I had been using a small Canon digital camera for the past few years and whilst it took great holiday snaps, I started to crave more creative control with my pictures and also wanted to increase their overall quality. The HS30EXR is perfect in this regard, as it is not as expensive or complex as a DSLR and so will not overwhelm anyone who is familiar with digital photography of any sorts. At the same time there is fantastic scope for creative control with settings that allow for manual control over aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and so this allows for progression as you photography becomes more of a serious hobby!

The standard Auto mode takes fantastic photos straight out the box and there is a plethora of scene modes for no-nonsense automatic adjustments to suit the subject matter in hand. This is particularly useful in EXR AUTO mode which senses what the scene is and adjusts the settings to suit! A step up in quality from other Auto modes.

The zoom on this camera is also fantastic, allowing you to get a lot closer to wildlife than you would be able to with a smaller camera. Of course with this extra zoom and image quality comes size, but the included neck strap is a very useful addition and allows for portability not to become too much of an issue!

Overall a fantastic camera, and one i would thoroughly recommend!