Introduction

Ease of Use

On the lookout for a consistent performing pocket zoom offering point and shoot simplicity and decent results without the need to spend a king's ransom? Panasonic is normally a reliable first stop. The 16.1 effective megapixel, 4x optical zoom Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 is one of two new slim-line pocket shooters from the brand for 2011, the other being the 14.1 megapixel FS16 which naturally sits just below it in the 'FS' (fashionable and stylish) range.

Both cameras boast an optically image stabilised wide-angle 28mm equivalent Leica branded lens - here extending up to 112m at the telephoto end - shoehorned into their slender 18.8mm depth. We also get an f/3.1 maximum lens aperture and 1/2.33-inch CCD sensor. Overall dimensions are 94.3x53.5x18.8mm, and the FS18 weighs a very manageable 121g with battery and SD memory card (104g without), pulling off that trick of feeling portably lightweight held in the palm, yet reassuringly sturdy when grasped tighter. The slender portions ensure it meets the demands of current fashion - eye appeal being buy appeal - with the black finish accentuating its dinky-ness. Other than that it's the usual boxy Panasonic rectangle; in other words nothing we haven't seen before.

As well as stills, 1280x720 pixels High Def video clips are further offered, here at 24fps and recorded in Motion JPEG format. Both are composed and reviewed via the aid of adequately visible if nothing special 2.7-inch, 230k dot resolution LCD, here presented in 4:3 aspect ratio with a 100% field of view, images written to optional SD card or 70MB internal memory straight out of the box. The screen is also auto adjusting according to ambient brightness levels, with 11 incremental steps for it to choose from. If you want to opt for the extremities of digital zoom, or as Panasonic calls it the 'Extra Optical Zoom', then this can be boosted up to a 36x equivalent, with inevitable resolution drop. Conversely, macro focus is down to 5cm from your subject, which isn't bad at this end of the market whilst at the same time hardly class leading.

In terms of image processing the FS18 sports a latest generation engine in the impressively monikered Venus Engine IV, which not only provides response times that in truth are average for its class, but also what Panasonic describes as Intelligent Resolution technology. Selectable by drilling down into the menus, the latter claims to detect and suitably enhance three areas of an image - outlines, detailed textures and areas of soft gradation - and purportedly does this pixel by pixel to achieve optimum results.

Like the FS37 further up the range, it's no surprise to find that the FS18 offers up to a maximum ISO6400 light sensitivity, as this is standard issue for the Lumix range, but this is only achievable if the camera itself opts for it in High Sensitivity low light mode. Otherwise the manually selectable top setting is a more modest ISO1600, perhaps an indication of the need to minimize possible noise arising from cramming so many pixels on an average sized CCD sensor. We'll see how it gets on in our 'image quality' section.

One of the most enticing features of the otherwise fairly modest FS18 is the price, this compact being an affordable £159.99 on its manufacturer's e-shop. We found prices closer to £130 elsewhere at the time of writing, which is much more like it and brings the Panasonic into line with the impressive if slightly smaller and thus fiddlier Nikon Coolpix S3100.

As, like that rival, the FS18 is a point and shoot camera first and foremost it's also no surprise to find intelligent Auto mode, now backed up with AF tracking and shadow/highlight enhancing intelligent exposure, featuring. There are 28 scene modes to choose from, with the camera's own Intelligent Scene Selector choosing from six modes to suit most common scenes or subjects: that sextet being macro, portrait, scenery, night portrait, night scenery and sunset. Largely reliable it is too. The above seem to be standard issue for the Lumix range this year, as this specification is identical to the FS37 model we were testing alongside this.

While those two cameras also look similar, they're not identical. From the front the svelte FS18 is your standard, unthreatening snapshot, though the mirrored chrome outer ring surrounding the retractable lens is a nice touch. Intentionally or otherwise, it lets the user catch sight of their face to enable self-portraiture.

Front	Rear

Above this and top left of the faceplate is a thin sliver of a window housing the built in flash; it's so slim it's almost like the flash is embarrassed to be there and is retreating within the bodywork. Having said that, the bulb's sufficiently far away from the edge of the camera to prevent the forefinger wandering accidentally in front when gripping the FS18 in the right hand, your thumb coming to rest on a pad of nine raised nodules at the rear to prevent slippage.

Otherwise as expected there's no grip at all to the attractive brushed metal front, just a semi circular chrome slither at the right hand edge. Portability not just practicality is the order of the day.

The FS18's top plate is similarly straightforward in terms of control layout, the main button being a large and obvious shutter release encircled by a lever for operating the zoom, with a ridged upper edge to promote purchase. This sits next to an old-fashioned on/off lever switch that there's certainly no mistaking, itself residing next to a pin prick of a built in microphone.

Flick the power switch and within a couple of seconds the rear LCD screen blinks into life and the lens extends to maximum wideangle setting ready for the first shot. This action is accompanied by a gnat-like mechanical buzzing, so it's disappointing but not wholly unexpected to find that the optical zoom is disabled when shooting movies. Although it does make a low grinding noise when utilized in stills mode, it isn't the loudest or most intrusive we've heard, so in this respect we feel Panasonic was perhaps being a little overly cautious. In stills mode the lens moves relatively sluggishly from maximum wideangle to extreme telephoto in around three seconds. There's no separate 'quick zoom' button as on the FS37.

A half press of the shutter release button and the FS18's LCD screen reveals the camera making its adjustments, the shot temporarily blurring before snapping into focus a second later. AF point/s are highlighted in green with an accompanying beep of confirmation that the shot is yours for the taking.

Squeeze the shutter release button fully and with minimal shutter lag (officially 0.007 seconds) a maximum 16 megapixel JPEG is committed to memory in the standard 2-3 seconds, screen momentarily blacking out before displaying a frozen frame of the image being stored; all pretty expected.

This being one of the cheaper Lumix models, the straightforward approach continues with a switch on the backplate for flicking between capture and playback modes. This unfortunately means that, as a time saver, a simple half squeeze of the shutter release won't propel the user back into capture mode if a fresh photo opportunity unexpectedly presents itself (as is the case with a standalone playback button) - the actual switch has to be thrown first. But we can live with this - lightning fast response times aren't what this camera is being sold on, but rather a reasonable amount of style for a modest outlay, which is its chief recommendation.

The other backplate controls are similarly no-nonsense for the entry-level user, being few in number and easily distinguishable. Rather than a bottle top style dial adorning the rear, we have a simple mode button.

Front	Top

A press of this when in record mode and we're presented with a choice of five shooting options, displayed as lozenge-shaped icons grouped in the centre of the screen. As this isn't a touch screen model these are highlighted with a tab back and forth of a standard issue circular command pad - the largest control found on the backplate - your choice selected with a press of the equally familiar menu/set button at its centre.

The five shooting modes displayed here are iA (intelligent Auto), which on the FS18 makes do with its screen icon rather than separate button of models higher up the Lumix range. We additionally have regular Program Auto (here called 'Normal' shooting mode), 'MS' mode - not manual shooting, but rather 'My Scene' mode - along with secondary standalone Scene mode, and finally, video shooting mode, again in lieu of a dedicated backplate button with which to begin recording. If you're wondering what the difference between the two scene modes - which present the exact same pre-optimised selections - are, then with My Scene mode the user is able to select their favourite setting and leave that as a default to be quickly returned to. There's not an actual manual mode - with the FS18 it's 'auto everything' point and shooting all the way.

If you alternatively flick the switch to playback, four grouped options are presented centre of screen: normal play(back), slideshow, filtering play (playback either by picture type/category, or those earmarked as favourites only) plus a calendar option - viewing images by the date they were taken.

At any point, a separate button just below and to the right of the control pad handily lets the user go back to a previous selection. The same button also doubles up as a dedicated delete button when the camera is in playback mode, plus Q.Menu (Quick menu) button when in image capture mode. As it sounds the latter brings up a toolbar of key shooting functions on screen to save otherwise having to drill down into menu lists to change the likes of ISO speed, if in Normal shooting mode that is. In iA mode these options are simplified further, being pared down to changing resolution, opting for continuous capture rather than single shot, and switching between 'standard' default colour mode and 'happy', black and white, or sepia options.

You don't get the colour options in Normal mode, but you do get the additions of being able to turn image stabilisation on or off, swap AF mode from 1-area to 11-area to AF tracking or face detection. White balance, ISO and monitor settings can also be adjusted in this capture mode, with the a high angle LCD mode offered for increasing visibility when shooting with the camera held at arm's length, or over the heads of a crowd.

Coming back to the camera's control pad for a moment, we find ranged at four points around this a means of adjusting exposure compensation (+/- 2EV), flash settings (auto, auto with red eye reduction, forced flash or disabled), switching to macro mode (with additional 'macro zoom' option), and lastly self timer.

An alternative press of the menu button and users are presented with a simple choice of two on-screen icons: record and set up. Again, these icons loom so large on screen that the initial instinct is to tap them directly to get a response (even though this isn't a touch screen camera), rather than use the pad alongside to get a reaction.

The record option provides four screens' worth of choices, including features also presented via the quick menu button. So here again we get the ability to adjust picture size, sensitivity, white balance, AF mode and the like, along with the intelligent exposure and intelligent resolution options - which can be switched on or off.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Most often we found ourselves dipping into the colour mode palette presented here to select the 'vivid' option to add a bit more punch and saturation to images than the default of 'standard' provided. Further choices include natural, black and white, sepia, cool and warm. Via the record menu the AF assist lamp can additionally be activated, along with automatic red eye removal, along with the image stabilizer - with a simple choice here of on or off.

The set up mode meanwhile offers adjustments of the usual suspects of volume and LCD display, along with the ability to format the type of memory in use and start from scratch - a useful 'reset' button also provided to return the camera's settings to the factory defaults if someone else has been using it.

Finally, the last button on the camera's back is the display button. A press of this turns off the basic shooting information otherwise nestling in the corners of your frame, while a subsequent press leaves the information off but adds a nine zone compositional grid for those practicing their rule of thirds. A third press and we're back to normal with the shooting info on-screen.

You might not expect to find HDMI output on a model in this price bracket - although it's not unheard off - and sure enough the FS18 doesn't provide it; instead we find a joint port for standard AV and USB output hiding under a side flap, with a vacant lug for attaching a wrist strap located just above.

The bottom of the Lumix DMC-FS18 features a screw thread for a tripod ranged over at one far side, with a joint compartment for rechargeable lithium ion battery and vacant SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot over at the other edge, both protected by the usual flip-open door with lockable sliding catch.

Battery life is good for 260 shots, according to CIPA standards. In our experience we managed closer to 200, but then we were turning the camera on and off a lot during the course of the review to delve into its various features and functions.

So in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 we have a camera that is easy to use, has a reasonable smattering of features that, while they don't extend much beyond simply pointing and shooting, are in that respect befitting of a camera in the FS18's 'fashion and style' class.

But what of said point and shoot imagery? Does the Lumix transcend what we expect from a camera incorporating a retractable lens and small-ish sensor boasting a high pixel count, or very much perform as expected with both those attributes? Read on to find out…

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

It's pleasantly predictable to find well-saturated colours delivered by any Panasonic camera, and, with a further boost from vivid colour mode on occasion, that's exactly what we get from the Lumix DMC-FS18. Whilst they might not be the sharpest ever results we've seen from a digital camera under close scrutiny, for an entry-level point and shoot camera there's certainly sufficient detail to satisfy.

On sunny days, familiar bugbears including pixel fringing between areas of high contrast and clipped highlights are ever present, and you don't have to look particularly hard to find them either. As however our test samples show, we were able to get some very pleasing results with minimal experimentation, by simply re-composing the frame on occasion so the camera metered off a different area of the frame and delivered a more defined exposure and contrast. As there's physically marginally more of this camera to grip than the Nikon S3100, we also came across far less instances of camera shake at maximum telephoto, if at all.

Conversely, at maximum wideangle there is minimum barrel distortion and detail is pleasingly maintained edge-to-edge, so little room for complaint in terms of lens performance, given the low-ish outlay.

In terms of ISO performance, whilst we noticed that auto white balance wandered marginally from shot to shot, with noise beginning to creep in and the shots become softer at ISO400 upwards. While up to and including ISO800 is perfectly acceptable nonetheless, at ISO1600 edge detail is becoming distinctly fuzzy in appearance and there's a light speckled appearance across the entire frame - not just in the shadow areas. Usable at a push, but not a setting we'd want to use with regularity.

In High Sensitivity mode, selectable from amidst the scene modes, the image noise is gone, but so too has a lot of the detail, the lower resolution also resulting in an image that looks more overtly digital in appearance - a bit like a screen grab from a video stream.

Overall then, a performance from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 that is pretty much exactly as expected; while more demanding photographers will inevitably want to look elsewhere, those who are happy to point and shoot will also be equally content with the results here.

Noise

There are 5 ISO settings available on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 handled chromatic aberrations well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)	Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 are Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Forced On, Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Forced Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Forced Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Forced On - Wide Angle (28mm)
Forced Off - Telephoto (112mm)	Forced On - Telephoto (112mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Auto/Red-eye Reduction settings caused any red-eye.

Forced On	Forced On (100% Crop)
Auto/Red-eye Reduction	Auto/Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18's maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds in the Starry Sky mode, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 8 seconds at ISO 100. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 8 second setting the actual exposure takes 16 seconds.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Lens Extended

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

Sometimes it's difficult differentiating between Lumix models at the entry-level point and shoot end of the spectrum, so similar are they - and in truth there's nothing much here that we haven't seen before from the brand, albeit with a lower pixel count. It's a shame that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18's zoom cannot be used when recording movie clips, but then the zoom isn't the camera's main selling point.

Also pixel fringing is quite readily apparent and ideally you'd want to stick below ISO400 if shooting in lower light without flash. Alternatively there is the night shooting scene mode, the results from which can be quite impressive if you're using a tripod or flat surface. Apart from the fact that it introduces fringing and blown highlights, it's under clear blue skies that this camera excels, so the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 is an inexpensive option for someone looking to slip a cheap-ish camera into their holiday bag that will deliver usable results without having to pore over a manual on the train or plane.

In summary then the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 is a straightforward point and shoot for those users who want a camera they can pick up and start snapping with straightaway, rather than a model to trade up to in terms of expanded feature set and responsiveness.

Still, the sub-£150 price point reflects this, and those spending a little won't be expecting a lot. Whilst the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 is not a camera we can work ourselves into a frenzy of excitement about therefore, it is nevertheless another capable addition to the compact canon. For the money we'd suggest you can't go far wrong and although the FS18 is no great shakes in terms of specification, all things considered it gets a Recommended verdict nonetheless.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	4
Value for money	4.5

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS18 from around the web.

Specifications

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