Some of the greatest shot are at the spur of the moment and this little camera is always at hand and always ready for the action. This camera has 3 main 'auto' settings for quick and terrific shots. Which is great to enjoy the moment rather than fumbling with around with a SLR digital camera. I am able to put this camera in my shirt pocket can carry around all day with even noticing it. When I want to take a photo I just do. And I do not need to spend time playing with manual setting in a vain attempt to catch the shot just perfect. The Auto setting work great. It gives me a chance to enjoy the moment. My wife would not touch my other digital cameras. Too many options to take a simple photo. Some the photos she has taken with the SD550 are what I would consider award winning - and that from the 'auto' setting (BTW: I have won a few photo contests and have had my photos published in international magazines so I do have a bit of an eye). The videos are really impressive. I play them back on a 57 inch TV and they look just like a VHS recorded TV program. They can be a little massive to email but the software that comes with the camera allows you to resize them - makes it possible to email short (less than 2 minutes) videos while maintaining a descent level of quality. The memory card that it comes with is impractical. A 2 GB appears to be fine. The high speed SD cards are nice (not so much for the camera) but for unloading the stuff off them. RiData, Transcend, and A-data sell 150X 2GB+ SD cards and a whole lot cheaper than the 60X (ultra high speed) SD cards from SanDisk. I only wish it came with software to burn it all to a typical DVD. It would be nice to have a slide show with my video intermixed and include a MP3 in the background and/or a voice over all burnt on a DVD. I am sure 3rd party software exists to do this. I have printed 8x10 and it is next to impossible to tell the difference from a print made with from a 35 mm negative.