I have had this camera for a few weeks now and like it very much. I am not going to write a technical review, because those that would understand it can interpret the data for themselves. This is a simple review for a single camera that can be used by the advanced photographer and still hand it over to you wife or kids and still get a great picture. This is truly a family camera.
Let me say that it never stops to amaze me how far technology has come. Having said that lets look at some of the less known feature.
1- In camera editing. You can change a frown to a smile, a blur to a sharp image. Mix back and white with some color elements in the same picture and shoot with a fish eye lens effect if you want and you don’t need the lens. All this and much more and it’s easy to use.
2- Ten pictures a second. If you have owned a digital camera, you know how slow it can be between pictures when you are trying to catch you granddaughter running about. In low light it takes multiple pictures and combines the best elements of each to give you one good image. In portrait mode it will give you a warning on the screen if the person blinks when the shutter is snapped or will take two picture when set and keep the best one. It will wait to take the picture until someone smiles and much more. The results are stunning the technology amazing.
3- Wide angle to telephoto with a small camera body and lens.
4- Scene selection works like a charm. Backlight, front light, no light, portrait or landscape it sees and selects the best setting and fill flash if needed. The amature can get excellent results in the worst of conditions. Want to do it yourself, switch to manual mode.
Hope this peaks your interest. I could go on for pages, but this is a great camera at a great price. I would recommend it and I have owned some of the best. This camera is fun and it allows you to focus on your subject and forget about the tech stuff.
OK, some additional information. I just returned from a trip to Europe and took over 700 pictures. I have to say as a point and shoot camera, it has given me some of the best pictures I have ever taken.
LOW Light – Again, no tech speak. I found some carved statues in a dark corner of a cathedral. It was so dark I almost walked past them if not for a flash light glimmer from a tour guide. With no flash allowed, I set the camera to low light, steady hand held mode and shot the picture. In this mode the camera shoots 5 fast pictures and the internal processor makes a composite picture from the 5 shots. The results are astounding! The pictures are rendered with natural light and are as clear and sharp as day. I used this feature over and over again with outstanding and dynamic results every time.
Pan Pictures – Given the wide street pictures and tall cathedrals it is very hard to compose pictures with a standard lens and not cut off buildings and towers. The 270 degree pan mode gave me incredible pictures of street scenes and buildings that would have been lost in the translation of single images. Please not that there is some distortion as you pan across the scene in some applications, but the effect is not objectionable and in some cases added to the dynamics of the photo.
In short, this is the best camera I have ever owned for this kind of work providing professional results with little or no effort. Buy one and have a ball…