For the price of $200-$300 and the quality it provides, this is an excellent camera for a beginner as well as a professional.

I researched online for a few months trying to find a decent camera. The main thing for me was mobility, and price. I wanted to buy a camera in the mid 200s but that still had a good quality picture. This camera more than delivers.

--- Pros ---
1. Small and light weight
2. Uses 2 AA batteries
3. Very good feature set in camera
4. SD memory
5. Amazing photos and videos
6. Very well packed box (with lots of manuals in case you want to read them)

--- Cons ---
1. Only comes with a 16MB SD card (not really a problem, but something to know)
2. Flap on side with USB and media plugs is covered by a soft rubber piece that doesn't feel all that secure (not bad, just that I wish it moved a little easier)
3. In automatic mode you can't take too close of photos, about 4 inches when zoomed all the way out and 12 inches zoomed all the way in (I am sure that if you play around the manual settings you can get better result)
4. A small thing about the optical viewfinder, seems to be a little zoomed in (this could be a feature though, just to make sure you don't miss the corners you were trying to line up with)