Pentax Optio RZ18 16 MP Digital Camera with 18X Extra Wide Optical Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD Screen (Orange)

It seems that the RX18 and the RZ18 are identical cameras. The user's manual has both designations on the cover. Mine is black and labeled rx18. Different suppliers at Amazon are liquidating their inventories so there is some spread in prices. I've seen prices up to $153. I got lucky and scored pretty much the last camera from a specific store for $94+S&H.

A lot of the camera details were not surprising for an inexpensive camera. Right out of the box I got the immediate impression of CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP. While many cameras have a lot of plastic in them, most are pretty good at making the finish look and feel like metal. With the RX18, the manufacturer brooks no such dishonesty. The shell looks and feels like thin gauge plastic. There is no exposure or focusing bracketing. There is no RAW mode. The video mode is limited to HD 1280X720 instead of a full 1920X1080. The lens cannot zoom during filming. One has to stop the filming, change the zoom, and then resume taping. None of this is surprising for a cheap camera. What did impress me was the huge 18X zoom range--the 35mm equivalent of 25mm wide angle to a powerful 450mm telephoto. I checked images at both ends of the zoom range as well as near the middle and was impressed with the overall sharpness. Autofocus was reasonably fast and very accurate. Noise was acceptable at the base ISO of 80. The RX-18 produces a largish 16 MP image file. With the small sensor in the RX-18 (and every other superzoom,) the images starts to falter at about 12 MP. As may be expected, the 16 MP images produced by the RX-18 looked like, well, 12 MP images that had been blown up to 16MP. I doesn't degrade the final picture, but its just useless resolution.

Then I discovered the sound recorder. A number of cameras offer this feature, but I can now make voice notes at a touch by coupling this feature with a provided "green" programmable button. The sound was very tinny and low quality when played back through the camera but when the resulting WAV file was run on the computer, the sound was actually very good.

Then I discovered a feature that really brightened my day. The flower icon on the four-way controller brought up a menu that offered not only a macro mode but "Super" macro mode--and super it was. I do a lot of science photography and it involves a great deal of close-up work. In my test, this camera focused to less than an inch with the lens zoomed out to its widest. A 49mm lens cap was just sufficient to fill the field of view at closest focus.

The camera was manufactured in Indonesia.

I just got it So far it's really nice takes beautiful photos real easy to use love orange color got the leather pentax case for $10.00
It's a made well case will give update with my camera ventures

This camera takes great photos and has wonderful options for creativity. The software is amazing. The flash though is located where your finger might go, so the flash is off, and the camera is not durable. Mine broke. Buy warrantee!