New - Panasonic DMC-FZ18 - 28

New - Panasonic DMC-FZ18 - 28 - 504mm zoom

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David J Taylor - 02 Aug 2007 08:06 GMT

See:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0707/07072402panasonicfz18.asp

With a Leica 28mm wide-angle lens and 18x image-stabilised optical zoom.

Cheers,
David

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measekite - 03 Aug 2007 23:43 GMT

> See:
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> David
>

I am curious to read the reviews. The sensor and the Venus III
processor appears to be the same except the cramming an extra 1 MP in
there. So we have a wider longer slower lens. I wonder if either the
noise is worse or the smearing of the artifacts is worse or possible
both when compared with the FZ8.

I am wondering is the long zoom digital (all of them including the Canon
S5) have hit a wall and larger sensors are necessary to get improved and
larger image quality. If so Canon has the most to gain/lose since the
want to improve the S5 to keep up with the competition but to not want
to tread on their entry level DSLR's.

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David J Taylor - 04 Aug 2007 06:10 GMT

>> See:
>>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> gain/lose since the want to improve the S5 to keep up with the
> competition but to not want to tread on their entry level DSLRs.

Yes, although the earlier Panasonics (5MP) can produce excellent images,
the Venus III engine does not seem to make the best JPEG conversions, and
RAW is perhaps the better way to go, at the expense of more
post-processing time and effort. Beware the reviews - almost invariably
they look at the pictures at 1:1 zoom, and not at the size that a normal
viewer would use. The FZ18 does include RAW.

Having the wider zoom will be significantly useful, and a major gain for
users of the FZ18.

Yes, it would be better if these cameras went back to 5 - 6MP rather than
looking for 8 - 10MP. It's more in keeping with the lens capability, and
would reduce the visible noise. There is some hope though that sensors
can be improved, both through quantum efficiency gains and through
organisational improvements (like the Kodak "half pixels are white" idea).

If you make the sensor too large, though, you end up with a camera like
the Sony R1 - as big, heavy and expensive as a DSLR and yet not as
versatile, and therefore one that doesn't sell!

Cheers,
David

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measekite - 10 Aug 2007 17:58 GMT

David J Taylor wrote:

measekite wrote:

David J Taylor wrote:

See:

  http://www.dpreview.com/news/0707/07072402panasonicfz18.asp

With a Leica 28mm wide-angle lens and 18x image-stabilised optical
zoom. Cheers,
David

I am curious to read the reviews.  The sensor and the Venus III
processor appears to be the same except the cramming an extra 1 MP in
there.  So we have a wider longer slower lens.  I wonder if either the
noise is worse or the smearing of the artifacts is worse or possible
both when compared with the FZ8.
I am wondering is the long zoom digital (all of them including the
Canon S5) have hit a wall and larger sensors are necessary to get
improved and larger image quality.  If so Canon has the most to
gain/lose since the want to improve the S5 to keep up with the
competition but to not want to tread on their entry level DSLRs.


Yes, although the earlier Panasonics (5MP) can produce excellent images, 
the Venus III engine does not seem to make the best JPEG conversions, and 
RAW is perhaps the better way to go, at the expense of more 
post-processing time and effort.  Beware the reviews - almost invariably 
they look at the pictures at 1:1 zoom, and not at the size that a normal 
viewer would use.  The FZ18 does include RAW.

I like the 1:1 reviews as I would like to print letter size and an occasional 11x14.

Having the wider zoom will be significantly useful, and a major gain for 
users of the FZ18.

I would like that lens also but not slower than the ones offered today.

Yes, it would be better if these cameras went back to 5 - 6MP rather than 
looking for 8 - 10MP.  It's more in keeping with the lens capability, and 
would reduce the visible noise.

The S5 appears to be less noisy than the Pan FZ8 at ISO200 and even ISO400. It got rave reviews from all reviewers except for Popular Photography. They contradicted all other reviews on both Canon (worse) and Sony H9 (better). Those reviews were so contradictory that I wonder if advertising dollars had something to do with that.

There is some hope though that sensors 
can be improved, both through quantum efficiency gains and through 
organisational improvements (like the Kodak "half pixels are white" idea).

If you make the sensor too large, though, you end up with a camera like 
the Sony R1 - as big, heavy and expensive as a DSLR and yet not as 
versatile, and therefore one that doesn't sell!

That is the challenge.

I would like to see a lighter somewhat smaller version of the Canon Digital Rebel XTi with all of the features of the Canon S5 but with a fixed lens of the quality (it is not as good as Nikon's kit lens) of the current kit lens and would sell for $400.00 and would have an EVR of 250,000 pixels or better. 10MP would be nice.

Cheers,
David

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guidezone@gmail.com - 28 Sep 2007 03:42 GMT

some useful here:
http://newdigitalfans.com/panasonic-lumix-dmc-fz18/

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