Fantastic camera for the price. However I wish I had waited for the larger zoom models.
Overall a very easy to use camera with all the manual settings that any amature or professional needs with exceptional picture images. Some pictures I have taken recently have been a bit poor in resolution standards even with the highest capture settings, I assume this is down to mastering the iso and f stop settings within the camera which Im still a bit of a novice at. A bit of knowledge in this area vastly improves the final results of the images and therefor you need to do research before hand.
The Auto settings are quite good for the purpose, the optical zoom is superb, but as soon as you pass the 18x optical and go into the digital zoom area be warned !! It drastically reduces the pixel count and give a very poor image quality.
Overall Great camera for the price..It you can afford a little more go for the S4000.