Canon promotes this camera as ""point and shoot"", and indeed it does that very well. But there are enough controls for exposure time, light sensitivity, focus and metering frames, picture resolution and programmable modes to make this a very satisfying camera to use for demanding shots. The quality of both still and video capture is impressive. The maximum image size (20 Mpix), color accuracy, sharpness and 12x optical zoom enables aggressive cropping to produce detailed images of small objects captured at a distance. I've been very pleased with how intuitive it is once over the learning curve of menus and the downloadable user's guide.. Canon tech support was friendly and knowledgeable when I called about a confusing instruction in the user's guide. Downloading images to a computer by USB cable in extremely quick using the supplied Camera Window software, and incredibly convenient (if a little slower) using the built in wireless capability of the camera. Canon Image Gateway software links easily with the camera to upload images to web-based albums for archiving or sharing. In short, I really like this camera and recommend it.
