Very pleased

I bought this camera because of the large screen. I need reading glasses, and with the small screen on my old Canon, I just couldn't focus unless I put on my reading glasses. With the large 3" screen, I can see what I'm shooting without glasses, and also check the shots afterwards. That's a major plus. I had been thinking about a Panasonic, but its 2.5" screen had half the pixels and when zooming, it made some parts of the screen blurry, making it impossible to focus correctly.

The reason I couldn't give this camera the highest 5 star rating is the time it takes for the camera to recharge when taking flash pictures. It takes a good five seconds and that's just too long. It's probably because the camera uses only 2 AA batteries. 4 would have eliminated the problem, I believe.

I spent two weeks in Europe with the camera and took great pictures. I bought a faster charger and more batteries so that I always had a spare. I would suggest that anyone buying a battery charger get one that discharges the battery first, because the batteries used by this camera take quite a few charges before they "learn" to hold a full charge, and the right charger can make this process a lot easier. I also have noticed that just because the camera tells you it has a low battery doesn't mean that it really does. That's another reason to have a charger that discharges the battery fully, or else you'd be recharging batteries that had a charge, and they'd "learn" not to fully charge.

I mostly shoot on automatic, but every once in a while I try the manual settings, and have gotten pictures that otherwise I would have missed, though I'm not an expert at it, yet.

I used the self-timer all over Europe to take pictures of myself and my wife, and got a lot of smiles from people watching me race around to get into the picture. But I also got a lot of pictures of the two of us that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. My smaller Canon has the same feature but the larger body of the Sony seems to make it easier to set up steadily. Also the larger screen allows you to easily see what you are framing while you are placing the camera, sometimes a bit precariously.

The movie mode shoots fantastic videos. Watching them they look about as good as from a movie camera. I'm sure they're not, but to your average audience of family and friends, they're very impressive.

Deleting pictures is a two-step process that is a little too complicated, but then again, it does prevent accidental erasures.

All in all I love this camera, and would give it 4.5 stars if that were an option. And again, for anyone needing reading glasses, that big screen is a major plus.