Up until a few months ago I had always been a keen member of the school of photography known as the point, press and hope school whose members rely on the fact that the technology would do everything for them however the other half decided that we needed a more advanced camera and went out and bought this, he claims to have got it for a bargain price however I was not impressed with the £695 he spent on the camera and lens package. However after some practice and a bit of trial and error I'm really impressed with how easy this camera has proved to be in terms of using it and the results have been pretty damn good both when we have took portraits and also some scenery shots as well.

Now I'm not the most technical minded of people and have no idea about half of the stuff listed on the specification, this is just the opinion of a bit of a novice however if I can get this camera to work then I guess this is a pretty good one to start with if you are looking to move on from the basic point and press cameras.

The camera is larger than I'm used to but surprisingly easy to hold and it feels quite well made. I have not dropped it yet but it has had a couple of bumps and no damage is showing. The camera is designed in such a way that makes it easy to use, maybe it is just luck but when I have the camera up to my face the buttons are easy to locate and they are nice and easy to access.

The main dial that you need is on the left side of the camera, with a number of pre set scenes and you can also load up three settings of your own, the other half has done these for us but to be honest there are only two settings that I bother with. Next to the dial is the power switch which is quite large and easy to operate and locate by feel. One nice feature of the camera is that on the information screen if you rotate the camera then the screen info rotates as well so you can always read it.

The camera comes with a powerful lithium battery which really does hold its charge well, something I have not been used to with the point and press cameras.

I have really been impressed with the quality of the pictures from this camera, sure there have been some errors and a few out of focus shots but after a bit of practice I'm a lot more confident using it, the fact that you can easily view your results and download them to your PC quickly certainly makes life easy. I have even started experimenting with other settings and adjusting the size of my prints which can range from 3 mega pixel up to the maxiumim levekl of 12.2 mega pixels and you can opt for jpeg or raw images.

Is the camera worth the cost, well to be honest for what I use it for maybe not but the other half has produced some really impressive scenic shots and also a couple of action shots that are pretty impressive as well, my favourite is of a falcon in full flight, he almost got it taking prey as well but just missed the vital shot, still it is an easyish camera to learn to use and one I'm happy with, I would probably be more happy if I was ignorant of the original price he paid.