I purchased this camera as a photography hobbyist (Not a professional Photographer). The intention was to have a camera of quality similar to that of an SLR but without the bulk. I enjoy having a camera on hand to just snap with when im out and about, and its just too much hassle to lug round an SLR wherever i go.
The most important thing for me was image quality and colour definition. I take predominantly photos of water, and green scenary.

When i got the camera home, it was straight out of the box. It was simple to set up and the menu system is very intuitive. This is partly due to having owned older powershots in the past and canon are very good at keeping their menu systems similar to their previous cameras which is a definite plus.

Desperate to test it out i made the 2 hour drive to cambridge which is full of beautiful scenery. Rather than using the camera in manual mode, i thought i would test it out using its built in 'Scene' Mode which i have to say is brilliant. The vivid Colour settings, and the ability to enhance blues and greens is fantastic and really brings pictures to life. Its so hard to actually capture natural beauty on a point and click camera as everything ends up looking a bit grey. Not with this camera. The pictures i took in auto scene modes using various scene settings are as good as anything i've ever taken in manual mode on an SLR. This may say more about my ability than the cameras, but either way, i was very pleased with the results and couldn't wait to show off my pictures to family and friends who were all very impressed.

The best thing about the camera is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want. With virtually all the manual features of an SLR, it is a great way to learn more advanced manual photography, yet if you don't have the time, or just want some snaps, the camera takes stunning pictures in auto or scene mode.

I certainly would not consider myself a photography expert, just someone who enjoys taking pictures, which probably puts me in the same category of virtually everyone likely to buy this camera, so i wont go into all the advanced features of the camera. If you want full manual control, it is there and works brilliantly, but if you want to take stunning pictures without fiddling around, then you can trust the camera to do just that.

I am very happy with my purchase and i would recommend this camera to anyone looking for either a good compact camera or a smaller backup for an SLR.