A good "happy snap" camera

I bought this camera in 2003 and have owned it for almost two and a half years. I am happy with the majority of photos which it has taken, although sometimes the pictures are blurry indoors. It also takes time to "recharge" after taking a flash photo. The screen goes blank and a little light at the top blinks for several seconds. It can be frustrating to have to wait for this time, for it to "recharge".

I have found it a good camera to use in a range of other situations, such as outdoors, at sunset, at the beach and I have been especially impressed with the colours that it captures.This camera can also catch very fast action, without blurriness, such as horse racing.

It is possible to capture good quality digital photots, which look good in 15cm X 10cm, A4 and A3 prints.

This camera has automatic features, the only thing the user can change is whether to use flash or non-flash, so it would be a good camera for children or beginners, or someone wanting to catch a "happy snap".

I have read other reviews, with the common problem being problems with the lens. So far (touch wood) I have not experienced any problems with the lens, although once when the battery ran out of power, the lens were only half closed and the zoom was fully exposed, so I had to be careful not to damage them while the battery recharged. Once I put the fully charged battery back in, the lens closed and the zoom retracted.

The only other complaint that I would have with the camera is that sometimes a picture looks really good on the LCD screen, but when it is downloaded to the computer, the picture has a slight fuzziness.

Sometimes I take multiple pictures of the same thing and the colour and focal points can be different. I would suggest that anyone who owns this camera do the same, as it is amazing how the same object can look so different. This would be due to the automatic nature of the camera.

Overall, I have used my camera to take thousands of photos and have been very happy with most of the results.