A co-worker had a Kodak Easyshare Z740. I was blown away by the picture quality. I decided right then that I wanted a camera that had a bigger zoom, better night shooting capability, and image stabilization. Kodak fit that bill, but after getting burned with other brands of digital cameras, I was weary of getting anything else but a Sony. I did some researching and found the H2. Now my co-worker envys MY camera.I've had this camera for a couple of months now. I've had several smaller Sony DSC cameras along with several other brand digital cameras which I'm embarrassed to say included Vivitar. I'm rough on them and I take a LOT of photos. They ride along in my saddle bags on motorcycle trips, go to work with me. Well come to think of it, wherever I'm at, so is my camera. So far Sony has been the only camera to take the abuse I give it. I have a DSC-P52 that was completely submerged in water for a week (long sad story) and it no longer worked so I gave it up for dead. Several months later I was fiddling with it while on the phone and turned it on. Amazingly it came to life and still took photos. It resets the date and everything every time you turn it on but it takes photos just like it always has. I bought a DSC-P32 and liked it even more. After thousands of photos, it got to where it had a hard time reading even the Sony memory sticks. What I'm getting at is that Sony makes one tough and durable product. I'm just a tad more careful with this camera, but it still takes more abuse than the typical camera.Here are my pros and cons for the average amature photo taker like me:Pros:It's a Sony - Once you realize that memory sticks aren't the end of the world, you'll wonder why everyone doesn't own a Sony.Image stabilization - My hands shake something awful. If I ever become a surgeon, take my advice, go to another hospital. It's that bad. When taking photos with this camera, I no longer have to worry about bracing my arms against something to keep my hands still. Although I still have to use a tripod to take night shots with long exposure times, I'm still able to get much better photos than my cameras without this feature. You can turn this feature off, although I don't see why you'd want to.Adjustable settings - Although the average Joe only needs to use the automatic point and shoot setting to take great photos, this camera gives enough adjustable settings that even photographers who are way more advanced will be pleased. I've taught myself quite a bit about shutter speeds and aperature settings just experimenting with this camera. I like the way you get a brief description of what each main setting does every time you turn the dial. The on-screen histogram feature comes in handy at times too.Photo Quality - I'm sure there's better out there somewhere, but so far I've not seen better photo quality on a digital camera that wasn't a SLR.12X Optical zoom - Most of the digital cameras I had before only had 3X optical zoom. I would always just zoom in by cropping during the editing phase. I never knew what I was missing. I will know from now on. I'll never go back to less than 12 again.Video mode - I've not used the video mode much on this camera because I use my Sony camcorder for that. I did, however, use the video mode a great deal on my other Sony digital cameras and I loved them. From what I can tell, this camera's video capabilities are even better.Battery life - I use AA rechargables and already have taken more than two hundred pics. So far I've changed the batteries one time.Focus - There are 4 focus modes: manual, multi point AF, center AF, and the surprisingly handy flexible spot focus.Cons (There is only one and the reason I give the camera 4 stars instead of 5)Buttons - Although I realize that with more features it's harder to fit so many buttons on a camera, Sony has made the buttons on this camera more streamlined and flush than on my older DSC cameras. It's like the buttons were designed for kid sized fingers. I'm having a hard time with hitting buttons that I don't want to and not being able to hit the ones I do.I can't imagine anyone not being satisfied with this camera unless you are just looking for a pocket sized camera.UPDATE: I recently took some video indoors with the H2. After putting it on Youtube, people thought I had used a camcorder. It looked great! I also shot some outdoor footage. It was much better video than my P-52 took but still not quite camcorder quality. With a 2GB memory card, I think I shot about 25 minutes worth of video, several full size photos and still had room to spare.Since I can't put the URL to the video here, if you want to see what a great job this camera does with video, my name on youtube is the same as it is here or just look up "Ride to Big South Fork". This camera did so well I just may use it on all of my videos!6-22-2013 UPDATE: Well I've owned two other cameras since I bought this Sony, one of those is a Nikon D-80 DSLR. I keep having trouble with the other two cameras (auto-focus lenses stop working) so you know what? I just quit using them and went back to this old Sony and it still takes awesome pictures. I think I'll just keep using it until it dies, if it ever does. I LOVE this thing!