1. The PQ is horrid. One of our CAMERA PHONES produces nearly identical PQ. Only slightly worse. I called Canon and after talking to the nice person on the phone, they had no explanation. They suggested I email images to one of their higher up techs. Two days later, no response. Update: A week later I called and asked about the pictures, what they thought of them. They said they did not get them. I emailed again to the person on the phone and she did get them while I was on the phone and said they were typical photos for the camera. If that’s typical, I have to say Canon has very low standards for this camera.

2. The buttons are in all the wrong places. You cannot carry or handle this camera w/o hitting buttons unintentionally.

3. This camera weights 1.5 pounds. That’s about equal to 2 12oz cans of soda. Go pick up two cans of soda and try to carry that around like you would a camera.

4. There is only one way to grip this camera and it requires 2 hands. There is no other way to use it successfully.

5. It only comes with standard rca cables to view the HD video. Which, is just horrible. Who in their right mind would put a standard cable with a HD camera?

6. The SD card is very, very hard to get out.

7. The HD movies will not play on my computer. [UPDATE: We had to update to QT 7 to get them to play. Which does work. However, the video is jerky and jumpy. About every 1 second it seems to skip several frames. The PQ just just good, on the very low level of HD expected quality.]

I know I’m being overally dramatic, but it’s hard to keep it cool considering this is a $500+ “HD” camera. I do LOVE the wide field of view, it’s awesome. The 20x zoom is outstanding… in theory. the problem is, both are worthless if the PQ is not any better than a camera phone. I’ve uploaded my own photos here taken with this camera so you can see for yourself. One shows the dark dot, and the other is the kitchen sink area. You be the judge if I’m being overly critical of this $500 camera.

Bottom line: if you care about the picture quality, ease of use, or ergonomics, skip this one.

My experience level: well seasoned amateur.

I question some of the reviews on this site. They sound like they were written by professional copywriters for a PR campaign. Trust this one and the other review “Noise and grain.” That is the truth for this camera. This camera is a dog.
Rating: 1 / 5

– using menus and changing shooting settings is like navigating a maze. Even if you’re used to other Canon models this one is unlike the others.. very unintuitive.

– it has a dial for selecting settings and options. The dial quality feels cheap, is quite unresponsive and inconvenient to use.

– it’s a battery hog. It takes four AA batteries and even with fully-charged 2600 mA NiMH batteries it’s out of juice in couple of days.

– the lens doesn’t retract but has a lens cap instead. You have to put it on/off every time you want to take a shot.

– it’s fairly bulky and quite heavy, a big drawback if you’re travelling or have to carry it around all day.

To sum up, this camera is overpriced for what it is. You can get similar models for much less. Alternatively, for just a little more you can get yourself an SLR.
Rating: 1 / 5