erm... i'm just using it as a PnS and actually got this camera mainly for the zoom and its design is very nice... unlike others, feeling solid in my hand...
my last digital cam is a casio Z3 and thus, its a very big improvement, can't really say much as compared to other cameras as never tried much of the camera of the same class...
image quality think really you'll have to see the test shots as posted by all the rest,
personally, find that the IS is really very good. only think is the wash or blow out of the LCD, which i've never experienced before, but don't really bother me.
As mentioned in reviews of the problem of focusing, yah, facing some problems some times. but not too critical.
think you'll really have to go down and test the camera yourself as mentioned...
oh, one thing that is bad is the very slow transfer speed of the camera... its only full speed usb...
the zoom is really amazing...
well, here's a pic i took on a boat going into kusu at max zoom, shows how the IS is... image only cropped...
