Digital Trends

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18

December 17th, 2007 | by David Elrich

Testing and Use

In less than two seconds, the DMC-FZ18 is good to go as the lens extends, noticeably quicker than the TZ3 and about the same as the Sony H3. Starting off at the highest JPEG resolution in the iA mode I took a variety of shots indoors and out. When you’re in auto you cannot change any parameters other than engaging backlight compensation or popping open or closing the flash. This is all well and good since auto is basically aim-and-forget time. Note: the backlight compensation did a good job capturing more detail in the area surrounding a brightly lit window. This should definitely be used when shooting anyone or anything backlit; your shots will look a lot better.

While shooting in iA in single shot mode, the camera did a decent job saving the files to the card although it’s definitely not a D-SLR, especially since it cannot shoot in RAW in this mode. Moving into unlimited continuous (burst) mode with the flash off, the camera was quite responsive. Panasonic states a spec of 2 images per second and this matched my real world results. This is a far quicker camera than the company’s TZ3 and matches the speedy Sony DSC-H3, another 8MP competitor. In another nod to the D-SLR’s superiority this camera also can’t shoot in burst mode if you choose the RAW setting. Remember this camera costs around $350 USD and the cheapest D-SLR is over $500 USD so you definitely get what you pay for.

Even with those complaints the FZ18’s lens is a real winner. I’m a big fan of the wide-angle 28mm setting and this one has it plus you can zoom in an incredible 18x (504mm). Definitely give this a try at your local store—you’ll be impressed as I was.

Image Courtesy of Panasonic

Once you step toward the myriad manual options, you’ll be happy as a clam if adjusting photo parameters is your thing. The FZ18 has loads of them including white balance fine adjustment that lets you adjust the levels of amber, blue, green and magenta in the image. I haven’t tested any point-and-shoot recently that has this level WB tuning. Most of the traditional manual options (aperture, shutter speed, focus) are handled by the joystick and it works well. I only wish you could see the effects of your aperture/speed adjustments on the LCD screen (the Sony DSC-H3 has this).

After making my various rounds it was time to see how the 8.5x11 prints turned out straight from the camera with no adjustments (even the RAW files which used SilkyPix’s average settings with no exposure bias). When I took some shots of a foggy morning landscape, the FZ18 captured the subtlety, mood and detail quite well with very little noise and purple fringing with high-contrast tree limbs/sky views. Taking close-ups of bushes had a nice pop especially with the softened background. Images taken indoors also had very accurate colors and a pleasing look. Where the camera fell down was with some still lifes taken with available light. The iA kicked the ISO up to 800 and with every Panasonic this is heading into dangerous ground filled with way too much digital noise. Definitely stay below 400 if you buy this one. Also the camera had some difficulty grabbing focus with non-contrasty subjects. The AF Assist lamp helped but it did grab. For the most part, the FZ18 is a fast operator, saving files with minimal lag. And the optical image stabilization did a fine job eliminating blur with extreme telephoto shots.

Conclusion

In this case all the Internet buzz was right on target. This is probably the best super zoom camera (12x and above) I’ve tested to date. It’s responsive, saves files relatively quickly, has a boatload of manual adjustments and its Intelligent Auto works very nicely. As always with Panasonic digicams, there are issues with noise once you go over 400 ISO but there’s a blocker to prevent it going higher than that but that feature doesn’t work in iA mode. Forget the purported 6400 rating since it takes a full-frame D-SLR costing 10 times more to pull off that stunt properly. Still the little package has a lot going for it. It’s $350 USD well worth spending. Is it better than the Olympus SP-560 UZ? Click back shortly to find out…


Pros:

• Very good photos in a variety of settings
• Amazing focal range including wide angle
• Manual options galore


Cons

• Still too much noise at ISO 400 and above
• Poorly designed lens hood; chuck it