As someone who doesn't make a living off of photography by any means and doesn't have the cash to spend on an actual DSLR, but still wanted to not fail my digital photography class, this was the perfect compromise for me. The camera gives you a lot more than your typical point and shoot, the zoom is powerful (if a bit hard to steady), and the battery life is great. The view screen is large enough that you can tell when something is fundamentally bad about the picture (though it's hard to tell about sharpness sometimes). A little challenging to learn about all the functions, but probably not if you actually know what you're doing. The only thing I wish is that it shot in RAW, but for under $300, I'll live without that.