This 5 MegaPixel handheld camera initially feels "plasticky," with cheap gray plastic covers and doors for SD expansion card and battery, but once past these minor panels, the X50 shines. With Minolta's interesting "folding zoom," there is no lens protruding out of the camera to achieve the 3x optical zoom. The camera only takes a half second after sliding the lens cover to turn it on. The 2" LCD is a quality unit, easily viewable in daylight, but includes an optical viewfinder for bright light conditions, and the well-designed position keeps your nose from smudging the LCD. The rest of the controls are intelligently-placed at logical and easy-to-reach locations on the body, making the voice-annotation mode easily accessible while shooting. Full movie capability is 320 x 240, but is available with audio at 15 or 30fps, with zoom ability and individual frame selection. Battery life is adequate with a single Li-Ion, but will get through a day of average shooting. Storage is 16 MB internal with an SD slot available.