By Jasmine Kamiko, CNET Asia
18/09/2007
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/digitalcameras/0,39005881,40930878p,00.htm

Meet a lightweight digital powerhouse that’s tough on quality, features and usability. Featuring 18x zoom and a 28mm wide-angle lens, this 8.1-megapixel digicam packs enough features to satisfy both amateurs and prosumers.

Design

Weighing 360g (or 407g with battery and memory card), the Lumix FZ18 steps in with a footprint that's considered compact for a camera of its class. Compared with the Canon S5 IS (450g with 10x optical zoom), the Lumix looks and feels sturdier despite its light weight.

     

For more details on the FZ18's design, click on the image.

Available in both silver and black, the metallic chassis looks like it can withstand quite a bit of wear-and-tear. The Leica wide-angle lens is protected by a high-gloss brushed metal lens ring and a secure lens cap.

The 2.5-inch TFT LCD display is big and bright enough for viewing even under strong sunlight. And like most Panasonics, the LCD has three brightness levels. Choosing the highest level will render the LCD so bright that its viewing angle is increased to the point you can hold the camera over your head and still see the screen. However, it still lags behind the Canon PowerShot S5 IS's flip-out swivel screen in terms of flexibility.

The viewfinder is equally usable as well. We particularly like the polished metal mode dial and the knurled design on its circumference (we assume it's for aesthetics and not to increase grip).

The grip area is made of rubberized texture with a contoured edge on the thumb area that fits nicely without adding bulk to the camera. While there're many buttons placed all over the body, it's not difficult to make sense of them. It helps that the keys have clearly labelled functions and are shaped/textured differently. The buttons on the camera top primarily control the focus and capture modes, while the ones on the camera back are for menu selections, including a little joystick.

A speaker is located to the right of the viewfinder and the camera doesn't come with a hotshoe, unlike the Canon PowerShot S5 IS.

Features

The best feature on the camera is by far it's LEICA wide-angle lens (28-504mm). Its 18x optical zoom is also another handy feature since no other camera in the same class offers that. Panasonic claims the lens has minimal distortion with corner-to-corner clarity.

One of the FZ18's new features is its Intelligent Auto mode--a meta feature that combines and automates previously separate features like MEGA O.I.S (optical image stabilizer), Intelligent ISO control, Face Detection and Intelligent Scene Selector. Simply, it means the FZ18 has the simplicity of a point-and-shoot with the speed and accuracy of a prosumer camera.

In practice, it's really as good as it claims. Just point the camera at a subject and it'll flash up an icon informing you which mode it's going to shoot the picture in. It's also pretty accurate. This can be a time-saver since you can choose not to fiddle around with the dial setting.

For potential buyers, do note that the Intelligent Auto Mode allows you to tweak only the aspect ratio, picture size, image stabilizer, burst and color mode. For stuff like white balance, ISO, image quality and autofocus area, you will have to switch back to the normal camera settings.

Aside from its Intelligent Auto mode which covers basic shooting needs, you can also get fancy with the scene selection mode which offers 14 preset scene settings. On top of that, there's an advanced scene mode for more frequently used ones-- portrait, scenery, sports and night portrait.

The camera also has an HD photo mode which means you can insert your SD/SDHC memory card into an HD-ready TV to playback your HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixel) photos.

Performance

In our Lab tests, the FZ18's time-to-first shot (2.9 seconds) compared disfavorably with other prosumer shooters like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 (2.1 seconds) and the Canon PowerShot S5 IS (1.3 seconds). However, its shot-to-shot times (0.9 second without flash, 1.08 seconds with flash) was one of the speediest. Its burst mode speed of 2.1 frames per second puts it slightly ahead of the Sony Cyber-shot H9 (2 frames per second).

Image Quality

Most of the images turned out pretty well. The contrast was good especially with the help of the auto modes. Focusing was fast and battery life was decent.

     

For more details on the shots taken with the FZ18, click on the image.

Image quality at ISO 200 was clean. However, slight noise was manifest at ISO 400 and we detected smudging at ISO 800, but this is common for most cameras at this price range. We found minimal barrel distortion at 28mm which was surprising for a wide-angle lens.

To maximize the FZ18's 18x zoom, the optical image stabilizer, at its highest setting, allowed us to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/125 second instead of the theoretical 1/500 seconds.

The exposure was accurate most of the time though the camera had a tendency to burn out highlights. In high-contrast pictures, we found little evidence of purple fringing.

In terms of battery life, Panasonic claims the FZ18 is capable of taking up to 400 pictures before running flat. In real-world usage, we clocked close to 300 shots by using the viewfinder for composition and the LCD for occasional picture-editing and deleting. This should be sufficient for a weekend holiday without any additional charging.

Conclusion

The FZ18 offers a host of powerful and interesting features for a camera of its class. It certainly rivals its competitors and provides great value for money. Its ease of use is of note for a user who isn't prepared to delve into a camera's manual exposure settings, but who wants something better than a point-and-shoot.