My comments are mainly based on comparison with my previous camera(Canon SD450 – 5MP).
*Pros:
*4X optical zoom: Provides added zooming capabilities compared to 3X, something that all camera savvy people look forward to.
2.7” screen: Good bigger screen.
Twilight Mode: A good feature that this camera has is 2 options for night-shot or twilight mode(as it is referred in Sony terminology). It has normal twilight mode for scenery and another one were object is in focus and scene at the background.
Other Modes: It has ‘beaches’ and ‘snow’modes something that I did not find in Canon.
Multiple Image Delete: This feature is useful.
Video: The quality of video is good(I mean as expected from a digicam), but the zooming feature is missing.
Flash: The built-in flash is certainly powerful.
Red-eye Reduction: I found lesser instances of red eye capture when compared to my previous camera. A welcome sign indeed!
Results: Results I found pretty good. The clarity in images is a differentiating factor like in all the Sony cameras.
*Cons:
*Big file size: I’m not great fan of having high mega pixels, since I do not go beyond printing in A4 size. As such higher MP camera only brings to me larger jpeg file size that eventually eats more storage space on my computer.
Little Bulky Design: As compared to my earlier camera I thought this is little bulky. Sony would do good to improve this aspect in this series.
Jump Feature Missing: Canon provides a feature to jump images in the view mode. You can jump 10 or 100 images at a time. This is very handy if you have loads of images on your camera. Similar feature in Sony is definitely found missing.
Picture Hold: Again Canon has a good feature to hold the picture on the screen(till you release it), on capturing every new picture. This helps you to view and also show it to others before continuing or deleting the image as the case may be. In Sony’s case though, the picture stays only for 2 secs and vanishes. You are required to navigate back(pressing 2-3 keys) to view the picture. Though minor, this is very handy feature which is found missing.
Overall it’s a good camera with great results but compared to its earlier versions in the series, I did not find any significant improvements except for higher MP! Also, if Sony adds some of the user friendly features described above, this would probably be the best camera in this category.