I had this camera with me over 1 ½ years now., basically its a SLR camera so its pretty easy to operate ( one should know basic operation though ) , only optical zoom is available ( 21x ) . coming to picture quality , its good enough for 14.1 megapixels . its user friendly bcoz of all software no hardware adjustments are required . its pretty handy also . the price is bit higher when compared to canon but the picture quality beats the canon . the camera uses 4xAA batteries , doesn’t consume much ( make sure you use the standard rechargable battery for better results ) overall it can be said to be family camera more then proffessional camera