Marverel
Member
Hey all
We just returned home to Germany from an 8-days-trip to New York City - and since there's this world famous B&H shop at 9th Ave, we had to visit them of course (well I had - my wife would have been fine without stopping there, I guess...)
We left the shop with a brand new Panasonic FZ18, replacement for my wife's FZ5 (first she did not really want a new camera, but she loves the super zoom and as soon as she heard that the new one's got an 18x lens instead of her old 12x, she had been convinced ;o) )
During the following week we shot abut 800 pictures with that new toy - and we both love it.
Here are our first impressions:
Bottom line: THis is a great little camera and a BIG improvement over the first few FZ models. Would definitely buy it again!
So here are some sample pics from New York. All pics without any post-processing, just resized and slightly sharpened in IrfanView:
Full wide-angle here and no visible distortions at the straight lines
The same scene with full telephoto
Difficult lighting conditions here at Times Square, but I think the camera did very well
Again a very contrasty scene
The former New Jersey railroad station
ISO 800 shot at Ellis Island museum
The Wall of Honor on Ellis Island
No explanation necessary, I guess...
Again - very difficult scene, but nice picture, I think
At Union Square
St. Luke's Place in Greenwich Village - VERY contrasty, but the picture is just fine (you can't avoid blown-out parts here completely)
Manhattan Skyline at dawn
Museum of Natural History, handheld at 1/8 s
This is the only shot that has been processed - a HDR image combined from 3 bracketed shots (from Top of the Rock)
Hope you like it
)
--------
Martin
Shooting with
Panasonic FZ18
and Canon 10D
We just returned home to Germany from an 8-days-trip to New York City - and since there's this world famous B&H shop at 9th Ave, we had to visit them of course (well I had - my wife would have been fine without stopping there, I guess...)
We left the shop with a brand new Panasonic FZ18, replacement for my wife's FZ5 (first she did not really want a new camera, but she loves the super zoom and as soon as she heard that the new one's got an 18x lens instead of her old 12x, she had been convinced ;o) )
During the following week we shot abut 800 pictures with that new toy - and we both love it.
Here are our first impressions:
- Size is very good. Just a little bigger and a tad heavier than the FZ5, but not that much. Still fits into my wife's handbag (most important) and she says handling is even better than it was with her old camera
- The lens is amazing. Sharp from edge to edge, no noticeable distortions throughout the whole zoom range. And no flare problems
- The new EVF is a MAJOR improvement over the one used in the FZ5. I always hated these kind of viewfinders, but I find myself using this one more often than the display (which is good too, even in bright sunlight)
- Colour reproduction is very good, though from time to time you might notice these slightly "off" panasonic type blues, that make skies look a little too cyan. But I think there's an improvement over the FZ5 as well.
- Noise levels are ok, better than I had expected. ISO 100 and 200 is just fine, at 400 noise is noticeable, ISO 800 images lack some detail but you can still use them (though not for very large prints, I guess)
- Battery life has been improved too (the FZ18 now uses the same battery as the FZ50). Fully charged it's good for around 400 shots
- The "intelligent Auto" mode seems to work very well. My wife used it almost exclusively and her pictures are just fine. The camera even managed to handle very difficult, contrasty scenes quite well.
Bottom line: THis is a great little camera and a BIG improvement over the first few FZ models. Would definitely buy it again!
So here are some sample pics from New York. All pics without any post-processing, just resized and slightly sharpened in IrfanView:
Full wide-angle here and no visible distortions at the straight lines
The same scene with full telephoto
Difficult lighting conditions here at Times Square, but I think the camera did very well
Again a very contrasty scene
The former New Jersey railroad station
ISO 800 shot at Ellis Island museum
The Wall of Honor on Ellis Island
No explanation necessary, I guess...
Again - very difficult scene, but nice picture, I think
At Union Square
St. Luke's Place in Greenwich Village - VERY contrasty, but the picture is just fine (you can't avoid blown-out parts here completely)
Manhattan Skyline at dawn
Museum of Natural History, handheld at 1/8 s
This is the only shot that has been processed - a HDR image combined from 3 bracketed shots (from Top of the Rock)
Hope you like it
)--------
Martin
Shooting with
Panasonic FZ18
and Canon 10D
