Let's start by saying that one awkward moment for me was the horrible internal noise that the internal microphone picks up anytime the lens is working (and that's almost always when the autofocus is on!). I've tried using the camera without autofocus and the menu renders it completely inoperable unless the scene is within a certain distance. The camera has an external microphone connection, but no accessory shoe! The image stabilization is just fantastic. Video quality is also good, but suffers in low light. A better alternative would be the Canon VIXIA M300, which comes with a larger sensor, hot shoe but no internal HD for $350.