When used within its limitations it takes ace pictures

This is great camera for the price not least due to the superb 58mm Carl Zeiss 28 to 200mm (35mm equiv) F2.0-2.8 7.1 zoom lens. With its smooth action manual zoom which is one of the factors that enables the extremely long battery life between charges. Picture quality in all but low light conditions is excellent and comparable with other 8 megapixel prosumer cameras. The purple fringing is only visible on 10 x 8 inch prints at extreme lens settings and under adverse lighting conditions like tree branches against a bright sky. This is virtually non existent at 70mm but quite noticeable at 28mm and 200mm. Like most cameras, if you want great pictures in low lighting conditions use a tripod and make sure the white balance is set correctly. Camera shake is a major contributing factor at low shutter speeds. My Canon 20D is just as bad in low light if I don't use a tripod. What I love about this camera is its superb build quality, long battery life, multipurpose lens, great picture quality and the very good movie quality at the 640(fine) setting.