measekite wrote:
David J Taylor wrote:
See:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0707/07...asonicfz18.asp

With a Leica 28mm wide-angle lens and 18x image-stabilised optical
zoom. Cheers,
David


I am curious to read the reviews. The sensor and the Venus III
processor appears to be the same except the cramming an extra 1 MP in
there. So we have a wider longer slower lens. I wonder if either the
noise is worse or the smearing of the artifacts is worse or possible
both when compared with the FZ8.

I am wondering is the long zoom digital (all of them including the
Canon S5) have hit a wall and larger sensors are necessary to get
improved and larger image quality. If so Canon has the most to
gain/lose since the want to improve the S5 to keep up with the
competition but to not want to tread on their entry level DSLRs.

Yes, although the earlier Panasonics (5MP) can produce excellent images,
the Venus III engine does not seem to make the best JPEG conversions, and
RAW is perhaps the better way to go, at the expense of more
post-processing time and effort. Beware the reviews - almost invariably
they look at the pictures at 1:1 zoom, and not at the size that a normal
viewer would use. The FZ18 does include RAW.

Having the wider zoom will be significantly useful, and a major gain for
users of the FZ18.

Yes, it would be better if these cameras went back to 5 - 6MP rather than
looking for 8 - 10MP. It's more in keeping with the lens capability, and
would reduce the visible noise. There is some hope though that sensors
can be improved, both through quantum efficiency gains and through
organisational improvements (like the Kodak "half pixels are white" idea).

If you make the sensor too large, though, you end up with a camera like
the Sony R1 - as big, heavy and expensive as a DSLR and yet not as
versatile, and therefore one that doesn't sell!

Cheers,
David