A Panasonic FZ18 Review: Ming Thein’s First Impressions

Posted by David Chin on September 4th, 2007 in Panasonic FZ18 Reviews


Here’s a superb FZ18 first impressions report written by Ming Thein (MT) based on a review unit he was given to play with.

It’s a very long forum thread, so I’ll just summarize below the main points from there:

  • The Panasonic FZ18 has better build and construction vs older Lumix FZ-series models. It is slightly larger but fits better in the hand.
  • It is a fast camera in operation, and it feels as snappy as his Panasonic TZ3.
  • AF (autofocus) lock speed is fast, even at the extreme telephoto end, which happens to be 504mm. (I might add that this is extremely good news, especially compared with the less-than-stellar AF performance of Olympus’ superzoom, the SP-550 UZ).
  • The FZ18 takes only about 2 seconds to write a RAW file to a Class 6 SDHC card.
  • FZ18’s outstanding lens quality (he declares it the best lens he’s seen in any fixed lens camera) means that Ming Thein was able to get distortion- and CA-free images that are sharper and contrastier throughout the zoom range than from his TZ3. He’s described the lens as easily being the best in the non digital SLR camera class, and besting some SLR lenses too.
  • Image noise levels and characteristics are similar to what you get from the TZ3, and NR (noise reduction) strength is adjustable in five levels (another post talks about the relative strength of NR -2 vs NR +2). MT says the FZ18 is better than the LX2 in terms of noise, same to slightly better than the FX100 and TZ3, and recommends an NR setting of -1 to have the best balance between retention of detail and reduction of noise.
  • Dynamic range is slightly less than the TZ3 (since there are more pixels on the FZ18), but still more than the FX100.
  • Color and AWB (automatic white balance) is less than satisfactory, resulting in wrong hues for skies and overly-saturated reds. In another post, he comments about FZ18 image noise levels and white balance.

Sample photos
Panasonic FZ18 Samples by Ming Thein
Ming Thein provided five FZ18 sample photos, post processed and resized, plus some additional comments:

  • The EVF (Electronic Viewfinder) is way below satisfactory, and it seems to only have half the resolution of the LCD (although Gaspaenr remarks that based on the FZ18 user guide, the FZ18’s EVF is no different from the the one on the FZ8 … and here’s a post linking to DPReview’s proclamation that the EVF on the FZ8 was the best in the market at the time it was released.)
    Ming Thein notes further that the 188,000 pixels in the FZ18’s EVF makes it much better than the one on, say, the Canon Powershot S2 IS.
  • Battery life is average – he managed 100 shots before the indicator showed half. This is probably expected since the battery’s power is only rated at 740mAH. For comparison’s sake, he’s able to get about 500 – 600 shots on a single charge with his TZ3.
  • Shot of the sparrow shows off the nice bokeh of the lens at 504mm focal length
  • No CA (chromatic aberration), PF (purple fringing) or vignetting in the corners of the sky shot
  • An ISO 400 and ISO 800 sample. The ISO 800 photo was shot at full telephoto (504mm) and Ming Thein was hugely impressed with the Mega OIS (Panasonic’s Optical Image Stabilizer technology to reduce image blur from hand shake) on the FZ18, which he found to be superior to that in his TZ3.

Miscellaneous comments:

« FZ18 vs TZ3: Lens Construction
Panasonic FZ18 Manuals and User Guides: Where to Download? »

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