An Old Reliable Tank of a Camera

Author's Rating:

Pros: Very durable, great photos, easy to use.

Cons: Bulky, and the shutter lag.

The Bottom Line: 
I have had this camera for over 3 years and it has been great.  If you're a beginner this camera is perfect and you can't break it.  Great camera!

Author's Review
I am one of those guys like Scrooge McDuck.  Well in some ways I guess.  Scrooge had the reputation of being very rich, but not ready to just give his money out to anyone.  I am not very rich, but when I go to buy something somewhat expensive, like a digital camera, I look over every single detail and research it for a couple of weeks.  I don’t just give my money out to anyone because they’re a good salesman or they have the “best product.”  I am pretty stingy and a “Scrooge” some might say.  That was the way I was when I bought this camera.  I had a little extra money and I was going to need a camera and I had a price range of around $170 or so.  I looked online and read reviews and looked at prices for at least a week and a half and this is what I came up with.
User Friendliness
This was the first camera I had ever bought, and to tell you the truth the first camera I had ever used.  So I didn’t know a whole lot about how to use cameras, or what different settings meant, but it didn’t take me long to learn how to use this camera.
First there is the menu which is for changing settings to the camera itself such as the time and date, sounds, and things like that.  You can also change the startup image amongst other things.
Then there is the function menu which is where one can change the settings for taking pictures.  The settings include shutter speed, settings for different environments, black-and-white settings, sepia, setting a time-delay on the shutter, the quality and compression of the picture and other settings on the picture itself.
Then on top of the camera you have the little wheel of fortune!  Just kidding, but there is a little turn wheel.  This is where one can change the type of picture you’re taking.  Whether it’s a night shot, action shot, panoramic, video, landscape, and they even have a feature where one can take multiple pictures next to each other and stitch them together on the computer so it looks like one very big panoramic shot.  Then it also has a bunch of other scene settings like indoor, underwater, fireworks, snow and the such.  If you’re planning on taking underwater shots you have to buy the protective cover.
Overall I would say that it is very user friendly and if I could figure it out without much trouble then anyone else should be able to do the same.
Durability
I have used this camera in many different situations.  I love the outdoors so I have taken it camping, mountain-biking, fishing, hunting, and even snow skiing.  I know there were times when I crashed pretty hard while skiing where the camera had to of gotten hit too, and it still works fine.  I have also dropped it on numerous occasions and the only thing that has happened is that it has a few scratches here and there.  I have found this camera to be very durable and am very pleased with it.
Battery Life
One thing that is somewhat of a benefit is that this camera used AA batteries. This is good because it’s cheaper to replace them than a battery pack, but also a drawback because it makes the camera bulkier.  When first using this camera I put just regular AA batteries in it and they lasted for about fifteen pictures or so.  I decided to put out a little more money and invest in rechargeable batteries.  I knew nothing about them but there are different rated batteries like how much power they hold and ultimately how long they will last.  I bought some 2650 mAh powered batteries and they last a lot longer than normal batteries.  I can take a hundred pictures and look at my pictures quite a bit before they will die.  They even have more powerful batteries not and a better price so the battery life is good for me.
Photo Quality
This camera is a 4.0 megapixel which takes great pictures.  When just printing out 4x6’s, which is all I do, I can’t even tell it’s a digital photo.  And like I mentioned before there is quite a few different settings that can change the shutter speed and what not so you can get just the picture you want.  But there is also the auto setting which does everything from focusing to turning the flash on if needed to choosing shutter speed for you.  So if you don’t know anything about all of that stuff don’t worry about it because it will be taken care of.  With a 4.0 megapixel camera you are supposed to be able to blow the picture up to and 8x11 without noticing the pixels.  I myself have not printed out any pictures that big.
Shutter Lag
The  shutter lag on this camera isn't bad.  First you have to hold down the shutter button halfway for about three seconds till the auto focus kicks in and then you press it all the way and it takes the picture pretty much right away.  It takes a split second longer if you have the flash on but not too much.  I would say that it is less than a half a second lag.  So no real problem there.  One problem though is that after you take the picture you have to wait about at least five seconds before it's ready to take another picture.