I bought 2 of these cameras back in June. One for myself and the other for a gift. Overall it's a great little camera. In my opinion, it is the best in it's class, and a great value for either beginners or people that are more advanced. It takes crisp clear pictures outside and good pictures inside as well. It's very user friendly and controls everything for you in "auto mode", but also allows you to have full control over the all the settings in "program mode" The extra thin compact design makes it easy to take it with you anywhere. The all metal body is great and the camera has a good solid feel to it. The 3 inch LCD is also a nice feature, and being able to charge it when you connect it to your computer is a plus as well. Shooting pictures in a HD ratio is nice if you like viewing your pictures on your Widescreen TV.

However, the camera is NOT perfect. Although it has a big 3" LCD, it can be rather hard to view in the sunlight. There is a clear hard plastic piece that sits over the LCD for protection, WHICH IS GOOD, but it can cause glare in the sunlight. Kind of like your cell phone screen does.

The buttons are really tiny on this camera. They don't bother me, but they might be difficult for some people with extra large hands.

The zoom is wimpy, but come on, THIS ISN'T A POWER ZOOM CAMERA! haha.

The only other thing that I've noticed that I don't like about this camera is that there seems to be a slight bug in the internal software. Every now and then when I power it on, the camera will freeze up. To resolve the issue you have to pop the battery out, put it back in, and power up again. It's not a really big deal, but if you're grabbing your camera in a hurry to catch a shot of your kid or something, you might miss it, "if" this happens. Both of the cameras I purchased do this from time to time, and I've read other reviews about it as well, so keep it in mind. It doesn't do it very often, but it DOES happen. On the plus side, a normal power up is VERY fast.

Like I said before, overall it's a great little camera. There ARE some flaws, but they are pretty minor in comparison to the benefits this camera gives you. I have 4 digital cameras. I have an HP, an older Kodak, a Canon S5IS, and this one. To be honest, I use this one more than my Canon. It's just more convenient, and it actually takes pictures just as good as long as the focal point is at a reasonable distance. Obviousely the Canon S5IS is more advanced and also a powerzoom camera, but for general picture taking this Kodak does the job just as well.

One last thing. If you were buying this because of the over exaggerated HD 720p video mode, just move on and don't even bother with this camera. The video mode is terrible on this camera if you ask me. If a good video mode is what you're looking for, go buy the Canon S5IS. It isn't "HD", but it IS the best looking video mode you're going to get out of ANY camera, plus it is the only camera with true stereo sound in the videos.

Hope this helps.