Purchased March 2008 - upgrading from a digital 8 camcorder. Good points are size, weight and easy controls. Negative-some facilities are not defaults i.e the zoom mike they mostly have to be enacted via the touchscreen which gets dirty with the constant handling. I had moved from a small television to a 32 inch High definition so the picture quality was not as startling as I had imagined but when reviewing old standard footage on the larger screen you realise how good the HD picture is. The system does have problems coping if you pan quickly and this can be made worse because the camcorder is so lightweight - you need to hold it steady. Overall well worth the money