Sony Cybershot S650 7.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

It is best camera which I am having so far. Very handy and easy to use. Perfect and excellent picture quality.

The price is cheap but the camera is not. The pictures are clear, the camera is easy to use. Sony really delivers!

I purchased this as a gift for Father's Day and damn it was a hit..great balance of price and functionality.

I bought this camera for my 15 year old daughter to replace a Pentax digital that she had that was not worth using. She loves this camera. It's easy to use and has a great display. I am extremely picky about my cameras and wanted her to have one that would do almost everything and still not cost alot. Great beginner camera.

Short background; I was USAF combat photographer during Viet Nam. (see www.601st.com) Got out in one piece thank G*d, went back to school and did weddings, special events, product photos, and have kept a camera close ever since. While I have studio level cameras, my old Oly digitals were all broken. My wife just last week agreed to try a digital over her film camera.

I did a brief review of what was available, and started by limiting my budget to $200 or less. Since getting this "economy digital camera", I've put it through its paces, and while I was suitably impressed, I was blown over to realize that it also takes movies, automatically converting them to avi files for immediate viewing on our computers. (nice feature, although lo-res, but totally worth having in a pinch.) You'll note that previewing your shots is done through the digital, color display. You don't have an optical "view-finder", as you'd have on other cameras. The upside is that the display is true to the finished shot.

And with all due respect to the few reviewers that had a problem with this camera's quality, I'd have to say, on the face of it, that either the camera lens had petroleum jelly smeared over it, the sensor was damaged in shipping or the purchaser/user needs some re-training in basic photography and reading a user's manual. As for battery issues, there are none that I can see. (I have numerous rechargable systems, but many times will use AA alkalines in pro-gear, as recharable systems can fail. You should always keep a couple Alkalines in reserve!) Being able to use AA's means you can "go anywhere in the developed World" and power it up. If you expect to leave this camera on for many hours, continually scan and view your photos, and then wonder why the batteries are spent.......then buy some new-technology rechargables.

Bottom line, I couldn't find a more basic, yet suitably outfitted with options camera. I'll probably buy one this week for myself as an emergency spare. And by the way, I briefly considered the new generation "flat cameras." But, the build quality and lens quality of this model made this an easy choice. Overall; best value I could find for under $150. By the way, I also purchased a 1 gigabyte memory card. Don't expect to use the internal "minimal memory", as it just isn't big enough. Shoot all your photos in the highest resolution mode. You'll get approximately 300+ shots, 3 megabyte jpg file for each photo, on that 1 gig card. If you're smart, you'll save off your memory card whenever possible. Don't shoot your whole vacation.....and G*d forbid, lose the card or accidently damage it! That goes for ANY digital memory.