Strengths: 10.1 effective Megapixel CCD, 5X optical zoom lens, Face detection with tracking feature, red-eye reduction, compact, feels balanced even when one handed shooting, 2 AA batteries.

Weaknesses: low light focusing can be less than desired sometimes, No optical viewfinder, no manual focus, no external flash mount

Summary: For a Point and Shoot (PAS) digital camera I really enjoy what it has to offer. It is easy enough for anyone, even beginners, to just pick up and start taking really good shots, though it has enough manual settings for a more advanced photographer to take advantage of in certain situations!Don't get me wrong, even a beginner can pick up this PAS camera and take wonderful shots using all the automatic settings this camera has to offer ... and there are a bunch of them, though I do have to admit, to ultimately take the best shots and use the camera to its fullest potential, one really needs to familiarize themselves as much as possible with it, and be able to set it up using the various manual mode options it offers. That is where this camera truly outshines some of its competitors in its class/price range.It's nice to see that a camera in this class uses typical AA, rather than some special Li-ion battery pack which would be much harder to replace in a hurry if needed! I put away the alkaline batteries that came with it and dumped in my NiHM batteries. Battery length is very, very long in this camera. I could get over 300 shots with the LCD on using 1800mAh NiHM batteries, using a higher rated mAh NiHM should easily yield 400+ shots before having to replace the batteries. I also keep the optical image stabilization on for all shots/modes where it can be used, and I never found it draining any more battery life either!The controls are well positioned and easy to use. It has plenty of preset modes which allow a wide variety of shots, and many work quite well. For a beginner, one of the best features is the Intelligent Auto Mode which automatically determines a number of key criteria when taking a picture, including selecting the most appropriate scene mode (from 5 commonly used presets) and ISO speed, and turning face detection, image stabilization and quick auto-focus on. In practice this system works very well, with the camera seamlessly choosing the most appropriate combination of settings for the current situation. The 5 available scene modes are Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Night Portrait and Night Scenery, so obviously not all situations are covered by Intelligent Auto Mode, but it does work for the majority of the time. It makes it possible for the less experienced photographer to easily take well-exposed, sharp pictures of people, scenery and close-ups by simply pointing and shooting the camera.Going from 8MP to 10MP camera isn't all that important to me, but going from a 3x to a 5x digital zoom lens was important. Now I don't have to use digital zoom when I need that "little extra" distance to cover for my shots, the 5x optical zoom allows for very clear shots a a little more distance ... like when I have to stand behind people at a wedding or such to take my shots ... that 5x gets me great clear shots, especially not having to resort to a digital zoom which introduces noise into the shots!This camera also produces very good movies at up to 848x480 @ 30 frames/sec. The movies are extremely good, and the sound is fairly good as well, something I noticed in a lot of other cameras was actually very poor. The great thing about the movie mode is that the optical image stabilization works, the bad things, and the only 2 gripes (well, annoyances let's say) I have with the movie mode, is that you cannot use the optical zoom once the video is recording, and the maximum recording size is 2GB!I purchased this camera on sale well under $150, and all-in-all I was very pleased with this second PAS digital camera choice. It takes pictures and has plenty of settings to choose from for all kinds of situations ... and does them fairly well automatically if that's what you need. Please don't give up on it too quickly if the automatic modes just don't dazzle you with their output ... play around with the manual modes and get to know the camera better, as it WILL pay off, in both the quality of your pictures, as well as with your overall satisfaction with the camera itself! It's well worth considering as a PAS digital camera for anyone needing better than the typical 3x optical zoom, optical stabilization, manual modes, red-eye reduction, and the plethora of other features available ... all at a reasonably priced package!

Strengths: Easy to use! Great 5x zoom! Excellent photo quality! Love the AA battery use!

Weaknesses: None so far!

Summary: Excellent photo quality! I had a Sony one that I replaced this with and so far am impressed! The 5x zoom is a great feature for a camera in this price range!