Panasonic Lumix Dmc-fz18

[Plainsdrifters]

I am thinking about buying the Panasonic Lumix Fz18. Has anyone tried this camera out ? It has a 18x zoom and alot of other things going for it.

[EJB]

Here's a review:-

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Panasonic/

[gcherry]

I bought the Panasonic Lumix FZ-18 about a month ago after reading the reviews. I LOVE IT!! The 18x zoom is amazing and the image stabilzation is quite helpful when I don't have a tripod handy. I'm still trying to learn the ins and outs (such as getting better low-light shots) but, so far, I'm very pleased with it. I also have Nikon CP8400 that I still use for my real estate business ... it has the 24mm wide-angle as opposed to the 28mm wide-angle in the Panasonic. But the Panasonic has some cool features like automatic face recognition and the pictures are very sharp with excellent color.

Overall, unless you do a lot of low-light photography (anything higher ISO100 becomes progressively noisier), this is a wonderful camera.

[lexcell]

Glenda gave a great testimonial for the camera. I'd read the review that Ted posted and make sure the camera has all the features you need/want in a camera and if it does, go for it.

[NikkiL]

I also purchased this camera a couple of weeks ago after reading the reviews. It is a lovely camera to use. I'm so pleased with the photos so far. The 18X zoom is fantastic - now I can actually get photos of the kids at school concerts. I don't have an SLR yet so this is great for me. There are many features on this camera which I have yet to learn, so as I am learning I found the 'Intelligent Auto' mode quite useful as it chooses the optimum setting for taking photos.
Nikki

[jo]

I got one last weekend. What I was looking for was a closer zoom than I get with my Canon lens (75-300mm). I had tried out a lens that was up to 400mm and it was just too heavy for me. This little lightweight works beautifully!. But a macro that I shot indoors was awfully noisy.

My neighbor wanted to get his hands on it and made a comment about how hard it is to hold such a lightweight steady when pressing the shutter button if you are used to a heavier camera -- and he's right! It'll just take some getting used to.

My first shot was a deer in the back yard in sunlight. It looks great unless you zoom in, but that's what photoshop is for. I have to try the RAW processor and see if I can get the fringe out. But you only see the fringe when you zoom in really close in photoshop.

[Joe M]

Something to consider if these things matter to you.

The Canon S5 IS is a very similar camera that has hot shoe, swivel LCD, and takes great video, for a camera.

The FZ-18 is less expensive and has a more powerful zoom.

[lexcell]

With all that zoom be sure to stick with the optical part of the zoom. If you kick into digital zoom the quality goes down significantly. Also, low light and higher ISOs will be noisy...it's just the nature of the beast. However, this little camera does pack alot of features at a very reasonable price.