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LUMIX 8 Megapixel Camera With 18x Zoom

Experience the power of an incredible 18x optical zoom in a 8.1-megapixel camera that fits in the palm of your hand. New features include Face Detection and Scene Detection, enhanced ISO sensitivity and more. The LUMIX line just keeps getting better.

Weekend Wedding out of the box.... DSLR

Reviewed By: Wm Bill E. Martindale - North Ogden, Utah

Read everything said here before my purchase. Got it just in time to snap a weekend wedding we got pulled into helping.

4 Cameras going all the time and all at once, but the 18x Panasonic did the very best. It really did act like a SLR. Flash has excellent output.

Vids are a blast also.

Panasonic Lumix FZ18

Reviewed By: Shane Fletcher - Milwaukee, WI

We got it hours before our baby was born and it took some amazing pics and video with very little time to learn it.

The built-in 28mm Wide Angle lens is a joy to use... no more backing up from the dinner table, or the couch full of family to get that holiday shot, plenty of room for everyone. And the incredible optical zoom is as good as many rifle scopes.

My 3 year old shot a beautiful picture of her 2 brothers with this camera the first time she used it.

The image stabilization works great with video, and I love the 169 ratio for the videos. The videos are as steady as our Canon camcorder, but higher resolution.

The only negative with it is that similar to many digital cams the image in the screen disappears the second you click the shutter release... so if you are shooting a picture using redeye reduction flash you cannot see what you are actually framing in the picture for a whole second or more... you have to just hold it still and hope for the best.

Besides JPG, this camera shoots in RAW format too, if you want to choose that option, so you can create your own HDR images and tonemap them if you are an image geek.

I owned the FZ10 and upgraded for the option of the on-board wide angle lens, high-res video, and RAW format and am thrilled with it all... plus its lighter weight and a bit smaller than the FZ10.

Cant wait for the next version of Lumix that will presumably shoot video for HD TV res. besides the standard TV res of 640x480, the FZ18 shoots widescreen format at 169 Aspect Ratio 848 x 480 pixels 30 fps or 10 fps.

Excellent camera with great picture results!

Reviewed By: Cha Thao - Sacramento, California

This is my 3rd digital camera I own, of which the first two are Canon wit limited zoom and limited features. I bought the Panasonic DMC-FZ18S and heres my impressions and reviews after a couple of day of usage and playing with the cameras settings.

I love the camera mainly because it is equipped with a Leica lens. The picture quality taken is high resolution with great details! Another feature I bought the camera is the high power 18x optical zoom. I can be far away and still able to get a close shot of my subject. I can increase to 23x optical zoom at 5MP OR up to 28x optical zoom at 3MP! I also have the options to save my pictures in RAW format which is only available on high end DSLR, but now the RAW format is available on the DMC-FZ18.

Best of all, this is like a DSLR point and shoot camera at a great price! I didnt want to lug a DSLR camera along with big lenses around. With the DMC-FZ18, I get a fully loaded 28mm-504mm zoom!

The only thing I didnt like about the camera is that you can not use AAA battery, so you have to use the proprietary battery or purchase additional CGR-S006 battery for backups. If you plan on buying a backup CGR-S006 battery, make sure to buy one with higher amperage, as the one comes with the camera is only 750 mAH. I bought an additional CGR-S006 battery with a 1800mAH rated.

I also wished the flash would pop up when the flash is required. You have to manually release the flash, but its not a big deal. Youll see a message on the LCD screen when it needs the flash.

Overall, for beginners and advance photographers, this is a great camera! I would definitely recommend this camera. Once you are familiar with the manual settings, youll be amaze at what this camera can do!

New Lumix 18x Superb

Reviewed By: Bill Noyes - Tucson, AZ

Just got back from a week of using my new Panasonic FZ18. It met all of my expectations and then some. The telephoto is amazing and even handheld with almost full magnification, the shots were clean. I used it at a boat show so I needed to take wide angle shots inside boats and closeups from a distance. The 28 mm equivalent gave me gorgeous interior shots. I even took evening shots of a projection TV with a bit of backlighting on the people watching and it showed everything in great resolution. It did all with applomb. Took about 300 photos and had one bad when when I inadvertently just took the picture without pausing for a brief moment to let autofocus work.

Best of all, the menu system and the big screen made it totally intuitive. Never read the manual and it worked beautifully. I just used the iA setting for point and shoot. I cant wait to get into the more detailed commands for shooting.

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