Indolent

With a 12x zoom, equivalent to 28-336mm film photography lens, this compact is probably one of the most efficient aircraft in the category of "superzooms." Its price is also probably the first quality, with ease of use: If you switch to "Smart Auto" mode, all settings are blocked, there is more to aim and trigger .. . and wait. This is the first thing that floored a little slow the device, which requires patience with a black screen for a good half-second (duration depends on characteristics of the image) before displaying the picture or to allow you to take another.

The device is slightly larger than its competitors, without this being unacceptable, with a shell made entirely of plastic. The rooms are well adjusted and it does not give an impression of fragility, but it will still put the strap in place: personally, I always get the impression that it will slip my hands. The hatch to put the batteries and memory card is a bit tricky to close early, but it's a simple matter of habit. The controls are well positioned and otherwise of good quality, and rather clear menus, especially since the options are accompanied by an explanation or two lines at the bottom of the screen.

A handy button to switch directly to movie mode (720p, 30 frames / s), regardless of the current mode. The zoom is active in video mode, but (probably intentionally) very slow. It is little noisy, but you still hear the little engine noise on your videos. The microphone is also sensitive enough to the wind.
You can change the mode Aperture priority, Shutter priority or Manual, although I doubt it that photographers using these modes are really concerned with this range of cameras. A scene mode offers a variety of presets (Snow Sea Festival, etc.) and can also access various creative filters more or less gadgets (Fish eye, monochrome, toy camera, etc.)

Look no button to pop up the flash, there is none. You simply lift the hand and the camera automatically triggers as needed. Again, it will take patience, because the flash takes approximately 6 seconds to recharge between two triggers. Think also to order, along the indispensable SD (I chose a 16GB SDHC class 10, perfectly compatible) of LR06 batteries to replace the two alkaline batteries included, as these will be exhausted after only a hundred images, which represents just a couple of hours when use batch takes over his new toy.

If the color fidelity me seemed generally quite good, image quality is limited by two factors: the number of pixels in a compact sensor and the aperture (f / 3.4 - f / 5 6). As long as you're shooting in low light, the images can quickly be invaded by noise.

In summary, if the device (as well as all superzooms) is not ideal for indoor photos, its enormous zoom is an undeniable asset for landscape photos or city when the brightness is good. From my point of view, its main flaw is essentially being slow to save the images.