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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

What do FZ18 users think of there Camera? (1 Viewer)

normjackson said:
Never got beyond the FZ1, Dana; too mean or impoverished (and the FZ1 does still work after all ). If you're happy carrying a camera round your neck ready for use, I'm sure you'd get a heap of use out of the FZ18 or similar.
Just did a search on FZ18 on pbase and came up with this gallery :
http://www.pbase.com/mjonesgraphics/root
Click to expand...

Thanks Norm,

That's pretty much what I'm looking for, a camera to have on hand and ready. I always have those moments when I wish I had a camera with me. The FZ18 is at a good price right now as well. I could keep the camera in the car as long as it's not freezing out.

It's nice to know the camera has commercially available add ons as well if I did want to go that route.

When I plan to go out and shoot I'll bring the DSLR otherwise having a camera like the FZ18 would be very nice to have on hand.

Dana
 
I'm very happy with it - I'm getting some great shots with it, although I'm more interested in getting record shots than award-winning wildlife photographer shots.

Here are some examples, all handheld. Some have been cropped.
 

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J. Moore said:
Nice! 1/100 of a second and a focal length of 49 mm according to EXIF. Good job avoiding blurriness at that slow shutter speed.

Not sure if the focal length info is 35mm equivalent. Were you zoomed in far or right on top of the bird?

Best,
Jim
Click to expand...

I believe those are real focal length numbers, so with a lens that goes 4.6-82.8 mm, 49mm would correspond to about 300mm in 35mm equivalent?

Niels

Edit: I actually thought I had zoomed in further
 
A selection from a wet and ild time in Mull!

I thought i might just post this link here as well. Some photos taken on the Isle of Mull and also around the Newton Stewart area of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. All but the oystercatchers and the common sandpiper were taken with the FZ18. Various ISO, focus lengths and mainly with the TCON-17 attached. some like the puffins taken when it was pelting down with rain.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8773601@N03/sets/72157606072883695/
 

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NaturePete said:
I'm very happy with it - I'm getting some great shots with it, although I'm more interested in getting record shots than award-winning wildlife photographer shots.

Here are some examples, all handheld. Some have been cropped.
Click to expand...

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the examples. Great photos for handheld at such a distance.

Dana
 
kittykat23uk said:
I thought i might just post this link here as well. Some photos taken on the Isle of Mull and also around the Newton Stewart area of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. All but the oystercatchers and the common sandpiper were taken with the FZ18. Various ISO, focus lengths and mainly with the TCON-17 attached. some like the puffins taken when it was pelting down with rain.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8773601@N03/sets/72157606072883695/
Click to expand...

Great Shots!

Looks like the TCON-17 really helps.

Thanks

Dana
 
J. Moore said:
Take photos of large, slow moving birds that soar or beat their wings slowly. ;) I also find that burst mode and panning help.

Best,
Jim
Click to expand...

I have not done it yet, but I expect using the viewfinder rather than the LCD helps in finding and keeping the bird in view.

Jim, are you talking about the burst mode that limits you to three photos, or the mode that allow you to just go on in continous? I use the latter, it is much faster than the burst mode on my old CP4500, and not much slower (if at all) than the mode that limits to three shots. Obviously, it is not possible to actually use that mode on shots where you use the flash ;)

Niels
 
njlarsen said:
I have not done it yet, but I expect using the viewfinder rather than the LCD helps in finding and keeping the bird in view.

Jim, are you talking about the burst mode that limits you to three photos, or the mode that allow you to just go on in continous? I use the latter, it is much faster than the burst mode on my old CP4500, and not much slower (if at all) than the mode that limits to three shots. Obviously, it is not possible to actually use that mode on shots where you use the flash ;)

Niels
Click to expand...

I always use the viewfinder when photographing birds, so I did not think to mention that.

As for burst mode, I had been using the three-shot burst mode setting. I have not experimented with the continuous burst mode -- in which the frame per second rate is somewhat slower because the camera readjusts the exposure for every shot -- yet. But I agree it seems to be pretty fast. However, I find that with the three shot burst the bird has often moved out of focus or gone past me after three shots, so limiting yourself to three shots is not necessarily a bad thing.

And of course if you really want to just record what the bird looks like in flight, switching to movie mode can eliminate a lot of the problems associated with photos (though the detail is not as good).

Best,
Jim
 
J. Moore said:
I always use the viewfinder when photographing birds, so I did not think to mention that.

As for burst mode, I had been using the three-shot burst mode setting. I have not experimented with the continuous burst mode -- in which the frame per second rate is somewhat slower because the camera readjusts the exposure for every shot -- yet. But I agree it seems to be pretty fast. However, I find that with the three shot burst the bird has often moved out of focus or gone past me after three shots, so limiting yourself to three shots is not necessarily a bad thing.

And of course if you really want to just record what the bird looks like in flight, switching to movie mode can eliminate a lot of the problems associated with photos (though the detail is not as good).

Best,
Jim
Click to expand...

I just pulled up my camera and tried changing to the burst mode instead of continous. I tried to time it using my watch, which failed utterly (no measurable difference). I also just tried to listen, and indeed the interval between images was shorter in burst mode. My experience has been that the second image in a series using regular continous often is better in both sharpness and metering, so I will probably continue to have that as my default setting.

Niels
 
I've been very pleased with the FZ18 so far. You can see some of the better pictures i've gotten in my gallery. Haven't had time to use it for a lot of bird pictures yet, though, so i've also got some close up macro shots of wildflowers and a few other odds and ends using the camera.
 
Hi Everyone,

I picked up the FZ18. So far so good. Seems to be well thought out as far as the menus and buttons go. It didn't take long to figure the cameras options and features by playing with its menus and buttons. I don't plan to shoot indoors with it or on bad light days so it should work out great.

I took some photos of our young friendly squirrel with my dad. My dad spends time with him in the mornings and the squirrel is happy to be there. He seems to be the lowest status squirrel of the 3 newly born this year that we see around the yard. He's happy to visit as long as he gets his peanuts. :) He's even been patient waiting in a chair for my dad to wake up taking a nap outside.

Thanks all!

Dana
 

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