I own a lot of great, pro level cameras – but they’re all too bulky to carry around everywhere I go. This camera is small and light enough to fit anywhere – in the glove box, in my knapsack – so it’s always handy, and it’s loaded with a range of special features that even a few years ago wouldn’t have been technologically possible. Let’s get real. This is a fun, inexpensive, lightweight camera, and of course the pictures won’t measure up to my $3000 professional DLSR. But that said, for many everyday picture situations the quality is quite good. I took a picture of my bedside Tiffany lamp shade, and you can see that the colors are really rich and well rendered. The camera also performs quite well in low light. One of the most fun things about this camera is that it’s loaded with really interesting features. For example, you can tell it to shoot a time-lapse sequence of pictures or video clips. You can put it on a tripod, or simply rest it on a chair or ledge, and let it watch wildlife or what’s happening on the street. I used it to map how sunlight falls on my garden over the course of a day, so I could figure out what to plant where. Pretty cool. One tip – I had to search for this feature, and I found it in the video menu, even for the mode where you choose to shoot a sequence of stills. The camera is super easy to use. The top right button turns the camera on and off (hold it for about 2 seconds). The other top button is used to take pictures, or to start and stop video recording. There are also a few menu options that direct you to press the top button to confirm a choice. On the back of the camera, on the bottom to the right of the screen, are buttons labeled “Mode” and “Menu.” Pressing the Mode button switches between taking still pictures, shooting video, playing back pictures and movies, and adjusting various settings. Just keep pressing until the mode you want appears on the screen. If you go too far keep pressing – it will cycle around again. The Menu button provides choices for the currently selected mode. For example, in the still photo mode, you can choose the resolution you want to shoot, that is, the number of horizontal and vertical pixels, or dots, that make up your image. And as a photographer with more than 50 years of experience, I want to say something about that. The “native” resolution of this camera, that is, the number of electronic, light-sensing dots physically present on the imaging chip is a little shy of 8 million, written as 8MP, or eight mega-pixels. This is the resolution required by a 4K video clip. If you choose any resolution higher than this, that is, higher than the “7MP Wide” option in the resolution menu, the camera has to take those physical, native pixels and upscale them to a higher number. My question is, why would you want to do this? Upscaling, unless it uses very sophisticated image processing or even AI, doesn’t really help much. And if you think that around 7 or 8 million pixels isn’t good enough, you should know that my first digital camera, way back when, was only 2.1MP and the images were fantastic. They printed beautifully up to a full size page and when displayed on a modern, high-resolution TV will be upscaled by the TV’s electronics. You can experiment with various resolutions, but personally I like to stick with the native values and let my computer software or TV firmware adjust when needed. I’m just sayin’. One limitation of this kind of camera is that there is no optical zoom, only digital zoom. That means that to zoom closer to your subject, the camera takes a smaller section of the picture and stretches it out to fill the frame. Eventually, the quality of the image breaks down, but the first several steps are actually quite good and can be very useful. And sometimes you really might want to push in even though the image suffers, zooming a very small, central portion of the picture to fill the frame. That may, for example, be the only chance you have to capture a wild animal trotting away and without the zoom you might not get at all, or maybe a glimpse of someone at a party who’s too far away to pose for your camera but you want their picture anyway. One really nice aspect of the lens is that the aperture, the opening to let in light, is so small that the depth of field is very large. You don’t necessarily need to know what this means in optical terms, but in practice, it means that you can get very, very close to a subject without needing a special macro lens. I’ve included a picture of a USB SD card adapter that I took from only about 2 inches away, and it’s pretty crisp and sharp. The same lens lets you easily take pictures of distant subjects – a group of friends at a party or a distant, snow-capped mountain. The focus is sharp near and far. When it comes to video, the native 4K resolution is available. But again, I’d like to offer a more conservative suggestion. Shooing at a lower resolution, full HD (1080) or even mid-level HD (720) rather than 4K (which is called ultra high definition, UHD (2160)) will give you a smoother flow, less jerkiness, and an overall better video experience in many situations. It’s nice to think about shooting at that magnificent 4K resolution, and this camera will do it, but the human eye and brain will seldom appreciate the difference unless the 4K content is shot with a really good video setup, like a studio grade camera, and then played on a really good 4K TV. I think you’ll find with this camera that 4K is good if the scene doesn’t have a lot of movement, or if you’re not panning around much, but that for most situations, the 1080 option or even the lower-resolution 720 choice will give you a better net effect. It will also take less storage space on the SD card so you can shoot more pictures and longer videos. This is just my opinion. One more little thing to note. The lens is threaded so that it can take 52mm filters. If you’re going to be shooting outdoors, it would be wise to invest in a 52mm circular polarizer for as little as about $10. Rotating the polarizer will let you find the perfect setting to darken the sky and make clouds pop or cancel reflections from water or glass. It’s a fantastic and cheap way to improve your images. I should also say that the camera provides automatic flash options for still images and can keep the light shining continuously when you’re shooting video in low light. If you need more light, there are some wonderful, small rechargeable video lights available that can slot into the “shoe” at the top of the camera. I have a couple of these, and good ones run about $20. The generous package includes 2 batteries, a charger, a case and camera wrist strap, a 32GB micro SD card (which will hold a lot of pictures), and all the cables you’ll need. My conclusion is that if you’re looking for a fun, inexpensive, and versatile camera that can do a lot of great things, this is a very good choice. If you accept it for what it is, and understand what it isn’t (i.e., a professional level camera with interchangeable lenses, optical zoom, and endless attachments) I think you’ll be satisfied.