Why would someone deliberately buy a digital camera, when they knew it had a number of serious flaws? The answer is of course, when they don't care about the flaws, and are making an informed decision. So . . . time for a pop quiz. Name me three serious flaws with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18K Digital Camera. If you can't do it, then don't even think of buying one. If you can that's great. Maybe you'd like to hear a few more reasons why the DMC-FZ18K may not be such a great buy.
Image noise can be a problem with the Lumix DMC-FZ18K, depending on the conditions your are shooting in and how you plan to use your photos. Specifically, if you plan on taking a lot of photos in conditions where the lighting is lower than average, and you plan on blowing your photos up to anything bigger than say 12x24 you won't get the greatest results. If this is a concern for you, then perhaps moving up into the SLR camera category with larger image sensors would be a better choice.
This Panasonic Lumix comes with something the manufacturer calls Intelligent Auto Mode (IAM). It's supposed to help you take better pictures without having to mess around with multiple manual settings. Customers generally find though, that as soon as you get into anything less than perfect lighting conditions, or start using the 18X zoom IAM doesn't always make the best setting decisions. If you want really good pictures in all situations, and all zoom levels, your going to have to learn to adjust the DMC-FZ18K manual settings. Learning can be a good thing, it just depends on how you plan to use your camera.
In the spirit of "buyer beware", I would be remiss if I didn't mention the following, even if it is not an issue with the camera. If the price you find for the Lumix DMC-FZ18K seems too good to be true, then it probably is. There are a few retailers selling a imported "gray market" version of this Panasonic Lumix . Be sure you buy yours through a local retailer you trust, or one of the big online stores with a generous return policy like Amazon.
Well, that's three DMC-FZ18K issues you may or may not have been aware of. But wait, there's more . . .
- high ISO settings produce too much noise
- small size make the dial and joystick cumbersome for larger hands
- in camera processing, eliminates camera noise by blurring image detail
- no zoom function when shooting in movie mode
- slow flash recharge time
