Customer Rating: 
Summary: Very durable camera
Comment: I bought this camera used in the spring of 2004. Since then, I have taken over 10,000 photos on many backpacking expeditions around the world. If the camera died tomorrow, it would have been well worth the money invested in it - but it still is ticking and takes photos today just as well as it did when I first purchased it. It's sturdy body and ease of use really made this a great camera.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this if you have active children
Comment: This camera does a little of everything, video with sound as well as images. The pictures it takes can be fantastic. Unfortunately the subject has to be pretty still or in very good lighting to get a good shot. I took this camera to a soccer practice of a bunch of 10-year-olds in the daytime with heavy cloud cover and not a single photograph turned out. That included the few I used the built-in flash on (it couldn't focus). I also tried shooting some pictures at an indoor game that were disastrous because of the quick subjects (10-year-olds again) and low lighting.
Even during several outdoor games in bright sunlight it just couldn't hack it. I took several hundred photographs to get 30 or 40 worth keeping. Most of the time I was struggling with the camera trying to get it to focus and snap before the children ran away and out of focus.
I also took this camera to Hawaii for a vacation. It did much better when the subject stood still and smiled, but none of the evening sunset-shots turned out.
The camera also has a flaw in that the lens blocks out part of the viewfinder. This isn't much of an issue once you get used to using the LED to line up your shots.
On the plus side, this camera has a very long battery life and can use the Ultra II compact flash cards. The software was also very easy to use (be sure to read the instructions BEFORE loading it onto your computer, not during).
Overall, my recommendation is to spend a little extra for an SLR camera and leave this one alone.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Full Feature Camera, Some Issues
Comment: I have been really happy with the overall performance of this camera. I love being able to change how many pixels I want for my photos. I frequently will use the 5 pixel function so that I can later crop photos as necessary. Sometimes I wish that the camera were smaller. Also, we had to send the camera back to the manufacturer because the battery closure warped and the camera kept losing power. They fixed it quickly and for free. I was happy with the service.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great camera for daily needs
Comment: I bought this camera after reviewing several other camera in the same price range. This is a great camera with most of the features I was looking for including a handy remote to take picture of the whole family. I love it...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best price/performance ratio
Comment: I've been using this camera for 3 months, and have clicked about 1600 photos as of yesterday. Here's my take on it.
- The lens is amazing. Fast and crystal clear. In digital cameras, the lens quality is more important than the mega-pixels beyond a certain point - for me personally that's 3.2MP
- The battery lasts forever compared to other cameras in this range.
- Tons of features, with amazing customization and configurability. I've taken beautiful photos in extremely low light conditions to very still pictures in high motion environments.
- Very capable.
- The package comes with everything you need. All the cables, remote control, charger, ac adapter etc... The only thing you have to buy is a big memory card.
- The software drivers are nice, but the rest of the software is pretty useless. Download picasa (http://www.picasa.com) - it's better than iPhoto and is now free.
- It is big and bulky (smaller than an SLR, but bigger than the S50). I bought this instead of the small S500 - at the time they cost the same; and have no regrets. The capabilities are worth the extra bulk.
Read all the reviews of the purple fringing and chromatic aberrations. Here's my take
- all cameras have them
- personally, I've never noticed it.
- the pictures look great when printed out or on the screen.
- if you really want, you can fix them using software.
Summary: Very durable camera
Comment: I bought this camera used in the spring of 2004. Since then, I have taken over 10,000 photos on many backpacking expeditions around the world. If the camera died tomorrow, it would have been well worth the money invested in it - but it still is ticking and takes photos today just as well as it did when I first purchased it. It's sturdy body and ease of use really made this a great camera.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this if you have active children
Comment: This camera does a little of everything, video with sound as well as images. The pictures it takes can be fantastic. Unfortunately the subject has to be pretty still or in very good lighting to get a good shot. I took this camera to a soccer practice of a bunch of 10-year-olds in the daytime with heavy cloud cover and not a single photograph turned out. That included the few I used the built-in flash on (it couldn't focus). I also tried shooting some pictures at an indoor game that were disastrous because of the quick subjects (10-year-olds again) and low lighting.
Even during several outdoor games in bright sunlight it just couldn't hack it. I took several hundred photographs to get 30 or 40 worth keeping. Most of the time I was struggling with the camera trying to get it to focus and snap before the children ran away and out of focus.
I also took this camera to Hawaii for a vacation. It did much better when the subject stood still and smiled, but none of the evening sunset-shots turned out.
The camera also has a flaw in that the lens blocks out part of the viewfinder. This isn't much of an issue once you get used to using the LED to line up your shots.
On the plus side, this camera has a very long battery life and can use the Ultra II compact flash cards. The software was also very easy to use (be sure to read the instructions BEFORE loading it onto your computer, not during).
Overall, my recommendation is to spend a little extra for an SLR camera and leave this one alone.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Full Feature Camera, Some Issues
Comment: I have been really happy with the overall performance of this camera. I love being able to change how many pixels I want for my photos. I frequently will use the 5 pixel function so that I can later crop photos as necessary. Sometimes I wish that the camera were smaller. Also, we had to send the camera back to the manufacturer because the battery closure warped and the camera kept losing power. They fixed it quickly and for free. I was happy with the service.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great camera for daily needs
Comment: I bought this camera after reviewing several other camera in the same price range. This is a great camera with most of the features I was looking for including a handy remote to take picture of the whole family. I love it...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best price/performance ratio
Comment: I've been using this camera for 3 months, and have clicked about 1600 photos as of yesterday. Here's my take on it.
- The lens is amazing. Fast and crystal clear. In digital cameras, the lens quality is more important than the mega-pixels beyond a certain point - for me personally that's 3.2MP
- The battery lasts forever compared to other cameras in this range.
- Tons of features, with amazing customization and configurability. I've taken beautiful photos in extremely low light conditions to very still pictures in high motion environments.
- Very capable.
- The package comes with everything you need. All the cables, remote control, charger, ac adapter etc... The only thing you have to buy is a big memory card.
- The software drivers are nice, but the rest of the software is pretty useless. Download picasa (http://www.picasa.com) - it's better than iPhoto and is now free.
- It is big and bulky (smaller than an SLR, but bigger than the S50). I bought this instead of the small S500 - at the time they cost the same; and have no regrets. The capabilities are worth the extra bulk.
Read all the reviews of the purple fringing and chromatic aberrations. Here's my take
- all cameras have them
- personally, I've never noticed it.
- the pictures look great when printed out or on the screen.
- if you really want, you can fix them using software.