FZ18 King of the Super Zooms

OVERVIEW

Well, here I go again. I just can't quit buying cameras. Last year I bought the Panasonic TZ3 when it first came out and was hard to get and paid top dollar - same deal this year with the FZ18. I still own the TZ3 - fantastic camera. [I wrote a review for Epinions that was rated Very Helpful and had a huge number of hits. Unfortunately, the review somehow got clobbered and reclassified as a Cobra VHF Radio ??? But you can look under my other reviews for one titled "Great All around Camera with a Big Zoom".] About a dozen people I know bought this camera from my strong recommendation and they all love it.

But that was then and this is now. The FZ18 is an even more incredible camera with its 18X zoom lens !! Unbelievable.


BOTTOM LINE:
Head and shoulders above the competition in the big zoom category

BACKGROUND

I am just a total amateur when it comes to photography so my review is from a real user, average Joe and not a professional critique. You can get plenty of these on the internet and I will give you a couple of links later.

LIKES:
Here are the things that I like about it:

* 18X Optical Zoom at the full 8MP picture size. You can get up to 23X Optical zoom if you're willing to drop back to 5MP without any loss of picture quality and 28x at 3MP. The 18x range gives you the equivalent 35mm range of 28mm to 504mm. To put it in perspective, look at a big zoom lens on a DSLR camera – they’re huge! And heavy! Of course you won't get anywhere near the performance of the DSLR lens but just making the point of Panasonic packing all of that focal length in such a small body.
* Wide Angle range starts at the equivalent of 28mm. Most Digital cameras are around 36mm so with 28mm you can take better group pictures or landscapes.
* Image Stabilization (IS) built into the camera using a sensor shift gyro. It detects the difference in your hand shake versus the subject moving.
* DSLR features: I'm just an amateur but I like the ability to have complete control over aperture and shutter speed and to be able to learn how to use these type features. You can use it as a Point & Shoot camera or move up to the advanced features that include total control of aperture and shutter speed and even includes manual focus capability. It’s armed with so many features that it can be intimidating but if you want to learn the ropes in photography, this camera will let you do it at a very affordable price.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SENSOR:

Skip this section if you already know about sensor size and characteristics. I’m throwing this info in here to explain a little about the downside of the FZ18 or any of the so called digicams or Point & Shoot (P&S) cameras when compared to your old 35mm or APS film cameras or to the digital SLR (DSLR) ones.
1.) They’re slower to focus using Autofocus. Yes you push the shutter halfway down to focus prior to taking the shot but if you’re trying to capture a fast moving item, it’s not that easy to do.
2.) They can’t take pictures in lower light conditions - particularly moving objects. Yes, I know and have owned the Fuji F30 with extremely good capability but still there are limitations.

All of which brings me to the source of the limitations and that’s primarily because of the size of the “film negative” which in digital cameras is the sensor. The sensor is made up of individual pixels so if you have an 8MP (mega pixel) camera, the sensor has at least 8 million individual light cells or pixels spread across its surface. If you remember 35mm film with the sprocket holes along the edge, each frame was approximately 1.38” wide by .88” tall. Sensors in very expensive DSLR cameras are about this size. The more affordable DSLR’s have a reduced sensor size but still much bigger than P&S cameras. By comparison, the Sony DSLR A350’s sensor is approximately .93” x .62” in size while the FZ18 is only .22” x .17”. Doing the math, you can put over 12 of the FZ18 sensors on one of the Sony’s. So when considering the 8MP you can then see that each pixel is going to be significantly smaller on the FZ18 sensor which then introduces problems with light and image quality. Many people assume that the higher the pixel count, i.e., 12MP versus 6MP, the better the quality. But in many cases, it turns out the opposite because you are further limiting the pixel size and introducing the aforementioned problems. [For a more in depth and perhaps clearer explanation, there are several good articles on sensors that can be linked from this site: http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Camera_System/sensors_01.htm

Bottom line is that if you want to buy this camera or any P&S, you need to know there are downsides so you won’t be disappointed. Plus using the extended length of the 18x lens may introduce even more problems.

COMPENSATION AND FEATURES:

That’s the bad news. The good news is that Panasonic has done a good job in compensating for some of these problems. Here are just a few:

IMAGE STABILIZATION: Abbreviated as IS, this feature compensates for camera jitter caused by your shaky hands as opposed to movement of your subject. I would not buy another camera without this feature and particularly one with a zoom over 3x.

ZOOM: The FZ18 Leica lens provides 18x Optical Zoom ratio at the full 8 MP resolution. Here's something a lot of people overlook. This zoom starts at a wide angle of 28mm (35mm equivalent) and goes out to 504mm. Most P&S cameras start at 36mm. The wide angle comes in handy when shooting landscapes, family groups, home layouts, etc.

EXTENDED OPTICAL ZOOM: By reducing the resolution to 5MP, the Optical Zoom extends to a ratio of 23x. Further reducing the resolution to 3MP extends the Optical Zoom to an incredible 28.7x. This effectively is cropping the picture because it is only using the 3MP pixels in the center of the sensor, but unlike Digital Zoom, it does not reduce IQ (Image Quality) by trying to fill in extra pixels. But keep in mind as you reduce the Mega Pixel count to 5 or 3 you will not be able to blow these up to the same print size you could at the 8MP resolution. By the way, 28.7x zoom is the equivalent of 803mm in 35mm or DSLR terms.
Here are a couple of links if you would like further explanation: Cut & Paste into your browser:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1033&message=22501622
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/faq/ww/ans/ex.html

ZOOM: At 8MP resolution: 18x
At 5MP resolution: 23x
At 3MP resolution: 28.7x

DIGITAL ZOOM: Almost everyone will tell you to avoid using digital zoom and they’re probably right You will note in the links above that digital zoom magnifies the shot so you pick up a lot of noise and lose image quality (IQ). The FZ18 provides an additional 4x digital zoom so you can multiply the above zoom numbers by 4 if you want to use this feature. But even with IS, you will likely need a tripod. You can easily disable Digital Zoom in the menu selections.

ZOOM RESTORE: You may or may not like this feature but you can turn it off if you don’t. If it’s on, when you turn the camera on, the zoom restores to the zoom ratio when you last turned the camera off. Personally, I use it.

EXPOSURE COMPENSATION: The FZ18 provides easy access to Exposure Compensation controls from -2 to 2 EV in 1/3 EV steps. You can instantly see the effect on the LCD while adjusting the EV steps from darker to lighter.

BRACKETING: The FZ18 also has an Auto Bracketing feature. When this feature is enabled, pressing the shutter to snap a picture actually takes 3 pictures in rapid succession. The first shot is without compensation, the second with negative compensation (darker) and the third with positive compensation (brighter) Pressing the EV button twice brings up the menu to enable this feature which can be set in 1/3 EV steps all the way to /- 2 EV. This feature is usually only found on more expensive cameras.

WHITE BALANCE: Another critical element in taking good pictures is getting the colors right. Digital cameras seek out the white in a photo and set the rest of the colors thus generating a warm or a cooler look to the resulting picture. The ambient light in any given scene can change whites to yellow or to blue or toward red. The FZ18 provides quick access to a list of WB settings including Auto (AWB), shade, fluorescent, incandescent, and a custom setting. You can quickly access a menu to adjust any of the manual WB settings toward red or blue.

ISO: If you’re an old film camera buff you’ll recall buying film typically at 100 ISO or if you needed something to work in cloudy conditions or on fast moving subjects, you went up to 200 or 400 ISO. But if you also remember, the 400 ISO typically resulted in grainy looking pictures. You can set the FZ18 to an ISO setting from 100 to 1600 or to Auto ISO. There is also a High Sensitivity Scene mode up to 6400. You will get the graininess similar to film although the FZ18 does a reasonable job of cleaning up the noise in the camera and you can do this further in post processing. Purists will not accept these high ISO shots, but at least with the higher ISO’s you can capture some pictures without flash that you could never do before even with film.

INTELLIGENT ISO: You can set a maximum level of ISO at 400, 800 or 1600 when using this mode. In the standard mode, Auto ISO cannot be set to a maximum.

BURST MODE: This mode allows you to take multiple pictures when you hold down the shutter button. It’s great for capturing a sequence of shots of wildlife, kids at play or other active subjects. This is another feature that’s seldom found on compact digital cameras but one that I use frequently. This can be set for a fast 3 frames per second up to 7 pictures or 2 frames per second limited to the capacity of your memory card. You can’t use this when using flash since the flash unit takes a bit of time to charge between flashes.

SCENE MODES: If you prefer to let the camera automatically make most of these adjustments for you, the FZ18 provides many different scene modes. The main Mode Dial on the top of the camera has 4 Scene positions. The Scene position takes you to another 13 modes and the camera remembers the last scene mode that was used. In addition, you can program up to three Custom settings which can be saved for future use. Yet another DSLR feature not normally found on a compact.

iA MODE: This setting on the Mode Dial further simplifies taking pictures and might be helpful to a beginning photographer. It makes all the adjustments for the camera and is a straight forward P&S camera mode.

INTERNAL MEMORY: The FZ18 has an Internal Memory of 27MB. I believe this faster memory is used to buffer data being sent to the memory card. This memory is also used if the memory card is removed. The idea behind this is that these shots stay with the camera in case you switch out the memory card. So if you’re traveling and want to take a picture of the train schedule, you’ll have that on the camera even if you switch out memory cards. You can also store audio or motion pictures although with the 27MB limitation.

USER FRIENDLY CONTROLS: The FZ18 has a joy stick lever above the display. If you press down in the center for about one second it accesses a quick Function menu where you can quickly change settings for Burst mode; White Balance; ISO; Aspect ratio; Picture Size and Image Quality. It also has another set of buttons with a cursor dial. It has a dedicated button to set EV, another for Flash, another for Timer (2sec or 10sec) and a fourth for Playback Review. The center button on the cursor accesses the setup menus which may be a little confusing at first and you will probably need to go through the manual as you set up the camera initially. Once you gain familiarity, they become fairly easy to navigate.

PLAYBACK: You can quickly review a shot with the touch of a button. Once there, you can also step back to other pictures, zoom in and move around on a shot.

STANDARD FEATURES: The FZ18 has many other features that are similar to those on better point and shoot digital cameras. Metering can be set to several types, AF assist lamp is available in dark conditions, and Auto Focus has a number of focusing options. Additionally, you can set the Color Mode to Standard, Natural, Vivid (Sharp), Cool, Warm, Black-White & Sepia. You can also record approx 5 seconds of sound with a picture.

FACE DETECTION: One of the Auto Focus selections is the newest feature on point and shoot cameras providing Face Detection focusing. This picks out the faces in a group shot and focuses the camera on the face and not the other background. It works on a single face or on multiple faces.

AE/AF LOCK: Here is a largely overlooked feature that overcomes a lot of problems with long distance focusing particularly with lower light levels. There is a dedicated button to lock the focus or the exposure or both. For example, if you’re taking pictures of birds flying into a bird feeder, you can fix the focus, lock it and then snap pictures without waiting for the camera to find focus each time. Same is true with any subject that is staying at the same relative distance from your camera position. This is a handy feature and really improves focus time.

AF/MAN: There is also a dedicated button to turn off the Auto Focus and enable you to manually set the focal length. Rich feature only found on the best cameras and fun to play around with.

APERTURE OR SHUTTER PRIORITY: The top dial on the camera allows you to select these modes to enable you to manually set the f stop or speed you want to use in creating a picture. MANUAL mode allows you to set both. Again, this is a great feature for those of us learning how to take better photos and planning to move into the DSLR world in the future.

MOTION PICTURES: The FZ18 takes excellent short movies in QuickTime format (software supplied) and can record audio along with the video. A number of people complain that you have to set the zoom prior to starting the video. But that’s true of every P&S that I know of and keep in mind the more expensive DSLR’s don’t offer movie mode. Just be aware of this before you buy.

SIZE & CASE: This camera is not a shirt pocket model. It’s smaller than DSLR’s but much bigger than the TZ3 for example. But you can still get it in a larger purse or fanny pack, etc. I think it has a good feel and easy to grip. The body is largely plastic so it doesn’t have the heft or rugged feel of a metal camera but who wants to pack extra weight? But some people will complain that it’s too light or too small for their hands. I think it makes sense.

LCD MONITOR: The LCD is 2.5” with a decent resolution of 207,000 pixels and has a couple of nice features. Holding down the dedicated Display button for a second will pop up the feature menu. One allows you to brighten the display in bright sunlight conditions (It works well!!) and the other is to set a High Angle which allows you to hold the camera above your head and still view the screen clearly at that angle. This is handy when taking pictures over a crowd or over any obstacle that might be blocking you. [I’ve even turned the camera upside down to shoot a low picture without having to lay down. Crazy, I know.]

VIEWFINDER: Another DSLR feature generally not found on P&S cameras, the view finder provides a color LCD view with 100% coverage. Plus it provides a 4/-4 diopter adjustment.

DISPLAY GRIDS & HISTOGRAM: Pressing the Display button multiple times enables various display options. One is a rule of thirds grid which helps you compose and frame shots. Another is an active Histogram which provides a visual graph of how light is distributed across the picture. I find it very useful in making EV adjustments in a hurry.

FLASH: It has a pop up flash. You have to press the pop up button to get any of the flash menu items to work.

BATTERY & CHARGER: The FZ18 comes with a 710ma battery. It has reasonable life and the LCD Monitor provides a battery status indicator to show you when the battery is starting to need a charge. I like that the charger is a small box without cables that is half the size of a pack of cigarettes. It has fold out blades to plug directly into an outlet so it’s easy to carry with you when traveling. These batteries allow you to top off the charge without damaging them.

LENS ATTACHMENTS: The FZ18 comes with an adapter and a lens hood for shading your lens on bright outdoor shots – very handy (but bulky). It also has a threaded lens body to allow you to add filters and additional lenses (with an adapter). The filters attach direct and I did buy a Tiffen Circular Polarizer (be sure to get circular and not linear) which really makes the sky colors pop.

RAW VERSUS JPG: Well this is certainly a DSLR feature. No one provides RAW format in P&S cameras. RAW is the picture data captured by the sensor before any camera processing is done. This gives you the greatest opportunity to do Post Processing on your pictures with either the included SilkyPix software or with other more elaborate programs like Photo Shop. [Check out Picasa for a free RAW reader/editor.] You can set to only store RAW or to store RAW JPG or JPG only – pretty impressive feature!

SUMMARY: I am very impressed with this camera and all of its SLR features. I like that it has a viewfinder which I find much easier to use when taking pictures of moving objects. And of course the 18x zoom really makes the camera valuable to me. Panasonic must have read my TZ3 review because they added the ability to store up to three Custom Scene settings. Plus added features like RAW, add-on lens capability just make this a great buy!

Of course, nothings perfect. I know there isn’t an alternative with this size lens but I hate having to put on (& take off) a lens cap – it won’t extend if you leave it on. Another thing is that if you use a tripod, you have to remove the camera to get to the memory card to remove it. And the printed manual leaves a lot to be desired. I know it’s a complicated set of instructions but seems to me they have it all mixed up in the flow of the manual and don’t provide that good of an index. And even though this camera is loaded with almost everything, I wish they would have provided an option for a remote control. For tripod work, this would be extremely handy.

I highly recommend the FZ18 for anyone who takes wildlife pictures, landscapes, or kids in sports (while you’re in the stands). The camera should work for the novice and can also be a great bridge camera for DSLR owners and a learning camera for future DSLR owners.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Buy at least a 2Gig (or two 1MB) memory Card (High Speed) and a SD Card Reader. Downloading pictures direct from the camera is much slower than from a USB reader. Always use the highest Resolution and the highest Quality settings unless you need the Extended Zoom. You can always reduce the picture size and file size later on your computer but you can’t add more mega pixels later. Buy a second battery even though this camera will take a boatload of pictures per charge.

CAUTION: If you find this camera for $50 or more dollars less than everyone else, its probably not a good deal. Several internet sellers (Broadway Photo for example) offer super prices but when you try to buy, they tell you the camera doesn’t have a battery, charger or other items and by the time they finish with you, you will have spent a lot more than going to a reputable on line store like Adorama, BHPhoto, JR.com, Amazon to name a few. Check out potential internet sellers at the site below for Reseller Review before you place an order.

LINKS: Cut & Paste into your browser:
Excellent information on FZ18 specs and data: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz18/

Reseller Review:
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Broadway_Photo

Photo Composition: http://photoinf.com/General/Wendy_Folse/Composition_Part_I_Theme_Emphasis_Simplicity_Rule_of_Thirds.htm

Hope I’ve helped in your buying decision.