutter release facility on the FZ18; incredible! Just which of the designers made this omission? To use your long lens and tripod you have to make do with a Universal shutter release adapter Velcroed round the camera body. This in turn causes all sorts of problems when trying to access the controls. Panasonic - this is really shonky!
The image size at 8.1mp is more than adequate for the job and even the 5.1mp of the FZ20 can be said to be the same. Where a camera of this quality does win as with an analogue camera is the superb quality of the lens. This quality coupled with the length of zoom is far more important to taking quality pictures than the megapixel ratings.
ISO speeds are also improved from a maximum of 400 on the FZ20 to 1600 on the FZ18. Picture noise is a slight problem at ISO 400 but certainly better than the FZ20 was at ISO 200. Noise does increase up to ISO1600 but I would say is within the acceptable range. Lens quality is superb with clear, bright pictures with no sign of colour aberration, as one would expect from Leica. Manual focus is fiddly, using the joystick on the rear panel compared with the more traditional focus ring on the FZ20 but the larger LCD gives a clear bright image and the electronic viewfinder is vastly improved over the lacklustre viewfinder of the FZ20. Battery capacity is also an improvement over the FZ20 though some larger capacity FZ20 3rd party batteries are now finding their way onto the market. One little tip; if you are lucky enough to have both the FZ20 and the FZ18 the FZ20 battery WILL fit the FZ18 as both camera share the same type of terminals. All that is required is a little packing in the FZ18 but even that isn't really essential. The trick does NOT work in reverse though. As the FZ18 battery is far too thick. Battery life is excellent even when using the large 2.5 inchLCD screen for picture taking. Auto focus is excellent and rarely fooled. The flash is small but well up to the job in normal circumstances. I would have liked to see an auxiliary flash shoe though on a camera of this quality. Metering is virtually spot on and there are several options for focussing and metering to cover any eventuality.
The video is a very nice quality 640x480 with sound but suffers from the same problem as all the Panasonic range in that the zoom is NOT available once the shutter is pressed. This means that you have to take the software-stitching route to make any form of useable video. However, given that this is primarily intended to be a still camera most of can live with that limitation.
There are far more facilities on this camera than can be covered by this review and I have tried to cover the basics, both good and bad. All in all a very nice effort by Panasonic and almost certainly a best seller only let down by the inconceivable omission of a remote shutter release function and no auxiliary flash shoe. If you can live with those small shortcomings by using 3rd party solutions I whole-heartedly recommend you buy this camera unlike the reviewer who rated it a 'bit of lemon' after 4 days of looking at in a shop. It's now one of the best selling and most sought after cameras available today according to this month's Which Magazine and having waited to review it till I had used if for four months I totally agree with them. Moral - don't rush to judge.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
(+) Ultra-compact dimensions, fun automatic tools, good performance for the asking price (-) Cluttered menu layout, camera buttons are scarce, specs are almost identical to the Samsung ES15
In a sense Panasonic came from nowhere to become market leaders with the Lumix range - largely thanks to the Leica lenses, the Rolls Royce of optical equipment. It is so good to read that in actual use these cameras live up to the hype in the magazine reviews......my goodness you sure know how to pick up a bargain, even if it is the "flashy" silver one! Richard.
Powerful 18x Optical Zoom, 28mm wide-angle Leica DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens and unique ... more
Intelligent Auto Mode. The perfect choice for any photographer with varied photographic needs and high ambitions - Panasonic is pleased to introduce the new DMC-FZ18 8.1...
Postage & Packaging: £3.48 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Powerful 18x Optical Zoom, 28mm wide-angle Leica DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens and unique ... more
Intelligent Auto Mode. The perfect choice for any photographer with varied photographic needs and high ambitions - Panasonic is pleased to introduce the new DMC-FZ18 8.1...
Postage & Packaging: £3.48 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Panasonic is pleased to introduce the new DMC-FZ18 8.1-megapixel Lumix camera, featuring a ... more
powerful 18x optical zoom (equivalent to 28-504mm on a 35mm film camera), newly developed 28mm wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens and Panasonic's new and uni...
Postage & Packaging: £3.48 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Panasonic is pleased to introduce the new DMC-FZ18 8.1-megapixel Lumix camera, featuring a ... more
powerful 18x optical zoom (equivalent to 28-504mm on a 35mm film camera), newly developed 28mm wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens and Panasonic's new and uni...
Postage & Packaging: £3.48 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: 18x optical zoom, LEICA Lens, intelligent auto mode, good grip, battery life. Disadvantages: image noise at high ISO , scratchable, no zoom in video
Advantages: 18x optical zoom, LEICA Lens, intelligent auto mode, good grip, battery life. Disadvantages: image noise at high ISO , scratchable, no zoom in video
Jun 24th, 2008
very helpful by (100%):
