for former p/s users only.... big learning curve, but beautiful shots!

Author's Rating:

Pros: ANTI-SHAKE is awesome. Great manual zoom. Awesome macro. Breathtaking pics. Long battery life.

Cons: Complicated as heck. EVF needs lots of work. Bulky. Moderately expensive.

The Bottom Line: 
Not for the average user...it's a professional's/expert's camera, but I'm inspired by what I've already managed to do with it!

Author's Review
Always used P/S cameras before this. I'm no pro or expert...just someone who likes to take nice pictures. I was lured by a great price I found and the "anti shake" option on the camera. Pros and experts needn't read any further, I guess!

The anti shake feature is the single best thing about this camera. It compensates for slight hand movements when shooting, so pictures come out very crisp and clear. My first ever good non-flash shots w/o a tripod came from this camera...thanks:)

The second best feature is the manual zoom. It's a 7x optical zoom, and the manual nature does two things for the everyday user: allows very precise zooming, and saves on battery power. The lens will also accept other A1 lenses, but I haven't gotten even close to that point.

The next best feature is the macro. It's different than macro settings on P/S cameras...you "lock" the lens in one of two positions to use the macro. You can then use the digital zoom to increase the effect. It produces very clear, vivid photos. "Wow" sums it up.

The auto focus is faster than any P/S camera I've used. I've read how some think it's too slow, but for me it was a major improvement over my little Nikon.

The on screen LCD menu is extremely long (4 pages) and chock full of features to manipulate. I really think this camera could power a small country...if only I could figure out which option to set! Very complicated for a newbie, like me.

The scene settings are very useful on the camera. The action setting actually works GREAT...I know this because I'm catching fantastic pics of my zippy little firefish w/o a flash! A variety of white balance settings are also easily accessible and quite useful. Again, never bothered even looking up "white balance" before. What a difference this makes on my aquarium shots!

I love the flash. You can dial up or dial down the intensity to get perfect flash exposure on any shot. Again, you need to read the manual, but it's truly terrific. Very nice compared to a P/S. You can also add a flash, something I may consider in the future.

The battery lasts forever. Well not forever, but it lasts quite a while. I picked up an extra battery for the charger. Non-OEM batteries are very cheap to come by.

Picture quality is excellent. Again, compared to P/S cameras, it's night and day. I disagree that a lot of post processing is necessary. I've used my photo program LESS often to post process the A1 pictures.

Hardly any shutter lag at all.

This camera will go into full manual mode, which is something I haven't really tried. Like I said in the title, this is my first "prosumer" camera. I'm used to the automatic stuff! It will also take short video (and it's very nice!) and time lapse photos (haven't experimented with that yet...)

My biggest complaints: IT'S COMPLICATED. The incredibly complicated nature of the camera makes it daunting to use if you are only used to P/S. Heck, I'll bet the pros' heads spin too for the first hour or so! You must READ the manual. You can't just "reference" it for this camera. And the manual is very long--because there seems to be little this camera is NOT capable of. However, you can take it out of the box and start shooting pictures and still be pretty impressed. Plan to just "waste" a whole bunch of shots to figure out what the camera does. It took me a couple of 256mb cards full of them before I was getting the hang of this thing.

EVF. Am I the only one who hates EVF? I would have preferred an optical viewfinder. You can switch between the EVF and LCD, or select both as an option. The EVF is not accurate enough to use, though. It's grainy and the color representation is weak.

Minor complaints: mine came with a 16mb CF card...useless. I use it in my Pocket PC instead. You'll need a MINIMUM 128m card for this camera. No lens cap strap...what were they thinking? I've probably misplaced the lens cap 10 times now. Weak card door...for the money, the card door could be a lot more secure. It's not a "low profile" camera! It's bulky and takes some getting used to. You'll need a good case and there's no way you'll just be able to toss it in a bag and go. However, most of the controls are easily reachable with one hand, and it does "feel solid" and fairly comfortable holding it.

I can only imagine what I can do with this camera once I've got the thing figured out (I figure sometime in the next YEAR or so:)!!!!!) Yes, it's a camera to "grow into" not "grow out of".