This camera takes a impressive picture out of the box, in default modes. Taking it to the next step in full manual modes allows for unlimited adjustments.
This is a great camera for the semi-beginner in the digital camera world. Even if you've had a digital camera for a while now, this is a good buy.

First off I am not a camera expert, go to www.steves-digicams.com, www.dcresource.com or www.dpreview.com if you really need all the techie details.

I love it. Its point and shoot (for novices like me). USB image transfer is straightfoward. It uses regular AA batteries (no proprietary stuff). Images are very good (as long as I take the picture at the right time, as I said I am not such a great photographer... beautiful picutres of people with their eyes closed or looking away...

In any case... its snappy (no real awful delays) its not too expensive, its easy to use, does mini-movies w/sound and just works. Not too small, has a nice grip. Doesn't weigh too much (I caried it around Renisiance Festival all day no trouble). I know it has a lot more features but I don't use them (I will tweak digitally on the computer a bit but not on the camera). Preview is a great but that is true of all good digicams. Resolution is great, color is great, and in general contrast is very good (a bit dark but I keep messing with the flash settings and I can fix it on the PC), when I leave it alone it seems to be much better).

The zoom is easy to use but it can REALLY zoom (both optical and digital) so be careful. The multi-shot is great, the flash seem good and seems to reduce red-eye.

Things to think about:
1. Get a large CFRam card (I have a 128) and get a few hundred shots.
2. My CFRAM card is a little slow (check the speed when you buy).
3. Get good rechargable AA batteries (2 or 3 sets). Spend a few more bucks on good ones, you won't regret it (and make sure to get a car charger for trips).
4. In "automatic" mode make sure you focus on what you want your picture focused on (its very easy but I miss the target once in a while and focus is out).
5. Watch the zoom (optical is great) but you can't see for sure through viewfinder with digital zoom (of course) so keep it in mind you need to look at LCD display when digital zooming.
6. You might want a stand (tripod) for family pictures and such.

Overall 5 stars!

I'd previously purchased a lower-end digital camera/MP3 player, and although I was happy with it, I wanted something that was going to take good pictures that I could make prints with. After a little research I ran across this camera and liked all of the features I was seeing. I bought it and have been using it for almost two years now.

The 4 MPs and optical zoom were both very important in my decision. The quality is absolutely great. You can use it right out of the box as a point and shoot with the automatic setting and most of the picture come out excellent. The best thing though is that the camera also allows the a wide range of manual settings. As I learned more and more about photography the camera grew with me and allowed me to tweak my pictures more and more. For me, that's where the camera is the strongest: It can take quick and easy automatic shots when you want them, but it is very flexible and customizable when you are trying to take more professional or tricky shots.

The battery life is decent. I use two sets of rechargable batteries, and if I bring both sets, I've never needed more. And I take a lot of pictures on an outting. If you use the highest quality setting, the save time can get a bit long, as it creates large 5 or more megabyte .tiff files, but if you're worried about that, you can step down a quality setting to jpegs, which are still excellent quality.

All in all, this camera has grown up with me, and has served for everything I need, from quick shots at group functionings to closeup shots for professional nature websites I've worked on. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

I've had this camera for about three months now. I've taken some great shots with it, and I'm impressed with how sharp the photos can be, especially if I use a tripod to hold it steady. But it is much more complicated to use than the old Kodal DC215 Zoom that I had before. I agree with all its good points mentioned by previous reviewers.

Now for some complaints. It eats alkaline batteries like there's no tomorrow. The cheap, factory-provided alkalines that came with the camera checked good on my multimeter, but the camera repeatedly shut down and gave a low-power indication on the LCD screen as soon as I powered it up. At first I thought the camera was defective, but then I then tried the most powerful NiMH AA batteries I could find (Power 2400 mAH). The camera liked them and has behaved itself ever since. And the extra power allows me to shoot two to three dozen photos (using the High Quality setting) before the batteries are exhausted.

But you can't just punch the shutter button and expect to take a sharp photo. You have to press the shutter button halfway, let the camera do its autofocusing first, and then press the shutter button the rest of the way. Otherwise the picture turns out noticably blurry - so much for those quick Kodak moment-type shots. And you can't use the zoom feature if you're in movie mode, so whatever focal length you started your 30-second movie clip in is what you stay with until the timer runs out.

And the most irritating of all, you have to make sure that the camera has finished saving the previous photo to memory before you try taking another photo or the whole operating system basically freezes and ignores whatever setting you put the mode switch in. At times I have had to physically open the battery compartment in order to get the camera to cycle power because it ignored the fact that I had set the power/mode knob to the OFF position. Using a CF card with a very fast write speed (like 40X) should minimize this problem - just don't expect to be able to take a rapid series of photos with this camera.

And speaking of the power/mode knob, yes, it is EXTREMELY easy to bump it from Power Off to Auto without ever knowing it. It's situated right on the edge of the camera, and you can't casually slip the camera into a pocket without accidentally rotating the knob. I've actually had it power itself on while I was walking with the camera hanging by its shoulder strap, and my girlfriend has accidentally powered it on simply by putting it in her luggage, so you can't pack it inside a suitcase. Fortunately the camera can be set to automatically power down after a preset period of non-use. I chose to have the Power-On sound play whenever it powers up so that I know instantly when it happens, because it happens so often. A better design, such as having to hold the knob down before you can rotate it, would help tremendously. EXTREMELY poor design.

And finally, macro shots are a joke. You have to use the LCD screen for macro shots, but it's too small to be useful for determining when your subject is in focus or not. The best that the user manual says is a minimum limit of 16 cm from your subject for macro, but that's hard to judge without a ruler, and often that's not close enough for really close-up shots.

The service provided by Minolta repair is unacceptable. I've had to send my S404 camera back to them twice. Both times they claimed it arrived with physical damaged. If it was, it was not by me. When I asked them to initiate a claim at the Post Office on the first repair, they said, oh well, we will fix it. The same story on the second time I had problems 5 months later. Except his time they won't fix it under the extended warranty, and when I asked to speak to a manager, I was told to write them a letter. I asked them again to take it to the Post Office with the original packaging (per the procedure the Post Office where it was sent from told me was needed to start a claim), they said write a letter. I suspect they have a scam to avoid warranty work by claiming the camera was damaged. Also I suspect they can't start the claim at the Post Office as they have thrown away the original packaging. They have had the camera one month to the day and still no work has been done, and I won't likely have the camera by the Holidays.

I've had this camera for about three months now. I've taken some great shots with it, and I'm impressed with how sharp the photos can be, especially if I use a tripod to hold it steady. But it is much more complicated to use than the old Kodal DC215 Zoom that I had before. I agree with all its good points mentioned by previous reviewers.

Now for some complaints. It eats alkaline batteries like there's no tomorrow. The cheap, factory-provided alkalines that came with the camera checked good on my multimeter, but the camera repeatedly shut down and gave a low-power indication on the LCD screen as soon as I powered it up. At first I thought the camera was defective, but then I then tried the most powerful NiMH AA batteries I could find (Power 2400 mAH). The camera liked them and has behaved itself ever since. And the extra power allows me to shoot two to three dozen photos (using the High Quality setting) before the batteries are exhausted.

But you can't just punch the shutter button and expect to take a sharp photo. You have to press the shutter button halfway, let the camera do its autofocusing first, and then press the shutter button the rest of the way. Otherwise the picture turns out noticably blurry - so much for those quick Kodak moment-type shots.

And the most irritating of all, you have to make sure that the camera has finished saving the previous photo to memory before you try taking another photo or the whole operating system basically freezes and ignores whatever setting you put the mode switch in. At times I have had to physically open the battery compartment in order to get the camera to cycle power because it ignored the fact that I had set the power/mode knob to off. And speaking of the power/mode knob, yes, it is EXTREMELY easy to bump it from Power Off to Auto without ever knowing it. It's situated right on the edge of the camera, and you can't casually slip the camera into a pocket without accidentally rotating the knob. I've actually had it power iself on while I was walking with the camera hanging by its shoulder strap. Fortunately the camera can be set to automatically power down after a preset period of non-use. I chose to have the Power-On sound play whenever it powers up so that I know when it happens. But a better design, such as having to hold the knob down before you can rotate it would help tremendously. Very poor design.

And finally, macro shots are a joke. You have to use the LCD screen for macro shots, but it's too small to be useful for determining when your subject is razor-sharp or out of focus. The best that the user manual says is a minimum limit of 16 cm from your subject for macro, but that's hard to judge without a ruler, and often that's not close enough for really close-up shots.

I love this camera. Pure and simple. It has been super reliable and has produced stunning landscape and sunset photographs for me. Some of my favorite photographs have been taken with this camera. You can point this lens straight into the sun with no flare and it produces vivid color and good detail. More than I can say for my $900 dollar Nikon lens, (already in for repair after only 6 months of use). It has never broken down, or let me down. The only changes I would hope for is more than 4mp to produce larger than 8x10 prints, and a larger standard f4 to f22 aperture range. Otherwise, this little "point and shoot" is a wonderful and reliable photographic tool. I was really dissapointed to hear the Minolta company going out of business.