I was looking to upgrade from my Olympus 765UZ so I chose the Panasonic FZ18 as every review I read was favourable. I am not disappointed with the camera as the magnificient 18x zoom, stabiliser and picture quality is excellent for quickly capturing spontaneous scenes when you don't want to miss the occasion. For more specific shooting there are numerous other features and after experimenting for a while I feel that several of the different modes tend to produce the same results. Using optical and digital zoom together at maximum zoom, even with a tripod, produce results with lots of "noise" and for macro shots auto focus hasn't proved as efficient as manual focus whereby excellent quality can be achieved. The camera is light to hold/carry and quickly springs into action when turned on. My only gripe is the joystick, it's far too small unless your hands are tiny and some low light photography needs precision adjustment.