Tag Archives: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18
My new camera
Posted on 22. Mar, 2008 by Wim Haanstra.
As I got 2 kids nowadays, my girlfriend finds it very amusing to compare pics of the first and the second kid on the day that they were the same age. My youngest daughter turned 6 months old a couple of weeks ago and all she does is compare pics of our first daughter when she was 6 months old. But then it struck me. My girlfriend told me there was a remarkable difference in quality of the pics taken 3 years ago and the pics taken 2 weeks ago.
Because the camera I was using was an old 3MP beast with no more features than an ordinary bread, we thought it was time to get a new camera.
My old camera had the form of a dSLR and I was really happy with that shape. It was easy to hold and because the lens could be bigger than with those compact camera’s, it really took some pretty pictures.
First I needed to decide if I wanted to start using a dSLR. But in a scary dream I already saw myself dragging bags full of lenses with me and that was not something I liked. I woke up covered in sweat and made up my mind, not buying a dSLR.
So my search for a fine camera started at the new Fuji S8000fd camera, which had a HUGE zoom, 8mpx etc. Because my old camera also was a Fuji I have a big trust in them. When my search continued I noticed that there are 3 camera’s in the category I was looking for.
The Fuji S8000fd.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18
The Olympus SP-550UZ
The quest I started was to gather as much reviews and user experiences of all those cams and see which one others found best. I decided to base my own decision on those reviews and my own logic sense.
After a complete week of reading the complete internet about these 3 cams I decided that my new cam would be the …. *long pause for dramatic effect* …. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18.
The prices of the camera were all about the same so, that wasn’t really a discussion point. First I looked around for the regular internet shops to see if there was any price difference between the shops, but not really.
Next up I went to search on eBay, to see if someone in Europe had the same cam for sale (in brand new form), but that also was a disappointment. Most camera’s on there come from Hong Kong and I didn’t want customs back on my ass (as they did a couple of years earlier). Then I found this type of camera on a dutch trade-site, brand-new, bought at the 28th of January of this year. After some emailing back and forth we agreed on a price and the woman selling the camera also told me that they could bring the camera to the city where I live because her parents-in-law lived here.
Success!
The camera will be arriving on sunday the 23th and I will let you know what I think of it. Until then, take a look at this pretty picture of the cam:
