Superb composition and nice lighting make this image work very well.

In a word – stunning!

Be sure to read the image captions to distinguish between photos from the D70 vs from the FZ18.

More Indieke’s FZ18 photos can be seen at:

1. antilles_2008
2. Automne et été 2007
3. thailand_november_2007

How to correct for cyan skies in post processing – Ehrik suggests this quick fix in Photoshop, using selective color.

How not to blow out the skies – Blake shares an exposure (expose for the highlights plus +1/3 EV compensation) plus post processing tip that will help avoid (or at least minimize) the occurrence of blown highlights in the sky or clouds. Embedding a very nice sample photo in the post helps a lot too. Settings for that shot are: +1 Sharpen, -2 NR (noise reduction). Additionally, Ming Thein suggests it’s better to use the spot metering exposure mode as it’s often difficult to predict what the camera decides in matrix metering mode. Here’s more reading to do for those who are new to the technique of exposing for the highlights using the spot metering.

Triggering a slave flash – Ming Thein explains the required flash settings on the FZ18 in order to trigger a slave (remote) flash (a Nikon SB-800 in this case) wirelessly. This is needed since there is no PC flash connection feature on the FZ18. Another post goes into detail about using the guide number of the SB-800 flash and the relevant settings.

Here’s the download link for the FZ18 user guides.

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

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:

• You cannot zoom the lens while in movie mode, although the movie quality is pretty good even in low light.
• In this post, Ming Thein comments about lens and image quality of the FZ18 vs the Sony Cybershot DSC-H9. Midwest adds some related thoughts on the relative shortcomings of the Sony H9.
• For circular polarizers (CP), MT recommends Hoya Pro1 Digital, regular Hoya SMC and B+W. Diameter of the CP should be 46mm.
• Unfortunately, the FZ18 does not have a highlights warning function in record review (image playback) mode.
• The FZ18 informs you of the minimum focusing distance as you operate the zoom. MT provides the following numbers for zoom vs minimum focusing distance:
  At 1x: 1cm-infinity
  At 2x: 0.2m
  At 3x: 0.4m
  At 4x: 0.5m
  At 5x: 1m
  At 6x and above: 2m

He remarked how similar they were in design, and provided data summarizing the lens construction of three Panasonic camera models:
• TZ3: 11 elements in 9 groups, 3 asph lenses/4 asph. surfaces; 1 ED; f3.3
• FZ8: 11 elements in 8 groups, 3 asph lenses/3 asph. surfaces; 0 ED; f2.8
• FZ18: 11 elements in 8 groups, 3 asph lenses/4 asph. surfaces; 2 ED; f2.8

In a forum post, Ming Thein commented that the Yodobashi store already has the FZ18 listed.