THX1138
Reading the reviews here and based on my own experience with the A900, Id say that the it is not the camera for the more demanding or sophisticated user. Im not a demanding user or a photo hobbiest. I do mostly nature photography for my own study. Im not out for National Geographic. I want a compact, packable camera with some basic manual options, good zoom and good stabilization. Im only fussy about ease of use, interface design that allows me to adjust for changing conditions quickly. Given the complexity of cameras these days, the layout of this one seems intuitive. Your intuition may vary. I tried it against the Sony and Panasonic competing models. I get the sense that the firmware for all of them comes from the same factory. I shoot mostly in P mode, I can quickly adjust exposure compensation which does as much as most of the scene modes, though they can be handy. I think the optical zoom works well, though under some conditions at full zoom (notably low light) you may get some blur. That is not surprising. But under even less than ideal conditions I have found the autofocus adequately fast (is it ever really fast enough?) and the image clear. I cant comment on the movie functions. It works OK, but I dont use it much. The SnapBridge works transferring to my Sampsung tablet but its a bit unpredictable and easier just to copy images to the computer.