Panasonic Announces the 18x Optical Zoom FZ-18

It's a busy day in Lumix land as Panasonic has unveiled three of its latest digital cameras. The most important is the 18x optical zoom Lumix DMC-FZ18 that follows the trend set by the Olympus SP-550 UZ.

Panasonic's latest mega-zoom addition boasts a 8.1 megapixel CCD, coupled with a 28-504mm lens and the Optical Image Stabilization (O.I.S.) to compensate for hand-shake. There's also Intelligent ISO Control, but that's another way of saying "let's take the ISO up until there's no detail left".

You can actually increase the lens' capabilities by selecting the 3MP resolution, which translates into a 28.7x optical zoom.

The LUMIX DMC-FZ18 is also equipped with a 2.5-inch large LCD with 207,000 pixels, a 0.44-inch Electric Viewfinder with 188,000 pixels and the Venus Engine III, which boasts shooting at ISO 1600 in normal recording mode.

Coming back to the lens, it's worth noting that the maximum aperture varies from f/2.8 to f/4.2, which is excellent performance given the focal range. The Lumix DMC-FZ18 will be available in two colors, silver and black, and you'll be able to purchase it for around $400 in September 2007.

Coming back to the rest of the models, Panasonic has also announced the Lumix FX55 and FX33, whose main asset is the Intelligent Auto Mode, which combines Mega Optical Image Stabilization (O.I.S), the aforementioned Intelligent ISO Control and the Face Detection System, Intelligent Scene Selector and Continuous Auto Focus features.

They also feature the Venus Engine III, which supports a new High Sensitivity mode that allows images to be shot at a setting of up to ISO 6400. As a personal piece of advice, don't even dare use this value! You'll end up with some extremely strange looking images in which you'll be lucky if you distinguish anything.

Both models combine 8.1-megapixels with a 28mm wide-angle LEICA DC lens with 3.6x optical zoom.

Just as the DMC-FZ18, these will also be available in September 2007. The DMC-FX55 and DMC-FX33 have MSRPs of $349.95 and $299.95, respectively.

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