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The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 has body styling paying homage to a single-lens reflex electronic camera, and offers a 0.5 .5-inch CCD image sensor with a useful 8 million pixels. Dominating the front of the Panasonic FZ18 is the Leica-branded 18x optical zoom lens -- the longest range yet offered on a Lumix digicam, with earlier versions reaching up to only 12x.

The Panasonic FZ18's lens has, a wide angle of 28mm reaches all of the way out to 504mm at full telephoto -- the same range as we have seen formerly on Olympus' SP-550 UltraZoom. The FZ18's lens is a small brighter at the telephoto end than that on the Olympus though, with the maximum aperture varying from f / 2.8 at wide angle to f / 4.5 at telephoto. Naturally for a lens this potent, image stabilization is essential -- and Panasonic has its Clever Image Stabilization system in all of its 2007 digicam lineup, which includes both mechanical image stabilization ( known as Mega Optical Image Stabilization ) and Intellectual ISO Control ( which researches subject motion and then boosts ISO sensitiveness wherever possible to choose an appropriate shutter speed to stop blur ). The Panasonic DMC-FZ18 is among the first 3 Panasonic electronic cameras to introduce two new technologies to the Lumix line, the other 2 cameras being the DMC-FX33 and DMC-FX55 models claimed at the same time.

That must-have feature in the digital camera market for 2007 -- face detection -- makes its debut with Panasonic's incarnation ready to sense up to fifteen faces in a scene and then use this info to set focus and exposure reasonably.
Face detection is enabled immediately in portrait or baby scene modes, and can handle moving subjects. A second new feature is what's being called " Intellectual automobile " mode, which researches the scene and then mechanically selects the scene mode ( Portrait, Views , Macro, Night Views or Night Portrait ), and turns on the Panasonic FZ18's optical image stabilization, smart ISO, face detection and continuous autofocus functions as needed. Other features of the Panasonic Lumix FZ18 include a 2.5-inch LCD display with 207,000 pixel resolution, ISO sensitiveness to 1,600 ( or 6,400 max. In high sensitiveness mode ), a selection of creativity-friendly options including both aperture- and shutter-priority and a full manual mode, and almost 14 scene modes to keep things receptive for the less experienced snapper.

Panasonic FZ18 photographs are kept in 27MB of built in memory or on SD / MMC / SDHC cards in either JPEG or raw file schemas ( with a raw+JPEG option available ), and power comes out of an exclusive lithium-ion battery which is included in the product bundle. The Panasonic FZ18's connectivity options are NTSC / Buddy video and USB, and bundled software includes Lumix Easy Spectator , PhotofunStudio spectator, SILKYPIX Developer Studio 2.1SE, ArcSoft MediaImpression, and ArcSoft PanoramaMaker. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 went on sale in Sep 2007, priced in the region of about $400. Be certain to use our Check costs link to see what it is today.