I bought this camera as I recently lost mine whilst travelling around Indonesia. The zoom on the camera is a 30x zoom and the Macro capability is 1cm super macro. Panoramic phtographs can be created using the 360 degree panorama function which is great for all those scenic shots whilst on holiday. This camera is excellent for capturing moving subjects as it has subject tracking keeping your subject in focus for that final shot. I used this whilst photographing local beach boys in Indonesia playing football and almost every shot turned out perfect.The 3.0 inch LCD screen is large enough for quick reviewing of your pictures.
The camera remains relatively compact for it's functions so is not too much of a burden to carry around on long trips trekking through the jungle. the image stabilzation function is great for long range zoom photos of wildlife and critters I have encountered through my travels.
The camerac an also produce HD movies which is great for those of you who do not want to travel around with a video camera aswell in your backpack.
I can only speak from my experience of using this camera so far and I have not had this camera long but overall I would say it is a great camera for the avid explorer!