Panasonic DMC-FZ18

Great camera, don't regret buying it at all, even though it's now been superseded by the FZ28 etc. Great image quality, fantastic zoom, and even though I usually leave it on 'Auto' it's got enough manual settings to do some creative photography occasionally.

Highly recommended.

I love the 18X zoom, and the 10 Mp which I rarely have to use, but if I want a really long zoom effect, combining the 18X with the 10Mp allows me to crop a picture and get a mega closeup. The anti camera shake works very well. And it's not as big and heavy as a SLR. It's a lovely camera.

All in all, the Panasonic DMCFZ18 is one good camera; it is portable, SLR-like in feel, but uses a fixed non-interchangeable zoom with a wide range. 8.1 mp and a Leica licensed lens allow for moderate cropping. Excellent all-purpose camera for the enthusiast who wants an SLR feel, without having to carry extra lenses.

I'm very happy with my purchase of my Panasonic DMC-FZ18 Digital Camera!

Very useful 28MM Wide Angle is paired with an excellent 18X (23.5X at 3MP) Optical Zoom and Panasonic's well done Image Stabilization system.

Light weight yet feels like a high quality camera - easy to wear around my neck for hours at a time.

Pop-Up Flash for good illumination of subjects for nice indoor pics; average low-light sensitivity is fine for most outdoor pics under 400 ISO; only OK to poor for anything over.

Well-priced for all that it offers the buyer wanting a Digital Camera that can do more than your basic point & shoot, but not yet ready for a full Pro Digital Camera (at 2X to 3X or more in price!)

Highly Recommended!

The Panasonic DMC-FZ18 camera provides the serious amateur with a near-perfect bridge between a pocket-sized compact camera and a full-size single lens reflex camera - still beyond the budget of most amateurs.Easy to use, intuitive when it comes to learning, and with instructions on screen if you're unsure of anything, this is a great camera to learn about photography. You can set the camera to "Intelligent Auto" and it will do everything itself, providing you with more than adequate pictures. All you have to do is zoom in or out and compose your shot. But there are lots of other possibilities, including settings for babies, fireworks, sunsets ... Plus aperture priority and shutter priority.Featured recently on QVC, where it was demonstrated very well, the camera can now be bought on the net for around £260 or even less. At that price, it is a bargain.I actually tried combining the 18x optical zoom with the 4x digital zoom, using the "P" setting, and from approx three metres took a full-frame shot of one lily stamen, with astonishing quality.The problem of noise in low-light shots has been a minor problem for Panasonic, including their top FZ50 camera. They have gone some way to improving this for the FZ18. In fact, I recently took some evening shots of a misty landscape, and the noise actually helped to create some atmosphere in the shots.Burst mode, self timer with various delays, auto or manual focus, anti-red-eye flash, lens hood, lithium-ion battery, electronic viewfinder and large LCD screen, clear on-screen menus ... all help to make this a comprehensive camera suitable for all but the professional - and even s/he might find this camera very suitable as a back-up.