Before I made the final decision to buy this camcorder, I searched long and hard through a variety of online and televised reviews; most of the reviewers rated it good to excellent, although some had issues that were, in my opinion, minor or at least, correctable. For example, a few complained that the sound was low or difficult to hear during camcorder playback; that's true during the camcorder playback, to some extent, but everything is ok with the sound during playback on my TV or my computer - I just turn the volume up a little. Bottom line: I'm completely in love with this beautiful, workable, affordable camcorder because everything works well, and the photo and video functions are easy to understand and a breeze to operate - as advertised.