Great Camera

I bought this camera in February, and immediately used it on a 4+ month around-the-world trip that put it through its paces on Fijian seascapes, Kiwi alpscapes, Indonesian wildlife, Thai street scenes, Egyptian antiquities, and the varied delights of Turkey. I brought back over 2,000 quality images, and was very pleased with the low number of shots that were rejected due to poor focus or lighting. The camera is designed to be pretty instinctive to use, which is a good thing, because the manual is very, very poor.
A great feature of the camera is the focusable diopter viewfinder, which means you can compose shots without holding the camera at arm's length while trying to see exactly what is on the (actually outstanding) LCD display, and you don't need to wear glasses if you usually need them. The video quality is excellent,and the manual overrides available in picture mode mean you can have total control if you want it. The several automatic modes, from Fireworks to Night Landscape to Party to Backlight to Macro, all performed beautifully, and the ability to use a burst function to bracket tricky exposures is great insurance in grab-shot situations.
Because you can get a 1-gig SD card, you can store more than 400 images between CD-burnings. The battery lasts a long time, even with frequent flash use, although I bought an extra, because circumstances in remote areas didn't always allow a recharge. The camera construction is sturdy, based on some fairly rough handling my camera was forced to endure. The printer dock and other accessories available are also outstanding.
The camera is very light and compact for its huge zoom capacity, and it's comfortable in the hand. The complaints below regarding the small and recessed On/Off button are very picky, IMHO, given that its placement has the admirable purpose of keeping it from being hit by accident. The zoom is smooth, and I took some long telephoto shots with no camera support on the Sport setting of surfers in action that were crisp and clear. I also used Sport to grab shots from fast-moving vehicles in windy conditions, including one of racing camels chasing each other in Sinai as we whizzed by at 100 kmh, and they turned out sharp and clear. The 10x zoom is a great asset for shooting wildlife, or events and people that you don't want to disturb.
Autofocus in low-light, no-flash situations like Egyptian tombs and Greek basilicas performed very well, even when subjects like poorly-lit mosaics in curved arches high above the floor presented special challenges. In fact, I was sometimes almost as awed with what the camera could do under those circumstances as I was by the incredible things I was shooting.
I'd recommend this camera for any serious amateur photographer, and as it's replaced by newer models and the price goes down, it will become increasingly attractive to the first-time digital camera buyer.