Sony lead the way in the Ultra Compact Mega Pixel War !

Considering this camera is buffering 7.2M pixel images its astonishingly fast in every respect (although I did buy a 1 Gig Pro Stick). Switch on and a welcome screen is flashed before your eyes for about 10 nanoseconds before the lens fires out and the Auto Focus is ready to shoot - excellent for those rapid fire acquisition moments that carry everywhere ultra compacts are perfect for.

In 'idiot proof' mode my images seem very well adjusted to the ambient conditions and contain incredible detail - you'll love to zoom right into a shot to reveal detail, for example, of far off skiers on distant pistes that initially look like ants on the full size shot; this level of image capture lends itself to shot cropping and A4 print offs with negligible loss of detail.

I've not encountered any purple fringing nor loss of edge detail that is the bug bear of many a camera of similar dimensions (re: canon's backward step adventures in miniaturisation!) - mainly due to the superb lens system and high quality CCD.

Sure, the menu system will take a little getting used to, but its more intuitive than most reviews give it credit for and the GUI is colourful and pleasingly animated. Most users will be shooting in idiot proof mode anyway - and those willing to invest a little time to explore the camera's other more powerful features (aperature control, etc) will be more inclined to master the menus in little time.

The battery stamina of this camera is absolutely astounding! - I shot a week's worth of skiing footage using the LCD display constantly, got home and uploaded the entire haul (via very quick USB2) and still had over an hours worth of battery life left! The minute countdown display is also very handy - i.e. it doesn't just shutdown with no lead time.

The high resolution 2 inch 'oversize' display is also more than adequate for reviewing and zooming into shots. The plastic cover helps cut down on scratches and bumps.

A nice display feature is to toggle between full/medium and no diagnostic information - plus screen off. The real time histogram is something of a bonus too!

Red eye reduction mode produces near flawless results - unlike canon!

With a fully charged battery and a Gig of Pro memory this camera can be quickly drawn from the hip pouch, as is, without the need for any additional accessories for acres of full quality footage!. The 7.2M effective pixel size images should future proof your purchase for some time to come!


Minor niggles:
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I was a little surprised to find a bug in the operational firmware - the sound effect menu doesn't work in shutter only mode; just all sounds on or all sounds off; however, I find the bleeps and whistles to be mildly annoying anyway.

In movie mode (max resolution @ 30fps) I found that the camera tends to hunt for focus in low light conditions, but thats possibly a common fault for this scope of camera. In good lighting conditions there was no problem. In movie playback mode the loud speaker is a little underpowered.

The need of a relatively expensive proprietary Pro Stick for max res movies and general speed of operation is a drawback - although these memory devices are lighteningly fast and are portable to other Sony products.

The hinged power recharge door is a little fiddley at first - but this is a minor quibble.

Toggling between flash modes via the dedicated button (force/synchro/off) could have included red eye reduction; you have to hop between menus for this feature.

Two points of caution - always shoot with both hands as single handed shots may include slight camera shake due to the distance between shutter and lens (especially in low light long exposure conditions). Also, get into the habit of sporting the wrist band each time as the rounded edges of this little camera can cause it to slip from your fingers.