Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 8.1-megapixel digital camera with 18X optical zoom

Features
Inputs and Outputs Notes
Supplied Software
Specifications

Features

Recording Media: The DMC-FZ18 records images on its built-in memory of approximately 27 MB. You can also record images onto SD Memory Cards, SDHC Memory Cards, and MultiMediaCards (still pictures only).

Optics: This camera is equipped with a Leica Vario-Elmarit lens with an 18x optical zoom, equivalent to a 28mm-504mm lens on a 35mm camera. If the picture size is not set to the highest setting for each aspect ratio, a maximum of 28.7x optical zoom can be achieved with no picture quality deterioration. This Extended Optical Zoom feature utilizes the center 5-million or 3-million pixels of the 8-million pixel CCD area, allowing a picture with a higher zoom effect.

Digital Zoom: Using the 4x digital zoom, a maximum of 72x can be achieved with the 18x optical zoom. If the chosen picture size allows for the use of the Extended Optical Zoom, a maximum zoom of 115x can be achieved, combining the 4x digital zoom and the 28.7x extended optical zoom.

Image Sensor: For optimal image quality, the camera uses a 1/2.5" CCD image sensor with approximately 8.32-million total pixels and 8.1-million effective pixels.

Image Recording Format: The camera records still images in JPEG and RAW formats. A 5-second audio clip can be recorded with JPEG images if desired. The camera can also record movies in Quick Time Motion JPEG format with audio.

Image Quality: You can set the image quality as follows:

• Fine: Low compression; gives priority to picture quality
• Standard: High compression; gives priority to the number of recordable pictures
• RAW: Uncompressed; must be processed on a PC
• RAW + JPEG: In addition to the RAW (uncompressed) image, the camera takes a standard equivalent JPEG image simultaneously

Image Resolution/Compression: You can change the resolution and compression settings to suit the purpose of the image you're about to shoot. You can choose from the following resolutions for still images:

• 4:3 Aspect Ratio:
  • 3264 x 2448 (8M): RAW, RAW + JPEG, Fine, Standard
  • 2560 x 1920 (5M): Fine, Standard
  • 2048 x 1536 (3M): Fine, Standard
  • 1600 x 1200 (2M): Fine, Standard
  • 640 x 480 (0.3M): Fine, Standard
• 3:2 Aspect Ratio:
  • 3264 x 2176 (7M): RAW, RAW + JPEG, Fine, Standard
  • 2560 x 1712 (4.5M): Fine, Standard
  • 2048 x 1360 (2.5M): Fine, Standard
• 16:9 Aspect Ratio:
  • 3264 x 1840 (6M): RAW, RAW + JPEG, Fine, Standard
  • 2560 x 1440 (3.5M): Fine, Standard
  • 1920 x 1080 (2M): Fine, Standard

Motion Pictures: In addition, you can shoot motion pictures in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, at the following resolutions and frame rates:

• 4:3 Aspect Ratio:
  • 640 x 480: 30 fps, 10 fps
  • 320 x 240: 30 fps, 10 fps
• 16:9 Aspect Ratio:
  • 848 x 480: 30 fps, 10 fps

MEGA Optical Image Stabilizer: MEGA O.I.S. technology helps solve the problem of unintentional hand movement that can result in blurry images, particularly with telephoto shots. You can choose from the following modes:

• Mode 1: the stabilizer operates continuously and can assist during photo composition
• Mode 2: the stabilizer function is in standby and activates at the moment the shutter captures the image. This mode offers a greater degree of stabilization.
• Off: when image stabilization is not desired or when using the camera with a tripod

Battery: The FZ18 comes with a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery (CGR-S006A) which gives you approximately 200 minutes of recording time, or about 400 images using the 2.5" LCD monitor or the LCD viewfinder. Playback time using the LCD monitor is approximately 420 minutes. The battery takes approximately 120 minutes to fully charge.

Viewfinder: The camera uses an LCD viewfinder with approximately 188,000 pixels and a field of view of nearly 100%. By adjusting the diopter knob to suit your eyesight (with or without eyeglasses), the viewfinder image will look clearer. There is a -4 to +4 adjustment.

LCD Monitor: The DMC-FZ18 has a 2.5" low temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD monitor featuring approximately 207,000 pixels. In recording mode, you can choose one of the following display modes:

• No Display: does not display any recording information
• Normal Display: displays recording information, including the following: recording mode, picture size, indicator, picture/time remaining, metering, etc.
• Display with Histogram: displays recording information with a histogram added. A histogram is a graph that displays brightness along the horizontal axis (black to white) and the number of pixels at each brightness level on the vertical axis. It allows you to easily check the way a picture is being exposed.
• Out-of-frame Display: The recording information is displayed out of the recording screen, therefore, you can take pictures without interruption by icons or others on the recording screen.
• No Display (Recording Guide Line): When you align the subject on the horizontal and vertical guide lines or the cross point of these lines, you can take pictures with well-designed composition by viewing the size, the slope and the balance of the subject.

Mode Dial: The mode dial allows you to choose from the following camera modes:

• Program AE: the camera automatically sets the shutter speed and the aperture value according to the brightness of the subject
• Intelligent Auto Mode: the camera will set the most appropriate settings to match the subject and recording conditions. Recommended for beginners.
• Aperture-priority AE: the shutter speed is automatically determined by the aperture value you set
• Shutter-priority AE: the aperture value is automatically determined by the shutter speed you set
• Manual Exposure: the exposure is adjusted by the aperture value and the shutter speed, which are manually adjusted
• Custom Mode: allows you to take pictures with one of three sets of previously selected settings (C1, C2, C3)
• Motion Image Mode: this mode allows you to record motion images with audio
• Print Mode: this mode allows you to print pictures when the camera is connected to a PictBridge-compatible printer via USB.
• Scene Mode: allows you to select from 14 different scene modes using the menu:
  • Food: for taking pictures of food with a natural hue without being affected by the ambient light in restaurants, etc.
  • Party: allows you to take a picture in a dim room (e.g. a wedding reception, a party, a banquet in a bar, etc.) clearly. The shutter speed or the exposure is automatically adjusted according to the brightness of the room.
  • Candle Light: for taking pictures in a candle-lit atmosphere
  • Sunset: for taking pictures of a sunset
  • High Sensitivity: select for high-sensitivity processing, automatically switching to between ISO1600 and ISO6400
  • Baby1/Baby2: two selectable settings for taking pictures of a baby
  • Pet: for photographing your pet
  • Panning: when you take a picture following the motion of a subject, which moves to a certain direction as a runner or a car, the background will show some motion blur. This special effect is called "panning."
  • Starry Sky: allows you to take vivid pictures of a starry sky or dark object
  • Fireworks: allows you to take beautiful pictures of fireworks exploding in the night sky. The shutter speed or the exposure is automatically adjusted for taking pictures of fireworks.
  • Beach: allows you to take vivid pictures of the blue color of the sea, sky, etc., and prevents under exposure of people under strong sunlight
  • Snow: allows you to take a picture in locations such as skiing resorts and locations near snowy mountains. The exposure and the white balance are adjusted to make the white color of the snow stand out.
  • Aerial Photo: allows you to take pictures through an airplane window
• Advanced Scene Modes: select these modes using the Mode Dial:
  • Portrait: allows you to make the subject stand out from an unfocused background and adjust the exposure and the hue to achieve a healthy complexion on the subject
  • Scenery: allows you to take a picture of a wide landscape
  • Sports: allows you to take pictures of a fast moving subject
  • Night Portrait: allows you to take pictures against a night landscape. The subject can be recorded with brightness in real life by using the flash and the slow shutter speed.
• Playback Mode: this mode allows you to play back recorded pictures

Flash Modes: You can choose from the following flash modes:

• Auto: the flash is automatically activated according to the recording condition
• Auto/Red-eye Reduction: the flash is automatically activated according to the recording condition. It reduces the red-eye phenomenon by triggering the flash at 1 second before actually recording the picture.
• Forced On: the flash is activated every time regardless of the recording condition
• Forced On/Red-eye Reduction: in the Party scene mode, the flash mode is set to Forced On/Red-eye reduction
• Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction: when you take a picture with a dark background landscape, this feature makes the shutter speed slow when the flash is activated, so that the dark background landscape will become bright. Simultaneously it reduces the red-eye phenomenon.
• Forced Off: the flash is not activated in any recording conditions

Self Timer: The self timer is useful when you want to include yourself in the picture when recording still images. The delay time for single shots can be set to 10 seconds or 2 seconds. You can also set the self timer to take 3 pictures after a 10 second delay. The second and third picture are taken in two second intervals after the first.

Exposure Compensation: If you are shooting against a bright background or strong backlight, you may need to correct the exposure so that the subject doesn't come out too dark. You can set the adjustments from -2 to +2 in 1/3-step increments.

Auto Bracket: In this mode, 3 pictures are automatically recorded by each press of the shutter button according to the compensation range of the exposure. You can select ±1/3EV, ±2/3EV, ±1EV or 0 EV (off).

Burst Mode: There are two continuous shooting modes:

• Normal: In normal burst mode, the camera takes approximately 3 pictures per second. In Standard compression, it will record up to a maximum of 7 pictures, while in Fine compression, up to a maximum of 4 pictures will be recorded.
• Unlimited: In unlimited burst mode, the camera takes approximately 2 pictures per second and will continue shooting until the capacity of the built-in memory or memory card is full.

White Balance: You can choose from the following white balance modes:

• Auto: automatically adjusts the white balance
• Daylight: for recording outdoors on a bright day
• Cloudy: for recording under a cloudy or shaded area sky
• Shade: for recording outdoors in the shade on a bright day
• Flash: for taking a picture with flash only
• Halogen: for recording under halogen lighting
• White Set 1/White Set 2: for using the preset white balance
• White Set: for setting the white balance again
• WB Adjust: allows you to finely adjust the white balance in the direction of amber, blue, green, or magenta

ISO Sensitivity: ISO sensitivity represents the sensitivity to light in values. If you set the ISO sensitivity higher, the camera becomes more suitable for recording in dark places. When setting to Auto, the ISO sensitivity is automatically adjusted from ISO100 to ISO200 according to the brightness. It can be adjusted from ISO100 to ISO400 when using the flash. In the High Sensitivity mode, the sensitivity automatically switches between ISO1600 and ISO6400.

Intelligent ISO: In this mode, the camera will automatically set the optimal ISO sensitivity and the shutter speed according to the movement of the subject and the surrounding brightness. There are 3 maximum ISO sensitivity levels that can be selected: ISOMAX 400, ISOMAX 800, and ISOMAX 1600.

Metering Modes: You can select from the following metering modes:

• Multiple: camera measures the most suitable exposure by judging the allocation of brightness on the whole screen automatically
• Center Weighted: used to focus on the subject on the center of the screen and measure the whole screen evenly
• Spot: camera measures the subject in the spot metering target

Auto Focus Mode: You can choose one of the following AF modes:

• Face Detection: camera automatically detects a person's face, adjusting the exposure and focus to fit the face, regardless of what portion of the picture it is in.
• Multi-area focusing: camera focuses on any of 5 focus areas.
• 3-area-focusing (High Speed): camera quickly focuses on any of the left, center and right of the screen.
• 1-area-focusing (High Speed): camera quickly focuses on the subject in AF area on the center of the screen
• 1-area-focusing: camera focuses on the subject in AF area on the center of the screen
• Spot-focusing: camera focuses on the limited narrow area in the screen

AF Area Selection: When 1 Area HS, 1 Area, or Spot focusing is selected, you can move around the auto focus area to any of 11 areas of the screen. When Multi-area is selected, you can move the AF area group to any of 5 positions on the screen. This allows you to focus on your subject(s), regardless of where they are on the screen.

Continuous Auto Focus: This mode allows you to compose a picture more easily by always focusing on the subject. When shooting in Continuous AF mode, the battery is consumed faster than usual.

AF Assist Lamp: Illuminating the subject with the AF assist lamp allows the camera to focus on the subject in low light conditions. You can turn off the AF assist lamp in the menu if it is not needed.

Macro Focus: You can take pictures of a subject as close as 1 centimeter (0.03 feet) when the lens is in the Wide Mode (1x zoom). As the zoom increases toward Tele (6x to 11x), the distance from the subject that you can take close-up pictures increases in steps up to a maximum of 2 meters (6.56 feet). If you zoom to a magnification of 12x to 18x, you can take a picture of an object as close as 1 meter (3.28 feet) from the lens (tele-macro function).

Color Effect: You can use 4 types of color effects depending on the image of the picture:

• Cool: the picture becomes bluish
• Warm: the picture becomes reddish
• B/W: the picture becomes black and white
• Sepia: the picture becomes sepia

Flip Animation: This camera allows you to create motion picture files up to 20 seconds long by connecting images recorded in flip animation mode. Flip Animations can be created at 5 or 10 frames-per-second. The picture size is 320 x 240.

Still Image Playback: You can manually display images one at a time, 9 at a time, or 25 images at a time.

Calendar Playback: You can display pictures by recording date using the calendar playback function. If there are multiple pictures with the same recording date, the first picture recorded on that date is displayed.

Playback Zoom: You can view the picture at the original size, or enlarge the picture to 2x, 4x, 8x, or 16x. Using the arrow buttons, you can move the position of the zoomed picture in the monitor.

Slide Show: The camera gives you multiple options for slide show playback:

• Images: select all, those marked as favorites, or those of a category
• Duration: select 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, 5 seconds, or manual (favorites or category only).
• Effect: select from the following transitions (except during manual slide show):
  • new pictures slide across the screen
  • current pictures fade out and new pictures fade in
  • new pictures gradually fill the screen from the center
  • Mix: effects are selected at random
• Audio: if set, the next picture is displayed after the audio has finished

Auto Review: After an image is recorded, it will appear in the LCD screen for a preset number of seconds for reviewing. Auto Review lets you choose one of the following settings:

• 1 Second: the recorded picture automatically appears on the screen for about 1 second
• 3 Seconds: the recorded picture automatically appears on the screen for about 3 seconds
• Zoom: the recorded picture automatically appears on the screen for about 1 second. Then it is enlarged to 4x and appears for about 1 second. This mode is useful for confirming focus.

Motion Image Playback: During motion image playback, you can perform the following functions: fast forward, rewind, and pause.

Rotating Images: You can rotate a still image 90° clockwise or counterclockwise.

Resizing Pictures: This function is useful if you want to reduce the file size of the picture in cases when it needs to be attached to an e-mail or uploaded to a website. Once an image is resized, you can choose to keep the original image.

Trimming Pictures: This function lets you trim unnecessary parts of the recorded picture.

Power Save: The camera is automatically turned off if it has not been used for a predetermined amount of time. The amount of time can be set to 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes.

PictBridge Printing Capability: Using the supplied USB cable, you can connect this camera directly to a PictBridge compliant printer. PictBridge is a new standard that allows you to connect a PictBridge compliant camera directly to a PictBridge compliant printer and make prints, regardless of brand.

Exif Print (Exif 2.21): The DMC-FZ18 conforms to "Exif Print", a worldwide standard. Vital camera settings (such as: exposure mode, white balance, exposure time) and scene data are recorded to the image file when it is captured. Printers compatible with "Exif Print" are able to use this information to produce high quality photographs, exactly the way they were intended at the time of capture. This intelligent communication process also allows the printer to correct for poor lighting or mistakes, resulting in photos that can be even better than the originals.

DPOF (Digital Print Order Format): DPOF is a system that allows you to select which pictures are to be printed on compatible photo printers. DPOF also allows you to set how many copies of each picture will be printed.

Lens Hood: In bright sunlight or backlight, the lens hood will minimize lens flare and ghosting. The lens hood cuts off excess lighting and improves the picture quality.

Optional Lens Compatibility: The optional DMW-LT55 tele-conversion lens allows you to record pictures zooming in much more (1.7 times). The optional DMW-LC55 close-up lens lets you take close-up pictures of a small subject. The DMW-LA3 lens adapter is necessary to attach a tele-conversion or close-up lens.

Optional AC Adapter: When connecting the camera to a PC, or when watching lengthy slide shows, it is recommended that the camera be powered by an optional AC adapter (DMW-AC7PP).

Inputs and Outputs Notes

Digital/AV Out: This proprietary jack allows you to use the supplied USB connection cable or audio/video cable.

DC In: This DC jack allows you to connect an optional DMW-AC7PP AC adapter.

Supplied Software

LUMIX Simple Viewer (Windows only): This software allows you to acquire, view, print and send pictures by e-mail simply by clicking the mouse. Simple operations make this software ideal for entry-level users, however there are also sufficient functions to satisfy more advanced-level users.

PHOTOfunSTUDIO (Windows only): This software allows you to acquire pictures to the PC-like "LUMIX Simple Viewer" above, then categorize the acquired pictures by their recording date, the model name of the camera used, or a keyword. You can also resize pictures and set their layout when printing.

SILKYPIX Developer Studio: This is software to edit RAW format images. Using RAW files recorded on this camera allows images to be edited with a higher quality and saved in a format (JPEG, TIFF) that can be displayed on a PC.

ArcSoft Software Suite: This suite includes ArcSoft MediaImpression for editing, processing, and printing still pictures, and ArcSoft Panorama Maker to combine several still pictures into a panoramic photo.

Specifications

Estimated Still Image Capacity: The number of recordable pictures (Fine Quality):

Estimated Moving Image Capacity: The available recording time: