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

I ordered the FZ18 (1 Viewer)

Imace

Well-known member
Well after much thought I have made up my mind and ordered the FZ18 £209 inc 4gb card + P&P.. Should get it within the next 2 days. Thank you all for the advice on which superzoom to go for.

Will post pics when i have it..
Thanks
Ian
 
Good luck with the new camera. Haven't had much chance to use mine due to work and rubbish weather last weekend. Received Olympus TCON 17 and DMW LA3 adaptor today so hopefully some decent weather this weekend.
 
I would like to know how you get on with the TCON-17 and if you think it is a great improvement to the 18x optical the camera has.
Thanks
Ian
 
Well it arrived today.. Shall i sit and read the manual while i wait for the battery to charge. No i know what to do i will go on ebay and hunt for a converter for it. That should kill the hour or so whiile i wait. Found a Nikon TC15ED woohoo won that for £22.00 what a bargain!!. Its 50mm so need a step up ring and a DMW-LA3. Well the hour soon passed and the manual needs a glance. 2 min later bored with that now lets get this camera cranked up.. AI wasn't that the name of a movie i thought.
What a great camera, I just want to thank everyone of the Lumix fraternity for their advise and knowledge. Will show pics once i have been out and about.
Thanks
Ian
 
Hi Imace, how are you getting on with new camera? I have now posted a few photo's here http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/17409
Tom

Nice photos Tom.

I bought the FX18 + TCON 1.7 last week. It's a really good camera and ideal to carry around when birding. OK, it's not as good as a DSLR, but it's cheaper and weighs alot less. The photos below are cropped quite a bit, but they're good enough for me. Actually, I would not of got any of these by my usual digiscoping method.

Brian.
 

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Hi Siberian, i totally agree, great for carrying around and much easier to use than digiscoping. Have kept my digiscoping gear for the more distant shots.
 
Hi Tom,
I have been out for a walk around my local patch College lake at tring. Had a few goes with the camera but not good enough to post yet. I see you have got the hang of it i love the Yellowhammer. I see also that you used the TCON17, how did you find it and did you try without it to compare?
Thanks
Ian
 
Hi Siberian, the flight pictures are great. What settings are you using? I have been playing with the A/S/P modes and also messing with NR , SAT and Contrast. IF you +1 the Sharp I have been told it is good for bird feathers.
 
Hi Siberian, the flight pictures are great. What settings are you using? I have been playing with the A/S/P modes and also messing with NR , SAT and Contrast. IF you +1 the Sharp I have been told it is good for bird feathers.

Hello Imace, you certainly know more about the settings then I do! All I have done so far is all sounds off, Outdoor sports, -1/3 EV, Mode 2 IS. burst mode on and tele conversion.
I have done different settings on the custom !, 2 and 3, but not really needed to use them yet. The weather has been really nice down here, with good light, so most of the photos have come out at iso 100/200 @ 1000th sec. The flight shots suprised me, having only managed one before in digiscoping! I praticed on gulls and any slow flying bird. The hardest part was finding it in the EVF. So what I found worked is to look along the top of the camera along the lens and line it up with the bird. Then quicky look in the EVF and the bird should be viewable, then half press to focus and away you go! With luck you're have at least one decent flight photo.Ideally you need the bird flying at an angle towards you. Hope all this makes sense. I think it's just a matter of what works for you, and lots of trial and error.

Brian.
 
Nice photos Tom.

I bought the FX18 + TCON 1.7 last week. It's a really good camera and ideal to carry around when birding. OK, it's not as good as a DSLR, but it's cheaper and weighs alot less. The photos below are cropped quite a bit, but they're good enough for me. Actually, I would not of got any of these by my usual digiscoping method.

Brian.

Very nice photos Brian. I'm very interested in getting one of these cameras. Have you done anything else to these pictures, other than crop them?
 
Very nice photos Brian. I'm very interested in getting one of these cameras. Have you done anything else to these pictures, other than crop them?

Hello Steve,

I just used the software that came with the camera. It's pretty basic compared to Photoshop, but enough for what I need. So first I cropped, then auto enhance if it makes it look better. I did download Neat Image, but it didn't seem to make any difference, probably because I don't know what I'm doing!

Brian.
 
I just used the software that came with the camera. It's pretty basic compared to Photoshop, but enough for what I need. So first I cropped, then auto enhance if it makes it look better. I did download Neat Image, but it didn't seem to make any difference, probably because I don't know what I'm doing!

Brian.

Hi Brian,

Those are some great shots. I find that most of my FZ 18 shots can use a bit of sharpening though. The camera itself has a setting for that, but so far I have obtained some pretty good results with the free downloadable program photofiltre. In the future, I am going to try increasing the camera's setting for sharpness instead. In any event, here is a link to some of my shots with the postprocessing I mentioned (one press of the sharpening button): http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=1130683#post1130683. (In addition, I lightened the Red-shouldered Hawk shot because the bird was otherwise hard to see and in the shade.) If anyone has other processing suggestions I would be happy to hear them.

Jim
 
Hello Steve,

I just used the software that came with the camera. It's pretty basic compared to Photoshop, but enough for what I need. So first I cropped, then auto enhance if it makes it look better. I did download Neat Image, but it didn't seem to make any difference, probably because I don't know what I'm doing!

Brian.

Thanks for your reply Brian. Like you I'm no expert, but I use a free downloadable program called Picasa (from Google) which is very easy to use. You can easily crop, lighten/darken shots, enhance contrast and colour saturation with it, and as Jim says (must have read my mind) sharpen them too which can transform an ok shot into a 'keeper'.

Brian and Jim (very nice shots, by the way), I assume both your pictures are taken at the upper end of the zoom range. If so, how do you find it performs in lower light? Does noise become a problem, and at what ISO number is it bearable?

Thanks in advance, Steve.
 
Brian and Jim (very nice shots, by the way), I assume both your pictures are taken at the upper end of the zoom range. If so, how do you find it performs in lower light? Does noise become a problem, and at what ISO number is it bearable?

Thanks Steve. Yes, almost all my shots are taken at maximum zoom (including extended zoom, which means they are limited to three megapixels in the original) and at 100-200 ISO. I think the zoom performs fine at low light, but the problem is that you cannot use the high shutter speeds you need to capture moving subjects. Moreover, all the reviews say that noise is a problem at higher (by which I mean higher in number) ISOs (I think some say anything above 200, others suggest anything above 400), so I have not taken many shots at high ISOs. I basically treat it as a fair weather camera. (But I think that is true of every camera to some extent). However, I think I have seen some pretty good shots at high ISOs somewhere (perhaps from Kitty), and my suspicion is that you can get some serviceable shots at high ISOs -- certainly good enough for a record shot or keepsake of an unusual bird. I think the camera reviewers are a bit more sensitive about this kind of thing than we casual photographers.

My two cents,
Jim
 
Jim, I agree with all you say. The photos I posted all have iso within 200, and the shutter speed varied between 1000th and 360th/ sec.
From what I have read, most small sensors have noise problems, so you will still be limited as you are when digiscoping with a point and shoot.
However this camera is great to carry about, and gives you a chance at those warblers which "pop up", and of course flight shots.
There are a lot of settings I have yet to try, as mentioned by Imace, which may be helpful in less than perfect light.

Brian.
 
I only want to record my sightings so not to worried about magazine quality shots but i will try and push the camera. I have photoshop CS2, I have always used photoshop so i am use to it. I have read somewhere that MODE 1 IS is better for telephoto but like you i think MODE 2 is better. The reasoning behind it is that Mode 1 is on all the time which helps with a telephoto lens.
 
I've just ordered a new FZ18 as well. I have an FZ8 at the moment and I looking forward to the extra zoom. I tried an FZ50 but decided I preferred the smaller size and extra zoom of the FZ18.

I already have a TCO-17 and I have also ordered a Pemaraal PA62E adapter.
 
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