New Panasonic DMC FZ18 (LUMIX)

[taneepak]

Some superzooms (eg. Panasonic FZ-30) have the manual zoom ring. The zooming is fast and smooth enough on most other cameras anyway (they use a very large number of "steps").
Lenses do usually suffer from various forms of distortion at the extremes of their zoom range, and in some cases chromatic abberation. This is inevitable given their size.



Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that:

* Yes, performance-wise even a high-end compact is not as good as an SLR, BUT the difference is nowhere near as big as most people (esp. "SLR Snobs" and people who haven't bought a camera lately) think - they are capable of A LOT more than "parties and birthdays, holidays and travels".

* SLRs are much bulkier, and may need up to 3 different lenses to match the versatility of a compact. They are also considerably more expensive.


Basically, they're designed for two entirely different groups of people, and you're going to know which is right for you without having to think about it too much.

For me, an SLR would be absolutely useless - I simply wouldn't take it anywhere, because it would be too cumbersome, and in a lot of situations I'd be too worried about damaging it.

In a way that is true. Many people carry along their P & S cameras most of the time. This is not true with bigger cameras. The bigger the camera the more specialized it is, and it is used only for a specific assignment.
However, large sizes have better quality. A full-frame 6x6 or 6x9 will be significantly better than a full-frame 35mm dslr. In turn a full frame 35mm dslr will be significantly better than the all those below. Bottom of the pile is the handphone's camera, p & s, etc.
With smaller cameras like p & s its small size allows huge zooms of up to 300mm but it is very low quality 300mm picture, due to its puny sensor. To put it in perspective, the area of a standard P & s sensor is only 1/35 of that from a full frame 35mm camera dslr. Then again a full frame 6x6 camera's sensor is more than 3 times that of the 35mm. Portability is also very important, otherwise you will miss the picture whilst waiting to decide if you want to use a larger camera. The reason why small cameras can get by with huge zooms which large cameras find difficult even with tripods, is its puny size sensor. Very small sensors mean very small optics. A 35mm full frame 300mm f2.8 lens will be immensely heavy and rather long whereas a p & s's 300mm is a diminutive 49mm. You can get by without tripods with these small dimensions.
Each type of camera has its own application. For wildlife photography, there is of course room for the p&s owners if that is the only camera a person has. For some they may lug along their full 35mm full frame gear plus tripod. There may be a future trend to scale down the size of the equipment like using Four Thirds system for the specialist wildlife photographers. This is only a loss of half the sensor size compared with 35mm full frame, but it brings along other very desirable benefits like smaller, lighter, and much faster tele lenses of f2 and f2.8.
P & S cameras are very popular today and they are the top seller now. It is like the ubiquitous handphone. Almost everyone has one. This surely means the pictures taken by P & S are huge in numbers. This and today's digital cameras have, in my opinion, reduced creativity in photography. It is easy to slip into the habit of taking a picture of anything that catches your eye for a moment and hoping that a few shots may be interesting enough to keep and print, the rest deleted. A state of mind can develop in which chance displaces creativity. At that point the camera controls the creativity of the photography, rather than the other way around. Awareness and selectivity are critical characteristics of fine photography, and it is essential that "automation" not be allowed to diminish those personal qualities.

[scann]

Selected photos from my trip to northern part of Malaysia.

[scann]

My original battery is not as strong as 2 years ago. I am sure it will not last long to take the whole tournament for Round 1 and Round 2 in the coming MO2010. My first MO2008 can last me for up to 400+ pictures. Now even with full bar power (3 bars) after a few minutes of video (might consume more in video) 1 bar already gone.

So I searched in Internet and found many sites selling this battery model with difference pricing.

Recently, I went to a shop in Leisure Mall (M'sia,KL,Cheras) and they have 3 types of battery in pricing.

1. The original battery from Panasonic and the most expensive is a round RM220+
2. RM100+ clone from China.
3. The cheapest around RM50 also an unknown brand from China.

I have not go back to the shop in Mid-Valley where I bought this camera to find out.
I have no idea how the above battery 1 and 2 that I mentioned above perform.

In the meantime anyone know any 'Jalan' (leads) for this battery? in term of place, pricing and performance? I am not going to spend the original just for this MO2010.

[Mini Me]

not sure about panasonic's older cameras but the firmware on newer cameras doesn't allow non-panasonic batteries to be used.

[scann]

Thanks for the info Mini Me. The owner of the Leisure Mall photo shop told me that those 3 types of battery can be used on my FZ18 (older model).

[venkatesh]

does your battery last? Thinking of buying an extra.

I just bought Lumix ZS7. So far, I'm satisfied with its performance. I'm still in the process of fiddling with the modes and the manual function. I'm really enjoying the macro zoom.

[scann]

Nice Micro shot.

The original battery that I used can last me for almost 350 photos in MO2008 Round 1. The battery go dead and not able to cover the last 2 doubles in MO2008 R1. I read some where in the manual that using electronic viewfinder or on-screen display does not save much battery power. But in this MO I am using electronic viewfinder most of the time.

[scann]

Hi,

Just bought a New Panasonic DMC FZ18 costing RM1599.99. Anyone using this camera to take Badminton action?

I will try to take some photos with this camera on my next Badminton session.

SCANN

Anyone using this new Lumix DMC-FZ200 from panasonic?
After some research..http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pana...umix-dmc-fz200 these are the main features that I would like to have...

• 24x 25-600mm aquivalent lens with F2.8 across the zoom range.
• High Speed Video at 120 fps (HD) or 240 fps (VGA).
• free-angle 460,000-dot LCD screen