I bought this camera with gold box deal for only $49. For that price, this is quite good camera. However, it has some weak points, you have to consider before buying. For reference, I'll be comparing this camera to my 5 year old Fujifilm Z5FD.



UPDATE 27.06.2011: I've used 2pcs 2700mah rechargeables with this camera, and total amount of pictures taken equals to 430 shots, including 10 minute of video and about 5 minutes of picture reviewing. So, battery life is excellent! Don't be fooled by battery low indicator flashing - it started to flash at about 180th shot, but I took more than 220 shots afterwards!



1. Poor battery life. A pair of good quality alkalines (included ones), lasted only for 136 shots. I can estimate, that with good NiMH's you'll get maybe 160 shots. Fujifilm lasts for about 220 shots, while having battery twice less in power than Canon.



2. Slow general responsiveness, slow AF, slow flash recycling. I put two these cameras side by side, and pressed shutter button on both of them same time. While fuji already saved picture and was ready for the next shot, canon was still saving the picture!



3. Acidness of colors. Camera not only oversaturates colors, but also gives them acid look. For example, sky will look more cyan, than blue.



4. AWB errors. If there's some quite large, colored object in frame, AWB will give whole picture it's color tint. For example, if taking photo of large red baloon in front of white wall, you'll notice that whole picture will have pink tint.



5. Some settings aren't saved upon exit. For example, there are several viewing modes, where you can see various degree of information about the taken image. The setting "detailed view" will be reset on "normal", after you zoom in or out, so need to change it every time. Very annoying.



6. Low resolution, sluggish screen. Refresh rate of screen is about 25fps I can guess. Fujifilm provides 60 fps, and this gives the HUGE difference in actual life. Literally saying, on fuji, what you see on screen, is what you capture, on canon, you always get delay.



7. Flimsy battery compartment door. Each time I close it, I got feeling that this is the last time, and it going to fail next time.



These were main cons. Now let's list the Pro's of this camera against my old fujifilm (and possibly, your older digicam, which you're planning to replace with this canon).



1. More precise AF. Thanks to AF assist lamp and newer engine, this camera provides better AF capabilities. Difference is not huge, but still noticeable. Say, from 100 pictures taken with both camera, about 32 taken with fuji will be out from focus, and only 21 taken by canon will be out of focus.



2. Automatic mode switching works like a charm, most times you don't need to touch any setting, camera will detect required mode automatically and switch it. Very handy for beginners and point & shooters.



3. AA batteries are great. While it does not lasts that long on AA batteries, they are available anywhere.



4. High speed USB 2.0. Most older cameras have slow USB connection, so transfer of 1GB of photos (that not that much, about 300 images), will take up to 20 minutes. This camera provides high speed USB connection, so in 2-3 minutes you'll be done.



Overall, this is very good and feature packed camera, considering it's price. I know it won't last me for ages, but hey, its only 49 bucks, who cares?