I will update as I test through the features. I wish I could upload sample photos. I was amazed as I stood in my master bath and zoomed across the bathroom, out the door of the adjoining master bedroom, out THAT door and into the upstairs open hallway and THEN through THAT door at the end of the hall to the furthest room on the floor (none of the rooms had any lights turned on, only overcast hazy natural light). I took a photo of the room at the other end of the house and the photo picked up the details of the FIBERS in the decorative floor carpet!!! Blew me away. Without flash!! My last Sony would have choked on such a feat and it cost about 100 more. Overall, quite pleased with the low-light features. Camera pops on and ready to shoot in quite good timing. That was my first concern as that was always a benefit of Sony -- the ability to see a random photo opp, grab the camera, turn it on and shoot immediately. Canon chokes on that, so do a few others. Sony DSC is master there, but this Nikon is quite impressive point-n-shoot ready. And it's low-light is far superior to my Sony. I have two cameras with all the bells and whistles, because I thought *someday* I may finally learn how to use them. But to this day, they remain virtually untouched. I finally got smart and got a camera that really has the very best of ONLY those features I need the most!Also - must say that the product picture does not do this camera justice in terms of color. This photo makes it look like something a teenage girl would have in their locker. In reality, the camera is a stunning deep dark garnet red - very handsome!!! Very serious and posh looking. No more picking up the wrong camera from table at weddings!UPDATE: Here's my 2-year assessment. This thing is my GO-TO for fine HD video recording - I use it regularly to record my daughter's choir concerts and can zoom in on her in the back row (casualty of being tall) and see if she's chewing gum or not. It's the bomb and all my friends are constantly amazed at the high quality recordings. Concerts too -- excellent concert recording device - even loud concerts, no sound distortion. Heck, one of my videos of Foreigner concert was even used by the local Television new station. But sadly - my other need (which I didn't realize was such a need when I bought it) is stage photography, being able to photograph my daughter on stage and in theatre productions. This thing sucks at that!!! HORRIBLE auto-focus, sports focus, action shots -- I've tried EVERYTHING and I can't seem to get the right setting to not produce a blurry photo, without even using zoom. Let's be honest - almost *every* camera on the market does well with action shots/movement shots in bright outdoor lighting -- the real tough sell is if it can handle movement/action (ie., a close-proximity band with irregular lighting, or kids moving around on stage during a play with stage lighting) in indoor or stage lighting. Sadly, this one cannot. And before you get all "buy a more expensive camera" mode on me.... My mom's HTC Phone takes way better/clearer action shots than this - -and she barely even knows how to use it. She just points and shoots and gets great action stops. And she paid way less than this camera.And to all those guys who argued about the "perfect" lens cap. It sucks -- a LOT. It's the worst in fact, and I've owned several cameras. You guys are smoking the drapes or you don't actually *own* or *use* the thing a lot where you're jumping to grab a quick shot. Sure, if I'm thinking about grabbing a photo, I remember to take the lens off - but 50% of the time I'm capturing a photo opp I hadn't been prepared for. If you turn it on with the lens on, it makes this horrible noise - you just know it can't be good for the longevity of the motor. And then you get an error message, then you have to turn it off, then turn it back on to get rid of the error message. By that time, my daughter has exited the stage ;-(But the Zoom is still exception in my view, the still shots are exception. Just don't plan on using this camera if anyone is actually *moving*. For the money - it's a very good camera. For the money, it's a SUPERIOR HD video recording deviceAnd as for the batteries -- it's really a preference thing. I was tired of having no camera available because the proprietary batter would no longer hold its charge and the price to replace justified a new camera. For me, I like having rechargeable batteries I can pop in or even store bought ones that are available on every corner gas station.
