Updated 14 Feb, 2012, 6:01 pm IST

REVIEWS / POINT AND SHOOT / PANASONIC INDIA PVT LTD

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18

12 Apr, 2008, 12:33 pm IST | Gagan Gupta | Point and Shoot

In our performance tests, the FZ18 gave some pretty good results, but first let's take a look at the one flaw I noticed consistently in all the images. Since the FZ18 uses a noise reduction engine to reduce noise at higher ISO sensitivity levels, it affects the overall sharpness of the images as a side-effect. This may not seem apparent initially, but on a closer look at the photos on a monitor at full zoom showed that the noise reduction engine also affected the finest of details, making it look a but smudgy.

This was mainly noticeable in landscape shots, where you tend to capture a lot of fine details. Still, this is not a fatal flaw in any way, and I'd say that the detail levels are still pretty good (as the image below can tell you), but perfectionist photographers may need to be warned.

Colors were very well reproduced by the FZ18. There were no issues with reds and greens, and as you can see in the picture below the minute color shifts were also well captured.

Low-light performance was great! As I mentioned earlier, it was possible to take a sharp picture at full 18x optical zoom without keeping the camera on a firm base, which says a lot.

Even the night shots gave excellent details with minimal noise, which is always well-appreciated in consumer cameras.

The battery life easily managed over 75 shots with and without the use of flash.

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Tags: Panasonic , digicam , digital camera , 8 megapixel

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