Good choice, good camera!
929507
Zoom is very good and stability is good!  Movies are very good.  Low light performance is marginal, at best.  My phone takes better pictures in low light.  View finder is the only answer in bright light, but is very accurate for framing the picture.  Small and easy to carry and the picture quality is excellent.  As an SLR guy, I miss the bulk and seeing through the lens.....but when you are traveling, I don't miss the extra bag of camera stuff.  A little learning curve on the downloads, but not too bad.  It would have been five stars except for the low light performance
79432
This camera gives you plenty of features for the money.  I did a lot of research before buying, and I am well satisfied with my choice.  The Nikon Coolpix P80 has performed well, is easy to operate out of the box, and is a great choice for those of us who want more performance than a point and shoot digital, but can't justify going the SLR route. I read online that it had a slow reaction time, but  with the various modes, I have had no trouble snapping photos of my dog, birds, etc. I am still learning more about it's features using the manual, but I was able to figure most of it out on my own: the menus are easy.  For some more specific advanced settings, it does take a minute to get it situated, but that doesn't often come up and is pretty standard.  I would reccomend it to anyone in the market.
3404344
I  bought this camera today!  I wanted a small camera that is easy to carry around.  It has the same lens as the Canon A480 & a well known British camera magazine gave that camera a rating of 93%, mainly because of its excellent image quality.  And because I used to have a Canon A1000IS.
They gave the A495 a rating of 86%, presumably because other brands had kinda caught up to Canon's level of performance and features.
I would definitely recommend buying rechargeable Nimh batteries because the starter alkaline batteries only did 54 shots, 1 10 second video, & quite a lot of reviewing, looking at the menus etc,
before the low battery warning popped up.  (It was a very cold day though around 10 degrees celsius.)
I've only used the camera on full auto so far & the photos look beautiful to me.  At low iso settings they look just as good as many more expensive cameras I've owned.  (Before buying the A495 I had a Fuji S200 EXR which took superb photos but was too big & heavy for me.)

Other comments:
The battery & SD card compartment has a nicely designed plastic latch.  Sturdier than Canon A1000IS.
Nicer to hold than Canon A3000IS
LCD screen works quite well even in bright sun.  Looks far better than one budget Kodak model I looked at.

Update:  Maybe I got an extra good lens, but the photos this little camera takes in full auto mode are amazing.  Slow shot to shot times but fine for
landscapes & people pix if they pose for you.  I have bought Energizer
rechargeable batteries 2450 mAh & one charge has lasted me several days of
picture taking and transferring to PC with USB cable.
2159131
I bought this camera from here just the other day, and I'm glad I did! This camera is fun to use, and is packed with lots of fun/great features. I noticed when shooting over ISO-300 noice starts to become a problem. Shooting a night is fun, but can also be a little frustrating. The blacks in the image tend to be grainy threwout ISO.120-12500. The wide aputer is good in lowlight, but not the best. The Digic 6 image processor could have worked a little better on removing noice, but is what it is. The view finder is not even worth mentioning.
367101
I love the camera so far, I was really excited to get such a nice camera for such a good price. It arrived very quickly as well!
4034073
I got this camera to replace my wife's old Canon Elph SD-300 (4 MP, 3x zoom), which we really liked for its balance between tiny size and decent picture quality.  Well, Canon has really raised the bar with the 310 HS!  12.1 MP is plenty of resolution for our needs, the 8x zoom lens lets you go from wide angle to tight shots, the image stabilization helps minimize blurry pictures, and the full auto mode is pretty darn smart.  It would be nice if battery life was a bit longer, but that can be worked around by getting a second battery.

Right after we got this camera, we took it on a 9-day whirlwind tour of Scotland with my son's fiddle group.  We took tons of pictures and a bunch of video clips, and this camera was a champ!  The pictures and videos were consistently well exposed and detailed, and it's dead-nuts easy to use.  It even did well in low light situations, which we ran into a lot on the trip.

Overall, I'm really happy with this camera!
907668
Great camera! Takes awesome pics! You can't beat it for the cost!
2216600
Really good camera with great price, easy to setup and use.
4098214
Received this camera as a gift before a trip overseas.  Didn't have time to do more than charge the battery and go, so no reading the manual.  It was easy to use, had a decent battery life (though, yes, you do need to recharge it daily if using it all day).  I received an extra memory card, which can hold 1600 pics (didn't try the video).  The response time was fast in taking multiple shots.  "Scene" settings were really helpful for action shots and different light situations.  Clearly I am not a camera pro, but this allowed me to take some clear, beautiful photos.  10 mp is wonderful.
1149195
Received this camera about a month ago, and even though it is a point and shoot camera, there are a lot of options to learn, so I am taking the time to do just that! I actually read the instructions (downnloaded the PDF manual)and fleshing it out...the 3" screen was the main draw to this camera, as was the price-under $120.00, and the simple controls that sit just right of the screen....also the fact I can use regular AA batteries and/or rechargeable...comes in 3 choices of finish-red, black or silver. Good documentation available...Nice camera for the price!
2086142
I am very happy with this camera.  It is all I expected, and while I have not used all of the features, I am sure they will be as good as the ones I have used.
27616
My husband has used this new camera and is very happy with it. It has features he likes and it's easy to use!
2514339
I lost my previous camera, and decided I wanted a Canon due to reputation.  This is a very good camera and turns out excellent pictures.  I am still learning all the functions, but was able to use it rather quickly.  Well worth the price!
2574433
I got the LZ8K for a friend of mine. Amazon's shipping was quick and the camera is phenomenal! Easy to use, wonderful colors, lots of extra settings, and we like the added little bit of wide angle as well as the 5x optical zoom. We would recommend this camera wholeheartedly!
4103271
Happy with this camera. If I need or want another I would buy this item again
1981928
Bought this camera after reading reviews here. Good choice if you're looking for a good camera w/excellent photo quality. Many settings and features makes this feel more expensive. 16 megapixels gives it rich colors and decent action shots. Easy to use right out of the box. Lightweight makes it handy to carry around.

Purchased for a 14 year old taking photography in school. Has all features necessary for class but isn't "dumbed" down for a kid. Would recommend to anyone who loves to take photos on a regular basis.
2831566
A fantastic, reasonably priced, all-around digital camera!  This is my second one!