Perfect for what it does

Let's put this in context.  I own two Nikon DSLRs, a decent flash, and a bunch of good glass (that makes me sound like a cool photographer; it means lenses).  So when I bought this little miracle a few weeks before my daugther (a bigger miracle) was born my wife asked why we needed (yet) another camera.  Since then she understands.

Having great photo equipment doesn't do you a lot of good if you don't have it when you want to take a picture.  This is a camera you can always have on hand.  This has translated into pictures I would not otherwise have taken.

You will want to have an extra bettery on hand and that's true with any digital camera.  The viewfinder is a bit small but unlike some other digital cameras I've never had a problem with the display being washed out.  Some may consider the 8PM sensor to be a limitation but it's unlikely that an image taken with this class of camera would be useful when enlarged to a point where this would be a problem.

There are some manual controls available but like other compact digital cameras they are so difficult to access that they are unlikely to see much use.  If you are looking to have any degree of control over your images then you may want to look elsewhere.  However if you want to have a point and shoot camera that takes excellent pictures and will be on hand for you to take them then this is what you want.  Also, there are some manual control capabilities like the night portrait setting getting you shutter drag and fairly sophisticated in camera editing.