Sony DSC-P72 Digital Camera [3MP 3xOptical]

- So with this in mind, i feel it necessary to tell you that this camera is fantastic! It is incredibly easy to use, the build quality is excellent and as for the picture quality, well i was amazed - rather irritatingly it even managed to catch some perspiration on my forhead with amazing clarity!

- Battery life is superb. When pitched against the battery life of the Olympus P350 (i think thats what it's called - basically the 3.2 megapixel camera in the same price region as the P72), it wins by miles.

- I cannot understand why on earth people have claimed it takes 'poor night time shots' because in my experience they are incredible! To exemplify this, i recently took a picture of a red couch in total pitch black conditions. Not only did the shot look as though it was in daylight but the image quality was second to none. Colour and cushion patterns defined with exceptional clarity.

- The reason i gave it four stars instead of five is down to the fact that, so far as i can tell, it isn't particularly good at taking motion shots. Each one of the pictures taken at a recent party, that has had people moving whilst the shot was taken, has turned out blurry and rather dissatisfying. Perhaps this may be due to my current basic knowledge of the camera's features - i may need to read the manual in a bit more depth!

However, all in all for the excellent price you pay, you get a brilliant little performer that is not just for beginners (as many of the other reviewers seem to have stated). Trust me, buy it!

The only camera that i would say is a little better on the picture quality front is the Olympus P350. However, like others have said in the Olympus reviews, it EATS batteries which brings it down a peg to equal the overall rating of P72.

The camera is easy to operate that I did not even need to read the user guide before starting to use the basic features.

The image quality is also excellent when using the 2048x1536 resolution with fine setting.

The use of AA battery also makes it easy to find emergency replacement in case the original two that come with the camera go flat.

Oh yes, the image/video transfer and editing software that comes along with it is really excellent! It allows all images to be transferred to my notebook computer (via USB) automatically once I connect up the cable without any intervention required (you can if you want to). It also allows me to create slide show of images and video with many professional looking transition effects easily. It also provides the conversion to Video CD format (with navigation menu) and direct writing to CDR/CDRW.

However, the 16MB memory stick that comes with it is a little too small in capacity, so I'd upgraded it to a 128 MB version. By the way, the camera also supports the new Memory Stick Pro which gives a much larger capacity (up to 1GB I think).

Overall, it is a good buy for the price I paid and I'm so far satisfied with its performance as a novice user.