I bought this camera last year, February 2008 to be more exact. So now as I have used this a lot, I though of sharing my views on this gadget. So this is not a tech.specs. Review; This review will tell you about my experience with the gadget, its software and some additional information. I hope it’ll be useful generically.
Few points to mark it different from the normal point and shoot cameras.
Optical image stabilization.(So it will try to stabilize your picture in cases of handshake but works only horizontally, this is rare for a camera in this budget and believe me it is useful)
4X optical zoom.(mostly cameras comes with 3X zoom)
Manual Control -(So this is again not offered by other and we will be back on this quickly)
please note that this also supports auto mode along with many scene modes.
Nice movie recording capability. VGA at 30 FPS. maximum recording of one hour or 4GB memory.
Support AA battery: you are required to buy AA battery, it is a+ for you or not, you decide. I prefer this as I can use those batteries in other gadgets too, plus they are cheap(250 rs for 2 AA rechargeable batteries 2100 Mah).
So do we need Manual Control at all, well here I want to put an example lets say its low light situation and you do not want to use flash as it destroys the natural colors, but when you clicks it with auto mode, without flash its either too dark or else too blurred. So what is the solution, well the solution is to slow the shutter speed, so that ample light will reach to the lens. So here you maintain all natural colors though it was not a good light condition.
Same trick does not work if the target is moving for example in Pubs or any other happening place, the solution which can be applied here is to raise the ISO, yes it will create some noise in picture but you can make it better than the image clicked with auto mode.(I do not mean auto mode is bad, just saying that its just using some logic inserted in chip and our mind can calculate many other permutations that that).
So manual controls are like added advantage, use auto if you do not want them, but just for those who want too experiment or want to control, there is a low budget camera with manual controls too.I was not aware about all this stuff when I purchased this, just played with my camera and got my basics from few good web links, it actually helps you to improve the image quality.
Optical IS is ok, I mean it’s rare for this budget so it is a god treat to have. Same with 4X zoom its 1X extra than others, and that is it. Its movie quality is good though at same time reception of voice is not at all acceptable. Battery life is good as you use AA batteries, it depends upon the capacity of battery, 2100 mAh and plus is a good choice.
About image quality is quite exceptional but with few exceptions, for example it does not produce exact colors for Red group colors, I mean it does capture them beautifully but it changes the color at bit. Except for this it’s just great, produce good images, nice colors, work flawlessly, it is lot easy to use, I mean it, my son has captured some beautiful images with this. Red eye is a problem as with any camera but the camera software has a red eye removal tool which works perfectly. Only problem I noticed with camera software is it asks about the date and time on every starts, I think it can be fixed with a firmware update but as I purchased this from US(176$ when$ was 39 Rs, WOW), I can not have it here. In India it comes with a 2Gb card and with 2 years warranty.(this is when last may offer and could be changed by now, better check latest from a store).
As for size its not too big not too small, being said that I mean thatyou can not just put it in your pocket like a mobile but you can hang it onyour belt and it is not too heavy.
It comes with a PC sofwtare suits too, which can be used to crop, joint, edit images, I am not covering them in details here.
I guess Icovered enough and it is already become a lengthy review, as a suggestion Ithink one who plans to buy this should look for A720IS too, it got 2X extrazoom than this and is a bit bulky too. Think what you required and make a dicision.