Digital Trends

Even though it’s on the high-priced side for a point-and-shoot, this ultra zoom digicam is one of 2007’s most popular cameras (at least if you go by many of the imaging sites). There are some obvious reasons for this: the 8-megapixel camera has a whopping 18x zoom with a range of 28-504mm. To buy a D-SLR and lens kit with that range of focal lengths would set you back a bundle. The camera also has optical image stabilization, an electronic viewfinder along with a 2.5-inch LCD monitor, a load of manual options, captures RAW files plus it has Face Detection, the feature du jour for the digicam world. Note: there are several other ultra zooms available including the Olympus SP-560 ($449 USD) and Fujifilm FinePix S8000 ($399 USD). We recently received the Olympus and will review that one shortly but first it was the FZ18’s turn in the barrel. Let’s see if it’s worth all the Internet buzz…