Great Value And Features @ An Affordable Price

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great zoom, great image reproduction, great color accuracy, great price, easy to use

Cons: auto-focus sometimes touchy in low-light, battery life adequate to good

The Bottom Line: 
For the price, its VERY easy to use, got great manual features, great zoom, great pictures, and is a one-of-a-kind looking camera!

Author's Review
From start to finish, this is a great camera. The 50's retro sci-fi look will turn a few heads as the design makes way for comfortable grips accompanied by one of the sharpest 1.5" LCD screens I've seen on any camera. The dials and buttons are self-explanatory and easy to reach, and the menus accomodate even the most prehistoric non-technical person who has trouble using their pencil sharpener.

The image quality is one of the best I've seen thus far from a camera in this price range, with great image reproduction, even in low light. The auto-focus is quick and painless, and speed shooting is no problem with the continuous shot mode where you can go shot after shot with less than 1.25 seconds between each shot. Anything that you can think of manually adjusting, you can if that is what floats your boat.

Battery life is good for this size camera with the 10X optical zoom. Camera is lightweight, and the case design is sturdy with attractive colors. One note for first-time buyers, YES, the zoom is supposed to make that mechanical noise. It caught me off-guard at first, but after reading several online posts and talking to friends who had bought this camera, I was reassured that this was a natural thing. Shutter lag is also excellent with pictures that can be taken right away.

For a camera in the barely under $300 range (I got mine for $290 including free 2 day shipping from www.willoughbys.com, limited offer), this is a bargain. You get a slick looking camera with easy to use features, but plenty of manual features if need be. 10X optical zoom is great for getting right in on the action, with image reproduction being some of the best I've seen come out of a 3.3 megapixel camera.

Suggested accessories -

AT LEAST a 64MB Secure Digital (SD) card which gives you about 53 pictures;(NOTE: the 16MB card supplied with this and all other cameras give you 13 pictures @ 3.3Megapixels, I got a 256MB SD Card which gives you about 212 pictures from www.zipzooomfly.com for $61 including free 2-day shipping)

A sturdy case, such as a Lowerpro or a Samsonite Small Camcorder/Digital Camera Cases they have at Circuit City which you can pick up for about $20,

A lens cleaning kit (VITAL TO KEEP NICE PICTURES) which is roughly $15-40,

A mini-tripod for perfectly still shots which you can also get at your neighborhood Circuit City store, roughly $15-30

A wide-angle lens or 2X telephoto lens for more versatility of the lens which starts at $70 and up

Rechargeable battery pack with charger (NOTE: I got the Lenmar 2300mAh rechargeable batteries plus the Lenmar 3 hour charger which includes 4 2000mAh batteries from www.kandbelectronics.com) Also, with this camera, you only get 4 non-rechargeable alkaline batteries; batteries for $8, the charger is about $19.50

And also a Secure Digital (SD) or universal memory card reader which is only about $20 or so at Circuit City...