Not Exactly A First Time Camera

After my nikon cookpix broke I decided it was time to get a camera that wouldn't take terrible shots in low light. I mostly use my camera indoors for pictures of my kids and images I take of items I am selling on eBay. I did not want to spend the money on an SLR, plus I really don't know the first thing about setting up shots with an SLR. I knew a large lense helped with low light shots so I purchased this one. When I first got it I was really confused on how to take a decent indoor picture. The manual made little sense to me because I have no experience with photography lingo. After playing with the camera for several hours I figured out how to work the thing and actually turned out some decent shots that my coolpix could have never achieved. This was hit or miss however. Even at the best settings I can not figure out how to make low light look good. I was hoping this would be a camera that I could just turn on and shoot indoors but I have found that to set up the perfect shot indoors I have to adjust several settings for each different lighting situation. I was hoping this camera would be more automatic. It isn't.

For ametures this camera will not be the best. I am not going to be returning the camera so I will be learning really quick how to work it. So far the camera has been pretty good at helping me, especially with the menus. Out of every 100 shots I turn out about 20 good ones so I am getting better. This is not a point and shoot, so if you want that buy a more automatic camera.

Outdoor shots are gorgeous when lots of sunlight is involved. The long distance landscape option is VERY cool too.

This thing uses AA batteries up quickly. The Sony batteries last 4x longer I have found and they are only 10 bucks each which is a good value in my opinion.

I know that when I figure out this camera a little better I will enjoy it more. Maybe enough to add an extra star.