Compact digicams with a 28mm wide angle equivalent lens are fairly rare, so when I saw this I thought I couldn't go wrong at the price. Build quality is fantastic. Easy to use with fully auto mode for beginners, no manual modes which might put off experienced shutterbugs but P mode allows you to alter the iso/exposure. Speed of operation about average, some (more expensive) cameras are a little faster, but not by much. Touch screen isn't too bad (I would prefer buttons but it does work so can't grumble) and very useful when playing back images. ASR function actually works reasonably well, it takes 2 shots then blends them somehow to reduce camera shake. Image quality v.slightly softer than the competition if looking at it zoomed in all the way on your pc screen but not something you would notice on normal sized prints or email etc. Beyond iso 200 it gets a bit 'noisy' grainy etc, but again ok for small prints, and if you are into photoshop etc you can reduce the noise etc. Generally… more »

Compact digicams with a 28mm wide angle equivalent lens are fairly rare, so when I saw this I thought I couldn't go wrong at the price. Build quality is fantastic. Easy to use with fully auto mode for beginners, no manual modes which might put off experienced shutterbugs but P mode allows you to alter the iso/exposure. Speed of operation about average, some (more expensive) cameras are a little faster, but not by much. Touch screen isn't too bad (I would prefer buttons but it does work so can't grumble) and very useful when playing back images. ASR function actually works reasonably well, it takes 2 shots then blends them somehow to reduce camera shake. Image quality v.slightly softer than the competition if looking at it zoomed in all the way on your pc screen but not something you would notice on normal sized prints or email etc. Beyond iso 200 it gets a bit 'noisy' grainy etc, but again ok for small prints, and if you are into photoshop etc you can reduce the noise etc. Generally very acceptable for snaps. Charging using usb cable to mains lead (the battery charges in the camera) takes a long time compared to other digicams, over 2 hours, but you can buy a separate charger for £10 or so if you search on the internet which will charge in half the time. Otherwise it can be a bonus as you don't have to pack a charger when travelling as can plug the camera straight into the mains or your laptop if you have one. Uses a Samsung mobile phone battery which again can be bought for £10 to £13, having a spare is always a good idea, reviews state 200 photos from one charge but I got over 300 before needing to swap the battery. Nice big 3" LCD screen, very stylish looking, small and light. Oh one thing I have noticed is videos seem a little 'hissy' sounding when played back on the camera, but were ok played back on my pc - but note that you may have to download a 'codec' so that windows mediaplayer or quicktime can play them, search google for xvid codec and it's the first search result - (the Samsung encodes the video using 'xvid', it might be on the cd that came with the camera but I haven't looked at it). All in all a bargain.