I bought my camera in May. I did a lot of research beforehand and couldn't wait to get this one. I was waiting for the price to go down but I was concerned. The first thing I did was take the disc to the office store, print out the manual and spiral bind it. It wasn't that expensive, less than $20, and I wanted to be able to take the guidebook with me on vacation. I printed it 8 1/2 by 11 in landscape orientation. Easy to read and less intimidating. For the past few years I've done nothing but aim and shoot since I was a photographer in college and used a 35mm SLR. I was very slow because I was busy and tired from work. I've only just started working with the camera. The results are very encouraging and surprising. I'm really impressed with the zoom. It's difficult to focus at full zoom, but the stabilization is amazing (albeit difficult at full zoom). I was able to capture the waves on the beach because there was very little time between pressing the shutter button and taking the picture. I still have a long way to go, but I will use more options soon. I am happy about this purchase. I bought a Lowepro case that someone recommended in these reviews and it worked great. My only disappointment is that the price has dropped so drastically and I paid $60. more than the current price. The price of this camera fell by a total of $100. since it was released. I would have waited longer but my old Canon Power Shot broke. By the way, I really like the manual zoom. Manual zoom is much faster and easier to control. My autozoom broke on my previous high performance Canon shoot and wasn't worth fixing for the price of a repair. Manual zoom gives you more control.
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