About this camera and where to buy it.

I did hours of research over the course of several days trying to find the best digital camera for my budget and needs as well as where in the heck to purchase one online that wasn't a rip off. I suffered through so much to get this camera so I wrote this review to hopefully help someone else.

THE CAMERA: Is excellent if you want to have more manual control over your pics and is also a great point and shoot. I got it for the manual controls which are very hard to find in anything that's not a SLR or more on the pricey side. It's super easy to understand and use and the pictures are crisp and beautiful. The only fault I guess is the flash takes a bit to recharge from shot to shot. I just got the camera so I haven't found any other cons yet. The macro and zoom is fantastic!

NOTE: Make sure you get rechargeable batteries and a 512-2gb memory card.

NOTE ON MEGA PIXELS: Mega pixels are all fine and dandy but for the average picture taker they're not the most important thing. 5-8 pixels is more than enough. When you have 8-10 mega pixels you usually have to reduce the size of the picture anyway to email it. The larger mega pixels are needed if you want to blow up a photo to like poster size, but how often do you do that?

WHERE TO BUY: I saw all these really low prices on sites that compare pricing from different sites, but when I did a search on the company I usually got some horrible reviews on their business practices. It's easy to do: say the stores name is "XYZ Camera Store", you google: XYZ camera store reviews. Click on the sites and see what people are saying.

NOTE: Watch out for overpriced accessories!!! AND watch out for expensive shipping costs or sites that won't give you the shipping costs until you enter your info and credit card number!!!

The best place I found (and where I ended up purchasing my camera) was AMAZON.COM they had a decent competitive price and the shipping was VERY reasonable. I got my camera on time the next day and could track my shipment throughout the process. It came brand new with all the instructions IN ENGLISH, all the attachments and the canon warranty. NO GRAY MARKET TO WORRY ABOUT!!!

It's worth the few extra dollars to know my camera is legit and made properly.