I've only had this camera for about a month, so I can't speak to the long term maintainence issues discussed in a couple of other reviews (all digital cameras in this price range appear to have similar problems). Nevertheless, the picture quality is fantastic, particularly once you learn to adjust the settings for your lighting conditions.

The camera is easy to use and takes beautiful pictures, but after four months it just stopped working. There was power, but the lense would not open. The Panasonic Service Center was anything but helpful and wanted to charge 75% of what I paid for the camera to fix it. I am now shopping for another digital and I shall not be looking at a Panasonic.

Just to try this thing out when I got it, I took a picture of some print across the room (20ft away) that I can't read with my eyes. I could read it in the blowup of the image. If I can see things in the photo that I can't see with my eyes, the resolution is 110% fine for snapshots. The color balance and exposure isn't perfect, but it's close enough that you can fix it with Photoshop without too much work (autolevels does the job usualy).
Battery life with the included rechargeable AAs is sufficient for my needs. You'll need a better memory card, though, as the included 16mb job only holds ~13 pictures. It is good that it uses SD, which is a standard, rather than the proprietary MemoryStick that most of the Sony cameras use, so you can find a 256mb card for under $60 if you look around.

I was hesitant to buy a digital camera because I am know very little about film camera and nothing about digital. The amazon reviews for this camera were an enormous help in comparing with other brands. Ordered this camera from amazon reseller for &260 plus $5 handling. The reseller shipped in 2 days and I had the camera in 5 standard shpping days. It was advertized excellent condition, used. It arrived in pristine condition, not a mark on it with all in original unopened packaging. Used the quick quide to take some photos and learned how to review pics on the lcd in about 1 hour. The manual is sparse on instructon and does tell you everything you need to know if you follow step by step in using the features and in downloading the pics to your pc via usb cable (supplied with camera). The photos are clear and crisp with excellent colors and detail. I was delighted at how easy it is to take motion film with audio. Camera is compatible with my pc programs: lexmark printer/software; photoshop and paintshop pro software; generic microsoft photo software. I have 20 photos with 4 10sec. motion clips on the 16mb card that came with the camera. Will order a 128mb card for a trip upstate which will store lots more photos. The AA batteries drained after shooting pics for 1 afternoon and then downloading photos to the pc that night. Am buying the dc adapter for downloading. Will be using the supplied rechargeable batteries for the trip (with couple AA batts just in case) For the money, am very happy the camera performance and ease of use. Read the prior reviews, they are on target. Camera light enough to put in your pocket, but subtantial enough in design to feel good in your hand when taking photos. Would give 5 stars if panasonic had supplied the dc adapter (I would not mind paying the cost if it came with the camera, am annoyed at having to take time to buy it extra. It does not make sense to waste battery life in downloads to the pc).

I purchased this camera 6 months ago and took less than 200 pictures on it. The shutter broke (of course in the middle of an event that I really wanted pictures). Sent the camera back to Panasonic and it cost over $100 to repair.

Customer service said, "we can't guarantee every product we make is going to work, we'll split the cost of the repair for you."

Ironically, I was going to buy the panasonic rear projection LCD TV, but after this experience reconfirmed that SONY is the only way to go.

I first bought the camera via online. During my first 365 day stretch, I've took many pictures and dropped it about as many times also. But the worst thing thats happened so far was on a trip to Baghdad, i dropped it off the ring mount of my truck. i picked it up and it was half-way open, and i though i surely broke it. But i just snapped it back together and it turned right on, and functioned like it never happened. All i gotta say is US Army approved.

I bought this camera about a year ago and was very pleased with it. After six months it totally shut down and would not power up. I sent it in to an authorized service center and $165 later I was back in business. It just recently died again. I'm moving on to another brand. If you own one I wish you the best in having a better experience than I.