Panasonic DMC-FZ18

Reviewed October 2007

Image Quality

The DMC-FZ18 is a well-designed bridge camera that is equipped with a zoom that covers from the equivalent of a 28 mm to a 504 mm super telephoto, providing both a good wide angle and an excellent telephoto, all in a very compact package.

Optically, the Leica lens performs well at all focal lengths. It is, however, slightly softer focus at the widest angle, albeit quite uniformly across its field of view. Likewise, when used in macro mode, the lens exhibits a bit of barrel distortion if the subject is very close and the wide angle end is used.

It is also with some wide angle shots that contain strong contrasts that a chromatic aberration can become visible. But, since the aberration is comparatively light, if the RAW image format is used, Silkypix, or another program such as Adobe Photoshop CS3 that is able to read and provides tools to adjust RAW images, can be used to eliminate it completely.

At the telephoto end, however, there is no noticeable pincushion distortion, nor is there any visible chromatic aberration when the image contains a strong contrast. Moreover, sharpness is excellent using the default camera settings.

The DMC-FZ18 offers an increase in the zoom power that had been previously available on Panasonic cameras, pushing it from 12X to 18X. Indeed, the power of an 18X zoom is impressive, particularly when it is very effectively optically stabilized.

The DMC-FZ18 also increases the range of sensitivity that had been hitherto available with FZ series cameras, pushing it to a 1600 ISO maximum in most modes, and even past that to 3200 and 6400 ISO when the High Sensitivity mode is used. At these levels, however, like all other current cameras equipped with small CCDs, the results are not impressive. And, while the camera can capture an image is a very dark environment, it has a watercolour-like appearance and even at the reduced image size offered by the High Sensitivity mode, is best used at an even smaller size.

The rest of the sensitivity range of the FZ18 falls in step with most recent Panasonic cameras. Some shadow noise is detectable as of 100 ISO, increasing very slightly at 200 ISO and slightly more at 400 ISO. The 800 ISO level ushers in some colour noise which is amplified further as sensitivity climbs to 1250 and then 1600 ISO.

While noise is present, just as noticeable when the image is inspected at 100% on a monitor, are the artefacts produced by the JPEG compression.

The least compressed JPEG format of the FZ18 applies what would seem at first blush to be a reasonable compression ratio of 6:1 for most images. But, when the compression is applied to areas that contain some shadow noise, the process can sometimes lower the image sharpness, and introduce artefacts that have a near geometrical look.

Some adjustments to the Picture Adjustment option in the menu can be made to — in our opinion — improve the JPEG image quality of the FZ18. These are the same adjustments we had noted for the FZ8, another model in this series. Lowering the contrast and sharpness to -1 and boosting the noise reduction to +1 yields images that are noticeably smoother.

Still, in our opinion, the FZ18 yields its best image quality when the RAW format is used as it offers much greater control over the image.

With this model, Panasonic provides a RAW+JPEG format, useful when a quick image is needed. Regrettably the JPEG version of the image is only at the most compressed Standard quality, which clearly limits the usefulness of the JPEG image.

RAW images can be processed using Silkypix, the program Panasonic includes with the camera to process the RAW files. Or, if it is available, with another program that is capable of reading and processing RAW images.

Working from the RAW image, all sorts of things can be corrected with a few mouse clicks: chromatic aberration, lens distortion, noise of various types, in addition to all the more common adjustments such as colour balance, brightness, contrast and sharpness. Worth noting, Silkypix, the RAW software supplied by Panasonic, is fast and responsive, loading RAW images instantly and processing them nearly as fast.

While the DMC-FZ18 may lack a flash hot shoe, it is equipped with a pop-up built-in flash that is quite effective unless the subject is a macro subject. The flash has an effective range of 30 cm (1 ft) to 6 m (19.7 ft) when the sensitivity is set to Auto, which allows the camera to go up to 400 ISO. And, when set to 100 or even 200 ISO — sensitivity levels that are intrinsically less noisy — while the range is less it still covers an average room easily.

Left to its default settings for JPEG images, there is a chance that the DMC-FZ18 could disappoint its purchaser when the images are inspected closely. However, a bit of experimentation with the Picture Adjustment option of the REC. menu — regrettably only available when the camera is set to one of the advanced modes and the Program mode — should remedy that situation permanently. The DMC-FZ18 offers a lot of capability for the money, and those looking to a bridge camera would be well-advised to check it out.