When it came out it was a bit heavy but when I took the camera out of the box the camera itself was much lighter than everything in the box plus the camera. The on-camera microphone can either be on-camera or not, but I would recommend using a microphone if you're recording as it picks up sound much better with it on than without. The image quality of this camera is just below that of my heavier and more expensive camera. I bought it because it's very light and it's much easier to move around when it comes to capturing special moments. If necessary, you can attach it to a tripod. What I really liked was that it came with a memory card and 2 batteries, yes 2 batteries! I had to charge both before I could use the camera, but when it comes to run time I was able to record about an hour of video and still have battery left to take pictures. I have used this camera to shoot several weddings, 2 graduations and some backstage shots of graduations. The video and picture quality on it is really amazing.