Product Reviews from people like you
Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera
based on 136 reviews
Ratings Distribution
| 5 star |
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93 |
| 4 star |
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38 |
| 3 star |
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2 |
| 2 star |
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2 |
| 1 star |
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- “excellent but complex” – wolf
- “In love with the FZ18!!” – LadyHawke9973
- “Quality camera, a few drawbacks” – Mr. Null
Provided by OneCall
Big Zoom, Small Camera
Experience the power of an incredible 18x optical zoom in a 8.1-megapixel camera that fits in the palm of your hand. From vast landscapes to super telephoto shots, the DMC-FZ18 gives you crisp, stunning images using a 28mm wide-angle Leica DC Vario-Elmarit lens. For macro shots, the wide-angle setting lets you shoot all the way down to one centimeter from your subject, while the telephoto setting can be used up to one meter (3.28 feet) from your subject. With the Extended Optical Zoom function, zoom power is boosted to around 28.7x (in 3-megapixel resolution mode).
Intelligent Auto Technology Delivers Perfect Shots Every Time
Say good-bye to complicated settings. Just turn the dial to iA and the DMC-FZ18 will not only help eliminate blurring from hand-shake or subject movement, but it will also detect up to 15 faces and automatically select the focus, exposure and scene modes for the best results.
MEGA O.I.S. Prevents Blurring from Hand-Shake
Camera shake is the number one cause of blurry, out-of-focus pictures. That's why Panasonic Lumix digital cameras come equipped with advanced Optical Image Stabilization (MEGA O.I.S.) that detects even the tiniest camera movement, then automatically adjusts the lens to compensate. With MEGA O.I.S., you're ensured sharp, clear pictures every time without any loss of image detail or clarity.
Intelligent ISO Control Helps Prevent Motion Blur
Thanks to Intelligent ISO, Panasonic Lumix digital cameras capture crisp, clear images even when your subject moves as you shoot. Advanced subject-motion detection circuitry senses when your subject is moving and raises the camera's ISO sensitivity and shutter speed settings accordingly. This suppresses motion blur and also makes it easy to shoot scenes with fast moving action.
Face Detection for Blur-Free Portraits
The new Face Detection function automatically chooses the optimal settings to make sure faces appear well-lit and in focus. This advanced technology can detect up to 15 faces in a scene, and will even automatically readjust the settings if their positions change. In Intelligent Auto Mode, the camera automatically begins focusing even before you press the shutter button, so you'll never miss an opportunity for a great shot.
Scene Detection Chooses the Mode That Best Fits the Situation
With your Panasonic Lumix digital camera in Intelligent Auto Mode, the Intelligent Scene Selector will sense the ambient conditions and automatically select either the Scenery, Portrait, Macro, Night Portrait or Night Scenery mode accordingly. With the camera choosing the settings for you, you'll get beautiful results every time you shoot, no matter what the scene or subject.
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Product Reviews
Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera Reviews
Customers most agreed on the following:
pros
cons
- Poor in low light (9)
- Lag / shutter delay (7)
- Noisy at high iso (7)
- Lcd fragile/scratches (5)
- No image stabilization (3)
- Poor controls (2)
- No external flash or shoe (2)
Best Uses
- Travel (101)
- Fun (87)
- Photojournalism (26)
- Art (24)
- Documentary (18)
- Outdoors (12)
- Portraits (12)
- Home (10)
Most helpful positive review
[6 of 6 customers found this review helpful]
Most helpful negative review
[7 of 11 customers found this review helpful]
In love with the FZ18!!
"After 4 years, it finally became a necessity to replace my dependable but slow shutter speed Olympus Stylus 400. I am a typical home user of a camera, but I want to keep up with my zooming 5 year old, whether she's on the soccer field, or in the dance studio...and get the shot that I see in my mind's eye. After reading everything I could get my hands on, out of all the variables on cameras, I finally decided t..." Read Full Review »
Jul 08, 2008 by LadyHawke9973
Returned it.
"Bought this camera as a birthday gift for my fiancee. I'm a semi-pro and she's a hobbyist. We both looked over stellar reviews on here and other sites and decided that for the price, it can't get much better (when compared to it's "contemporaries") The camera came in, it looked great, so many awesome features and everything. But when it came to taking the shots, it was horrible in low-light. The manual focus op..." Read Full Review »
Feb 24, 2008 by DIGImmortal Photo
Displaying 1 - 5 of 136 Reviews
Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera Review
excellent but complex
- Easy to use
- Simple controls
Pros
Cons
- Art
- Fun
- Travel
Best Uses
"Excellent in all respects but one - exposure bracketing goes away every time the camera is turned off or auto-hibernates. Since exposure bracketing is critically important to getting the right color in many situations, having to reset the bracketing is a bit annoying."
[6 of 6 customers found this review helpful]
Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera Review
In love with the FZ18!!
- Good manual controlsss
- Large clear lcd
- Quiet
- Short lag time
- Simple controls
- Well built / quality
Pros
- Noisy at high iso
Cons
- Art
- Documentary
- Family photos
- Fun
- Kids
- Photojournalism
- Travel
Best Uses
"After 4 years, it finally became a necessity to replace my dependable but slow shutter speed Olympus Stylus 400.
I am a typical home user of a camera, but I want to keep up with my zooming 5 year old, whether she's on the soccer field, or in the dance studio...and get the shot that I see in my mind's eye. After reading everything I could get my hands on, out of all the variables on cameras, I finally decided that for me, the three biggest must haves were:
1) a fast start up/fast shutter response
2) a good zoom/image stabilization
3) good quality images to print
The Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ18 has all that and more than I could want.
I used a PNY Optima 60x 2GB SD card, and filled it in two days...just with playing around with pics and video.
Start up speed:
I can grab the camera from the bag next to me, and with one hand be turning it on, choose its setting, and the other hand taking the cover off...and by the time I have the camera in front of my face, it's ready to take the picture I'm seeing. It's usually ready before I am!
Shutter lag minimal:
While I think the only way to ALWAYS get the shots I want is to take that step up to SLR, this camera gets the majority of the shots I want...and would get more if I started a bit earlier and used burst mode, instead! I'm VERY happy with the low lag time on this camera.
Zoom/Image Stabilization:
I'm just astounded by this camera. Considering the HUGE zoom factor, Im just floored by the clarity of the picture, and how confident one can be just by looking at the EVF. The image is there, it's stable, and waiting for you to hit the button. Add to that, it uses the stabilization factor in its camcorder mode, and one might think I'd mounted the thing on a tripod! Excellent!
Good Quality Images:
The Leica lens makes this a bit of a cheat, but that was part of the draw for me. Image quality is fantastic, and looks great on not only the camera screen, but on my computer screen, and on paper.
Others have mentioned no zoom on the camcorder mode...they're right...you can't control the zoom once you're recording in camcorder mode. HOWEVER. If you're already zoomed in before hitting 'record', then it stays zoomed in. You can't zoom out without stopping the recording, so that's a drawback, but this is not a camcorder...its a digital camera with a camcorder mode...I'll take it!
Finally, this camera goes from "camera settings for dummies" in the Intelligent Auto mode, to you being able to manually set ANYthing you want. It makes it a fabulous learning piece.
All in all, this is an excellent camera with more features than I know what to do with. And the add-on of the camcorder ability just makes it more of a value as I won't have need of a camcorder, now...the quality is that good!.
Looking forward to a good, long relationship with my FZ18!"
4th of July at 10 PM in Night Illuminations mode
- Made with Product
- Using Product
Soccer clinic...in Sports Mode (still learning!)
- Made with Product
- Using Product
- Casual user
[8 of 8 customers found this review helpful]
Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera Review
Quality camera, a few drawbacks
- Easy to use
- Long battery life
- Nice features
- Rugged
Pros
- Noisy at high iso
Cons
- Home
- Outdoors
- Travel
Best Uses
"I've put the FZ18 through its paces, and it does have a staggering array of features - almost too many. It has built-in noise reduction, which I find ends up making the pictures a little smeared-looking, and higher ISOs are very noisy. In the manual modes you can set a max ISO, which is helpful. It's really worth the effort to do this, because anything over ISO400 tends to get really noisy. It's also worth the time to turn the noise reduction down a notch.
The lens is, however, fantastic, as is the zoom. The "Extra Zoom" at lower resolutions is essentially just a crop job/digital zoom on a full-res image, but it works and at a reasonable 5MP you can get 23x zoom with little distortion. The 28mm-equiv wide angle also comes in handy, and is of decent quality for a camera at this price point. Image stabilization works well, although if you have shaky hands in low light no amount of image stabilzation can compensate for wobble at a slow shutter.
I've found that the camera does require a little tweaking for personal taste - for me the default saturation is a little drab and the white point is a little cold - it's something that I've had to hunt through menus to rectify. However, that's a matter of personal opinion - I thought my last Canon had the opposite problem.
It's nice that this works like a point-n-shoot, but with some more advanced options for the not-quite-read-for-DSLR market. It's a decent picture-taker, is pretty sturdy, not too heavy, and is a comfortable camera to just shoot picture after picture with."
Swan, with high zoom and Image Stablization
- Made with Product
- Hobbyist/Enthusiast
[3 of 4 customers found this review helpful]
Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera Review
Great Camera short of a DSLR
- Large clear lcd
- Quiet
- Short lag time
- Simple controls
- Well built / quality
Pros
- Some pics are grainy
Cons
- Fun
- Photojournalism
- Sports
- Travel
Best Uses
"I wanted this camera because of the extended zoom and I am very pleased. There is nearly no purple fringing at longest zoom! It gets me right out on the baseball field! It is light weight so much easier to carry than my DSLR. Sometimes when you just want tp have fun you don't want to carry around a heavy camera!"
Sample photo
- Made with Product
- Using Product
Sample photo
- Made with Product
- Using Product
- Hobbyist/Enthusiast
[4 of 5 customers found this review helpful]
Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera Review
I love this camera!
"This camera and the DMC-FZ7 are by far the best digital cameras. I started out with the FZ7 and wanted an upgrade, so I bought this one, the quality of this camera is great, easy to use, great features, clear pictures. I love this camera, and I also think it is a lot better then all the other brands out there. This one just takes way better pictures."
Scene Mode "Pet"
- Using Product
Scenery "Nature"
- Using Product
- Hobbyist/Enthusiast
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