I wrestled long and hard before I purchased this camera. This is my first every purchase of a digital camera. The film cameras that I have owned in the past have been mainly very simple "point-and-shoot" cameras, either 35mm or low end APS cameras. I wouldn't know an f-stop from a hole in the ground, so I wanted advanced features that I could learn to use as well as have a camera that was useable as a point-and-shoot camera.
One of the biggest features about this camera for me was the support for the IBM Microdrive. I purchase this camera witht a 340 MB Microdrive. At full resolution, it will hold about 245 pictures. A 3 megapixel pictures takes up about 1.4 mb in a jpeg format, so I wanted the extra storage space without buying a bunch of memory cares. The software packaged with the camera makes transferring the picture to my computer very easy.
The camera comes with 64 "Bestshot" macros that have automatic settings for many different types of shots that you want to take. The macros can be used to set pictures for different scenes such as sunsets, low light photos, etc. Given my lack of photographic sophistication, it has a number of settings that allow me to take very nice pictures.
In my opinion, the quality of pictures from this camera is comparable to other high end 3 megapixel cameras such as the Nikon 995. The big difference though is that for about the same price, you can get this camera with a 340 MB microdrive vs. a 16mb memory card for other 3 megapixel cameras. I am very happy with my purchase.