This is my first foray into digital cameras, after decades of 35mm shooting - both snapshot and 'enthusiast'.  My first impressions were great - it's a super-lightweight camera, and the zoom is awesome.  The 'USB storage class' device is fantastic - plug into your computer, and bingo - a new hard-drive shows up and you can copy pictures - easy (zero software installation)!  And the macro feature is awesome.
But the negatives cropped up after a month or so. I took a bunch of pictures at a Christmas gathering using the flash.  To my horror (since I didn't take any backup pics on my 35mm camera), many of the pictures were blurred. Since the flash 'freezes' the motion, this could not be a movement problem; much research into this revealed that most digital cameras use a 'contrast' method to focus, and in low-light, they can't get a good focus (compared to snapshot 35mm cameras, which use infra-red). The camera has to focus before the flash fires, so there has to be enough light WITHOUT the flash to get a good focus.  So beware in low-light conditions.  Second problem is that this camera has an 'Electronic Viewfinder' - what you see in the viewfinder is a 'mini-lcd' screen.  This has a lot of advantages, but - in low light (eg outdoors, where you plan to take advantage of the up-to-16 second exposure), you cannot see the image at all in order to 'frame' it.  An optical viewfinder does not have this drawback.  That's it so far for the negatives.  Since I like taking low-light shots these limitations are significant.
Note that many higher-end cameras have the electronic viewfinder, and many digital cameras use 'contrast' focus only.  I would personally recommend finding one with good optical viewfinder, and one that has an 'auxiliary infrared focus' device.  Maybe hard to find.
This is my first foray into digital cameras, after decades of 35mm shooting - both snapshot and 'enthusiast'. My first impressions were great - it's a super-lightweight camera, and the zoom is awesome. The 'USB storage class' device is fantastic - plug into your computer, and bingo - a new hard-drive shows up and you can copy pictures - easy (zero software installation)! And the macro feature is awesome. But the negatives cropped up after a month or so. I took a bunch of pictures at a Christmas gathering using the flash. To my horror (since I didn't take any backup pics on my 35mm camera), many of the pictures were blurred. Since the flash 'freezes' the motion, this could not be a movement problem; much research into this revealed that most digital cameras use a 'contrast' method to focus, and in low-light, they can't get a good focus (compared to snapshot 35mm cameras, which use infra-red). The camera has to focus before the flash fires, so there has to be enough light WITHOUT the flash to get a good focus. So beware in low-light conditions. Second problem is that this camera has an 'Electronic Viewfinder' - what you see in the viewfinder is a 'mini-lcd' screen. This has a lot of advantages, but - in low light (eg outdoors, where you plan to take advantage of the up-to-16 second exposure), you cannot see the image at all in order to 'frame' it. An optical viewfinder does not have this drawback. That's it so far for the negatives. Since I like taking low-light shots these limitations are significant. Note that many higher-end cameras have the electronic viewfinder, and many digital cameras use 'contrast' focus only. I would personally recommend finding one with good optical viewfinder, and one that has an 'auxiliary infrared focus' device. Maybe hard to find.