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I am really impressed with this camera. We were sent a few to play around with over the last month, but this one I got to keep! Since my job requires me to have a camera with me at all times, I was thrilled for the opportunity to test drive this one.
I don't like reading overly technical reviews so I'll keep mine simple. This camera is brilliant. The zoom is powerful (10X wide angle) so you can get clean shots from far away. It handles light (or lack thereof) very intelligently. As you can see from the shot of my living room, we have a very bright sunny view and with any other camera, I can't get the lake to show up. It always makes the living room bright and the outside dark. With this one, I can actually show what the view is like. Similarly, if you are in a low light setting, the camera compensates for that with or without the flash by boosting the ISO.
Other benefits include face detection, automatic red eye reduction (that actually works!!) and the ability to put the camera into full manual mode. If you are a more experienced shutter bug you will enjoy being able to control all of the settings. I find that shooting at the EXR setting is the best.
In this picture with Janine, we were in a dark room and the camera's flash didn't cause red eye for either of us. Since I have blue eyes I tend to look like a demon when there is flash involved. I appreciate not having to photoshop that out.
Video quality is really decent. The sound is a little canny but the picture quality is impressive.
Though the camera is small, it has some chunk. It's heavier than my Sony Cybershot, which I suspect is because of the large zoom lens.
The only thing I'm still figuring out is how to get crisper shots. Sometimes shots can look a little fuzzy - especially without the flash. I'm still playing with it so I'm sure there is a way to do it. On full automatic it will decide if a flash is required or not and sometimes I disagree with it. I also think the flash could be a bit stronger.
Overall, it's a great portable camera choice that I think would be equally appealing for the novice and photo junkie.
These reviews are the subjective opinions of ChickAdvisor members and not of ChickAdvisor Inc.