Battery life is good and has exceptional shelf life as I may use it today and let it rige around in my car for 2 or 3 weeks without any problem. Charging is easy with supplied adapter.

Sharpness is pretty good on closer distances. I do better on longer shots by using the landscape preset or going into the manuel settings.

Good size back screen but is difficult in direct sunlight as you will have difficulty in seeing the subject so you have to watch carefully where the sun is. One should be doing that anyway…right?

Good for the price!

NWM

I like the zoom wheel which was very easy to use and the overall ease of use is remarkable.

The battery charging is great, the wide screen stitching is great and after working for a bit I can get to all the features in a snap.

Picture quality was a good as any 8M camera and for 99% of most users it is as advertised.

This camera also has the ability to take time exposure pictures which i usually associate only with higher end SLR type cameras.

The video is pretty good, and saved to a .mov format.

It also has several modes, or preconfigured settings for different situations, portrait, landscape, night, fireworks etc… When set for portraits or otherwise set for close up shots it will not focus far away and a far away object will come out blurry pretty much no matter what and i’ve found a few rare scenarios where it would not focus properly, however since all of these pictures were takin in the first 3 days of ownership i chalk them up to unfamiliarity with the device.

Great product for the price.

Then there is the ability to shoot audio/video at 30 fps while enjoying the view from a 3 inch monitor screen! I shot a film of my aquarium with all the activity going on it captured it all perfectly. Note that if you use the mechanical zoom the audio recording pictures up the motor sound.

Being able zoom out and get a wide angle shot equivalent to 28mm is very handy when backed against a wall trying to get the whole family in a shot.

The face recognition does indeed locate and focus on the person perfectly. It takes fantastic audio/video indoors and out. The stabilization feature is priceless when letting the wife take shots, she’s always been the type to shake the camera when pressing the shutter button.

Battery life if astonishing. The prior two cameras I had were running out of battery juice constantly despite purchasing expensive AA’s for them. This GE, on the other hand, has a small proprietary rechargeable battery that lasts long enough to shoot 200+ pictures with flash, plus two 15 minute videos before it dropped to down to one bar on the meter.

Although when first purchased it took a full 4 hours to charge, the recharge only took about 1/2 the time. And I bought 2 back-up batteries from eBay for only 10 bucks total including shipping so no worries!

That huge 3 inch screen is fantastic and vivid and handles the outdoors if not in direct sun very well. The pictures look even better than the screen previews once uploaded to your PC or made into prints. And it is a hard glass like material that doesn’t appear to be easily scratched.

I finally have a camera with EXCELLENT picture quality and saved a hundred dollars or more as the comparable cameras were $249 and up. GE covers the camera for one full year, Radio Shack offered a 2 year for $29 but I passed on that. Radio Shack also had a special going and tossed in a free 1 GB SD card for free on my $149 purchase price.

My sister in law has a Cannon SD630 and I almost got one, but if you look on eBay there is a tone of “as-is” ones for sale, convincing me they all eventually break, mainly to do with lens retraction issues. There are NO “as-is” E850′s on eBay as of this writing.

My last camera was a FUJI A500 with a small screen and slow reaction time and not so hot pictures. One prior to that was a Kodak D3600 and it had an even smaller screen and good shots were hit and miss, but the reaction time was better.

I do not know why other reviewers are so harsh; complaining it feels like plastic, slow reaction time, picture noise, etc. The Kodak and Fuji felt like plastic to me and I’m certain they were, but this one feels like solid metal no matter what it’s really made of.

All in all I could not be happier without having spent double the dough. Bottom line is beware of reviews knocking this gem without especially since they cannot compare a couple other $150 and below cameras. This one wins hands down.