Astounding zoom easily makes up for slight inconveniences
Any drawbacks with this camera are fairly minor, and I was aware of them beforehand (e.g. weight, forward-heaviness when in full zoom, difficulties stabilising image at full zoom). The pluses are absolutely fabulous, e.g. being able to capture details of a wild parrot in a tree 40m away. So far I haven't used a tripod, so the photos are softer than they would be with perfect stability, but they are still very usable for what I want, and a tripod is easy to get. It takes a grand photo of the moon.
I bought the camera to take wildlife photos to use as source material for paintings, and so far it's performing exactly as I would have wished.
One more negative is the short battery life, but I found that charging it only until the light went out was the way to get maximum battery function. Also don't zoom in and out endlessly; the length of the zoom and constant back-and-forth motion will chew up battery time. These are slight drawbacks; the camera easily deserves more than 4 stars, and I am extremely pleased with what it can do. Being able to zoom to capture details a distant raptor but also focus on a tiny moth without changing lenses makes this an amazing camera indeed.
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