Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 review

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 Review

Reviewed by: Rich Trenholm

Reviewed on: 19 November 2007

Performance
The FZ18 gives images that are crisp and vibrant. Exposures are well-handled and colours are rich and natural, although dynamic range is not as wide as we'd like, leading to some blown-out highlights. The huge lens shows almost no sign of distortion, even at the wide end.

Normal burst mode explodes out of the block with 2 frames per second -- for four shots. Switching to unlimited burst mode is more satisfying, filling a 2GB SanDisk Ultra II memory card in one go by snapping for 6 minutes and 32 seconds and showing no signs of stopping. That's an overall 1.5fps, although a faster card and a shorter time spent leaning on the shutter would probably yield 2fps.

This crop at ISO 1600 shows how well the FZ18 deals with noise. It's present but not hideous, while the noise reduction system has avoided smearing away detail

We expected noise to be a problem in low light situations, as the enormous zoom is saddled with an average-sized sensor. When noise threatens, you can cap the ISO speed by setting a maximum that still allows the camera to alter ISO level according to circumstances. A maximum of ISO 800 combined with Panasonic's excellent mega OIS system and unobtrusive noise reduction can rescue images in so-so light.

The option to shoot raw footage does allow some control over noise and noise reduction in post-processing with the bundled raw software. However, we found that the FZ18 produced crisp, well-controlled JPEGs and raw files were more useful for aesthetic adjustments than rescuing tainted images.

Conclusion
The Panasonic DMC-FZ18 is one of the two more expensive 8-megapixel 18x superzooms along with the Olympus SP-560UZ. The Fujifilm S8000fd weighs in at £200 but doesn't shoot raw. The FZ18 certainly justifies the expense with its dSLR-style controls, excellent image quality and myriad of features.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday