Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 Review

Review Date: December 3rd 2007
Author: Gavin Stoker

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-Use	4.5
Image Quality	4.5
Value for Money	3.5

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 is a bit of a jack of all trades – you can get crisp close ups with the minimum of fuss whether shooting from safe distance away, and also get cracking macro shots with the camera's lens practically resting on your subject matter. Plus, that 28mm wide angle lets you capture the whole scene before you without having to step back too far. The only things putting me off an unequivocal recommendation is that the zoom functionality is disabled when shooting video clips, the joystick that affords quick access to the most important settings in one go is too short, too small and thus tricky to operate, plus – that old argument again – you can now pick up a starter DSLR for round about the same price. That said, you won't have the same focal range, and will need a large and expensive optic to achieve anything near it. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 also allows you to shoot RAW files should you wish to do so, something that many super-zooms fail to offer alongside JPEG, so its features can't really be faulted. Plus, unless going for a particular mood whereby you'll want to override settings, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18's 'auto everything' Intelligent Auto Mode arguably produces results as good as, if not better, than most of us could achieve via hands-on adjustment. Overall though I don't feel as excited about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 as I feel I should be – perhaps there was too long for expectation to build between the initial announcement and a hands-on with pre-production models UK journalists had back in July, and a review sample becoming available. Or perhaps it's just that I've been lucky enough to get my mitts on the likes of Nikon's P5100 and Canon's S5 IS in the meantime. Admittedly neither of them share the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18's focal range, so if you favour getting up close and personal above all else, this is the super zoom to go for.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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