This is an excellent 'first serious camera' for anyone who is looking to get into photography. The lens covers up to 280mm at telephoto and can focus down to 3cm in macro mode. Full manual control is easy and it has as many options as the beginner could hope for, however, the autofocus is stupidly slow; 1 second or more in daylight and 3 seconds at night. Listen to people when they tell you that you won't be able to shoot sports of wildlife with this, they're not being pessimistic, it really is THAT slow. The picture quality is good but not as sharp as it could be and the battery life is appalling. New users will find it hard to shoot a 256mb card on one charge so carrying a spare battery is essential. The lack of a filter thread is a little strange and certainly limits your creativity once you've got your head around what everything means / does. A manual focus facility is available via the menus but this really doesn't work that well. Slow AF and a lack of manual focus make this, at times, a tricky camera to use. Apart from those negatives it really is good and an ideal camera for anyone looking to upgrade from a fully auto point & shoot to a more advanced model.
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