Digital Trends

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18

December 17th, 2007 | by David Elrich

Features and Design

The DMC-FZ18 is a very attractive camera in its own way. Although it doesn’t have the sleekness of a Canon ELPH or Sony T series digicam, it has a comforting “camera” feel. It has a nice indented handgrip, looks for all the world like a D-SLR, features good proportions and just has a nice vibe about it. Available in black or silver (which we had), the FZ18 is substantial, measuring 4.63 x 2.96 x 3.47 (WHD, in inches) and weighs close to a pound with the battery and card. This one will be worn on your shoulder or around your neck. Still even with the battery it did not weigh or wear me down, a big difference with any D-SLR.

Here’s another big difference with a D-SLR—the camera has a built-in 28-504mm Leica DC Vario-Elmarit lens. No single lens offers that focal length and you’d need at least two to achieve that range when compared to the FZ18—and don’t forget about the added weight or hassle of switching lenses. Clearly this is one of the biggest reasons this camera is so popular. For some reason, Panasonic continues to provide a lens hood that causes vignetting when using the flash. If you buy this camera, leave the hood in the box as well as the adaptor ring the hoods attaches to. Just snap the lens cap into place—attached to the body via a high-tech piece of string--and off you go.

The front of this camera is really dominated by the lens, leaving little room for extraneous decals. Panasonic did plaster the left of the lens barrel with 18x, MEGA O.I.S. and other detritus. On the front you’ll also find an AF Assist lamp, a mic and a faux leather coating on the pistol grip which is a nice dark gray. This camera is a bit taller than the recently reviewed compact 10x Sony DSC-H3  and it felt just right in my hands. You know the drill—make sure you do your own hands-on test before you buy any camera or camcorder.

The top has a nicely arranged control layout with a slider on/off switch, controls to switch between auto and manual focus, for macro, the shutter with surrounding zoom toggle, manual pop-up flash and a substantial mode dial. On the dial is an “iA” setting instead of the usual “Auto.” With Intelligent Auto the camera makes adjustments depending on the subject in front of it. It will automatically pick the scene mode (portrait, scenery, macro, night scenery and night portrait). If it senses faces, it’ll switch to Face Detection that detects up to 15 faces. iA also offers Continuous Auto Focus which keeps subjects in focus without having to press the shutter halfway. It’s neat watching the modes change as you move from subject to subject (icons appear on the LCD).

If you want to move beyond Intelligent Auto and use your own brain, the dial has options for portrait, landscape, sports, night portrait, a raft of scene modes, custom and a movie mode (842 x 480 at 30 fps is the top resolution). The camera also has settings for manual, shutter- and aperture-priority as well as program auto exposure (AE). Unlike some other point-and-shoots, you have a wide range of apertures and shutter speeds to choose from. With manual focus a center inset enlarges the subject to make sure you get a sharp image.

The rear of the camera has a good 2.5-inch LCD screen rated 205K pixels. It doesn’t smear too badly as you change subjects. Like the DMC-TZ3 if you press the LCD mode button, you can brighten the screen to deal with strong sunshine and even adjust it so you can shoot on an angle over your head. These are very nice options but I’d still like a larger screen. Like most other 10x and greater zoom point-and-shoots, the FZ18 has a small electronic viewfinder (EVF) to use if you’d like the hold the camera close to your eye. It has a diopter control to fine-tune the focus. A button next to EVF lets you switch between views. To the left of the viewfinder is the key to pop up the flash. Other buttons on the right side include AF/AE Lock, Display/LCD Monitor, another to change the burst mode (or delete while in playback) plus the usual four-way control with center set button. The points let you adjust the flash, review images, adjust the self-timer and exposure compensation (flash level and auto bracketing, depending on the mode). A small joystick helps you navigate through the menus; they’re very straightforward and easy to understand. There’s a nice rest for your thumb on the far right side (also with the faux leather covering) and a speaker next to the EVF. As you can see there are far more adjustments available on this point-and-shoot than most others out there. You can even adjust the amount of noise reduction. It practically ranks up with Canon PowerShot G9 for tweakability.

On the left side are the DC-in and USB ports and on the bottom is the slot for the large lithium ion battery rated at 400 shots (EVF in use, not LCD) and SD/SDHC cards. The camera comes with the basic kit including battery/charger, cables, lens cap (with string), lens hood with adaptor, an OK 148-page owner’s manual and a CD-ROM with SilkyPix Developer Studio 2.1SE to process RAW files, ArcSoft MediaImpression and Panorama Maker, Photo Fun Studio, drivers and so on. Although is has 27MB of internal memory, definitely purchase a 2GB SDHC card, especially if you plan to shoot RAW. We did exactly that and went off to put the FZ18 through its paces.

Image Courtesy of Panasonic