Lot of fun for amature photo-nut...

I bought this camera in Ohio when I lost mine in the Columbus airport. I'm by no way a professional, but the pictures I've captured with this camera have fooled many a person with the quality that's come out.

It's a big jump up from my previous camera, by 2 megapixels (8.3 vs 10), with the nice 18x zoom. At the time of purchase, it was the only thing I could find that was even comparable to what I had before, although it was about $300 more than what I paid for the other. I tried several other cameras out at the store, but am overall happy with Fuji products and wanted to stay with the company.

Once you get a handle on it, and have it on a setting you like, it's a breeze to use...just read the manual to make sure you're programing everything right. The zoom sometimes tends to go in fast on what your capturing, so go lightly on the little turn button.

I do a lot of still life photography (okay, I photograph cemetaries...), and the clarity is just amazing. I've found it's got great focus once I've got it in the right place (which is very easy), and everything looks really crisp. I also like that I can use the eye-viewer to see my subject, and don't have to always use the screen. This helps me with my steadiness.

I haven't used the movie feature, nor the face-capturing feature, but plan to soon when I get together when I go out to a local bar that I sing at to capture the audience. I've taken it out there once as a audience-member, and even in the dim lighting, without the flash (sometimes the flash is too overbearing and whites-out the subjects, but this is with every camera I think), the pictures all came out nicely.

Overall, a nice camera, although initially it's expensive depending on where you go. I've found it all worth every penny, and can't wait to use it again.