Pana FZ18 user!!! Come in here!!!

[sengkangboy]

i bought it a few months back. Going to hongkong next week and want to use it to take many pictures. I think it already has a UV filter because mine is a 2nd hand.

by the way , what is the DMW-LA3 for ? pardon for my ignorance...

 

[ombre]

Its for you to attach Teleconversion, Marco, or Wide angle lenses on to your FZ18. So that you can still zoom with the lens attached.

You can also attach them to your barrel, but not recommended.

 

[csnap]

anynight photo shot on FZ18 to post? thanks

Hi Bro,

Sharing the difference of night shots taken at ISO100 & ISO800.
Pictures are JPG straight out of camera w/o any editing.
ISO800 should be ok for small prints.

Cheers!

#1 Handheld @ 1/8s, f/3.2, ISO800.

#2 Tripod @ 8s, f/8, ISO100.

#3 Tripod @ 4s, f/8, ISO100. Same position as #2 with full zoom.

 

[zzyzx]

picture tells a thousand words.. i think those who are currently thinking whether to buy the fz18 or not will make up their mind after seeing all these images..

 

[MidasTouch]

Bro,basic rules apply.Higher ISO means higher noise.

 

[MidasTouch]

picture tells a thousand words.. i think those who are currently thinking whether to buy the fz18 or not will make up their mind after seeing all these images..

Bro,you have two meaning here.Either to buy or otherwise.

 

[ombre]

csnap, nice pictures but its a horribly unfair test. One is handheld and the other is tripoded. Moreover you shot one at F8 with long shutter and the other at max aperture.

Actually ISO800 is not always bad. When I first took my camera out of the box, I brought it with me (with zero knowledge of cameras) to a night picnic. I was snapping away in the sports mode (mostly with flash) and it was on ISO 800, hardly any noise.

On another somewhat cloudy day, I was playing with it, shot at like ISO 800 + 1/1000 shutter at 18x zoom, I don't think it was that bad either. Noise not visible before 50% zoom. If you want to see the noise, you got to zoom in that much until you can't see the interest of the photo anyway.


Anyway guys I just made a pretty nice homemade Hood for my TCON-17. As you know it doesn't have front threads so I have to resort to such, but I'm pretty happy with it. Shown there are all my other accessories also ^^. Proud owner of my FZ18.

http://s493.photobucket.com/albums/rr294/surreptitious/Camera Setup FZ18/

Its still uploading as I post this, so give it another 5 minutes.

 

[MidasTouch]

Ombre,you are right.The noise will only appear if light is insufficient.As for the sky,the cloud will appear differently in each setting of shutter speed with different ISO setting.Try to play around with the setting & choose the most suitable result.

As for this photo taken few months back,the ISO setting is still 100 but the shutter speed is reduce to conpensate the natural light.

 

[csnap]

csnap, nice pictures but its a horribly unfair test. One is handheld and the other is tripoded. Moreover you shot one at F8 with long shutter and the other at max aperture.
QUOTE]

Hi Bro,

Thanks for your comments
I m not conducting a test but to compare the ISO shots at 100 & 800 respectively.
So i suppose the different f-stops should not affect ISO.

 

[ombre]

Hi Bro,

Thanks for your comments
I m not conducting a test but to compare the ISO shots at 100 & 800 respectively.
So i suppose the different f-stops should not affect ISO.

I see. But actually I don't feel its that bad, because there isn't noise at the dark areas. I've had some pics where even the dark areas in the photo are all grainy with purple and dark blue pixels. Or maybe its because the pictures are smaller thats why we don't see it.

 

[ombre]

Ombre,you are right.The noise will only appear if light is insufficient.As for the sky,the cloud will appear differently in each setting of shutter speed with different ISO setting.Try to play around with the setting & choose the most suitable result.

As for this photo taken few months back,the ISO setting is still 100 but the shutter speed is reduce to conpensate the natural light.

I see, actually I do notice that the color changes with the ISO, I wasn't really sure if the auto-white balance was playing around or really the ISO affects the color. I noticed that ISO 800 makes flurescent lights against a wooden floor look more natural, otherwise at lower ISO the whole room looks yellow. But then I can't pinpoint why. Do you understand it enough to share something?


Actually about shooting the sky, I have "improvised" my own technique. I'd spot focus, a distant building, within that box, half of it will be the building or trees (trees better actually), and the other half on blue sky. With EV -1 or -1.33 on F8. You can shoot the sun flare against some leaves too and it looks nice =) I'm sure there are better ways though, but thats how I learnt to do it... now waiting to buy a CPL and see if I can do better.

-

Just curious, is there anyone who sets their EV perm at a negative value? Most sites recommend -1/3, I think slightly underexposed gives better color in bright lights. I tried using ND4 filters in bright lights but it gives a strong cyan hue, almost like fringing... Just me or is it the filter?

 

[MidasTouch]

Ombre,the auto white balance is being preset on what the camera sensing.
The ISO only will take effect prior setting base on what the desireable result.

As for the EV setting.Try to use bracket function of -ve ,normal & +ve.From there,you can
see the result.

Most of my shoot ,I try not to use any exposure function.If camera is set to Manual Mode.The metering
will guide through on what shutter speed should be use.

 

[hkingx]

yes. getting this FZ18 or FZ28... hahah, but will FZ18 better than FZ28?

 

[skyguy]

yes. getting this FZ18 or FZ28... hahah, but will FZ18 better than FZ28?

i own a FZ18 and i have tried using the FZ28 during the lumix workshop... there is some function that FZ28 have that FZ18 dun... and the spec of FZ28 is better... so its quite confirm FZ28 will be better than FZ18, but a good photograph cannot use depend on the camera, its more on the man behide the machine that count...

 

[dezyrae]

i own a FZ18 and i have tried using the FZ28 during the lumix workshop... there is some function that FZ28 have that FZ18 dun... and the spec of FZ28 is better... so its quite confirm FZ28 will be better than FZ18, but a good photograph cannot use depend on the camera, its more on the man behide the machine that count...

I hands on the FZ28 yesterday, took some shots in the shop. Pix quality is good but I find the AF is slower than LX3 (deciding on either one). The FZ28 wins out on versatility while I thought the LX3 has a nice design and good wide lens but short of a decent telephoto zoom. If the LX3 have a telephoto converter, I would have taken it....

Can someone talk some sense to me, confused? Thanks

 

[skyguy]

I hands on the FZ28 yesterday, took some shots in the shop. Pix quality is good but I find the AF is slower than LX3 (deciding on either one). The FZ28 wins out on versatility while I thought the LX3 has a nice design and good wide lens but short of a decent telephoto zoom. If the LX3 have a telephoto converter, I would have taken it....

Can someone talk some sense to me, confused? Thanks

LX 3 do have a telephoto converter, all u need is to find the right filter size... but keep in mind that becoz it camera zoom itself is quite small even with the tele convertor it will be only at most 6x zoom... but i like LX3 colour quite vivid... and so far LX3 got the widest angle 24mm in the lumix range i think... in market now, there is alot of 0.45x wide con, so 24x0.45 = 10.8mm .... each cam have its own pro and con

 

[MidasTouch]

i own a FZ18 and i have tried using the FZ28 during the lumix workshop... there is some function that FZ28 have that FZ18 dun... and the spec of FZ28 is better... so its quite confirm FZ28 will be better than FZ18, but a good photograph cannot use depend on the camera, its more on the man behide the machine that count...

Got to agree with you.We can have all the superb function & features in the camera & will be useless if we doesn't know to use it.

 

[ombre]

I hands on the FZ28 yesterday, took some shots in the shop. Pix quality is good but I find the AF is slower than LX3 (deciding on either one). The FZ28 wins out on versatility while I thought the LX3 has a nice design and good wide lens but short of a decent telephoto zoom. If the LX3 have a telephoto converter, I would have taken it....

Can someone talk some sense to me, confused? Thanks

Seriously speaking, I will never ever, I mean never ever get an LX3. But this is only my opinion.

Why? You have an extremely limited range (Personally I like long range.) And the price. I think the least you can get it for is 650? with another 300 more you get a dSLR + better than LX3 lens?

Do note that the strength of the LX3 versus the FZ18/28 is probably only the max aperture. But at 50-ish mm zoom with the LX3 you have F2.8 and FZ18, at that range you have F3.2, are you that particular?

I'm not sure what other goodness there are in LX3, I know its an extremely good camera, but for a PNS, its not worth that kind of money I feel. Get a dSLR if you still insist on the LX3.

FZ28's price is also not that reasonable IMO. =X But at least you got a super long zoom which you cannot get for this money on a dSLR.

---------------

Those who tried the FZ28, did you try the ISO800 on it? Hows the noise?

Anyway I think we need to expand this thread into a FZ18 + FZ28 family thread, if not we have very limited opinions... So far we don't hear a lot of the FZ28-ers, their thread is very short too.

---------------

One more thing I wanna seek a general opinion. If I am looking to buy a CPL filter, should I go for 46mm or 55mm? I have the DMW-LA3 so I was thinking, might be a bit better if put it infront since most of the time I use the LA3 as a hood. Or i might have difficulty reaching/ mounting it. But theres going to be a price difference :S

 

[ombre]

LX 3 do have a telephoto converter, all u need is to find the right filter size... but keep in mind that becoz it camera zoom itself is quite small even with the tele convertor it will be only at most 6x zoom... but i like LX3 colour quite vivid... and so far LX3 got the widest angle 24mm in the lumix range i think... in market now, there is alot of 0.45x wide con, so 24x0.45 = 10.8mm .... each cam have its own pro and con

The 0.45 wide cons are hardly usable, all those china made copycat models that are out there to cheat people. And they don't give you 0.45 like they advertise anyway. More like 0.8 with a whole range of distortions.

 

[dezyrae]

Seriously speaking, I will never ever, I mean never ever get an LX3. But this is only my opinion.

Why? You have an extremely limited range (Personally I like long range.) And the price. I think the least you can get it for is 650? with another 300 more you get a dSLR + better than LX3 lens?

Do note that the strength of the LX3 versus the FZ18/28 is probably only the max aperture. But at 50-ish mm zoom with the LX3 you have F2.8 and FZ18, at that range you have F3.2, are you that particular?

I'm not sure what other goodness there are in LX3, I know its an extremely good camera, but for a PNS, its not worth that kind of money I feel. Get a dSLR if you still insist on the LX3.

FZ28's price is also not that reasonable IMO. =X But at least you got a super long zoom which you cannot get for this money on a dSLR.

---------------

Those who tried the FZ28, did you try the ISO800 on it? Hows the noise?

Anyway I think we need to expand this thread into a FZ18 + FZ28 family thread, if not we have very limited opinions... So far we don't hear a lot of the FZ28-ers, their thread is very short too.

---------------

One more thing I wanna seek a general opinion. If I am looking to buy a CPL filter, should I go for 46mm or 55mm? I have the DMW-LA3 so I was thinking, might be a bit better if put it infront since most of the time I use the LA3 as a hood. Or i might have difficulty reaching/ mounting it. But theres going to be a price difference :S

Indeed that was also what I thought about the LX3, despite its wide angle lens and also good pix quality, I fear the limited zoom will make it less versatile. I for one will not buy DSLR bec I know it will end up collect dust and I will seek out a P&S camera again. My initial plan was to get G9 but now it looks like a FZ28 which works out to be $640 is a reasonble proposition.;p