I do professional fine art and PR/theater photography with a Canon EOS 5D and am very experienced as a photographer for over 30 years. Not always wanting to use my main equipment, I purchased this camera for a general purpose like family events, travel/vacation etc.
I originally wanted at least a 10x-12x optical zoom, 6-8MP, video (movie mode)with 640x480 30fps with zoom while movie shooting, AA batteries, IS (Image Stablization), at least a 2" LCD screen, fairly compact (but not a necessarily a pocket camera), and simple operation. I compared to Canon S3 IS, Kodak Z 7812 IS, Panasonic DMC FZ8K and seveal others which had true IS capabilites.
The FUJI S700 was less expensive because it is not a true IS camera or lens, but uses a fast shutter speed and higher ISO to achieve its IS mode. Otherwise it met the all other specifications I was looking for in a camera.
My daughter took this camera for a two week trip to China and got very good results. She used the IS mode often and the resulting pictures were generaly good with very little "digital sensor noise" because of the higher ISO setting. She also had very good results in low-light situations where flash was not permitted, and her movie clips where good (maybe not quite as good as a dedicated camcorder but fine for general purpose). The S700 movie mode sound uses a single microphone in the camera body for monophonic sound, where some other models have stereo if this is important to you.
She shot over 1000 images and about 30 video clips on a single 4GB SD card (the S700 is SDHC compatible) and she only used two sets (4 each) of alkaline AA batteries during her trip. The S700 will run longer on rechargable NiMH (2500-2800mAH) batteries or Lithium AA batteries.
While lacking true IS, the FUJI S700 is also about $50-$100 less expensive than the above comparable cameras. The KODAK and PANASONIC have movie modes but you cannot change the zoom lens setting while in this mode. Being a long time CANON user and a big fan of my EOS 5D SLR and other EOS SLRs, I found the CANON S3 IS difficult to switch modes between shooting mode and playback. It does have zoom while in movie mode however and the newer S5 IS may correct this problem. The S3 IS does produce excellent images even with its 6MP sensor (that uses their excellent DIGIC II processor).
The FUJI S700 produces good to very good images in its 7MP Fine mode using ISO of 100-400. The digital noise begins to slightly appear at ISO 400, but is not unacceptable. It is easy to use and in the AUTO mode, that most people would use, the camera would produce good results. It does allow shutter or aperture prioirty modes plus a full manual mode, but these are for advanced users in special situations and are not as easy to set as on a prosummer/professional level camera.
I would strongly recommend this as a good gerenal purpose camera that has a good, fairly fast optics and very good image quality. It is not a "pocket camera" with their small 3-4X optical zoom lens, but the S700 is lightweight to carry and easy to hold and use even with one-hand shooting.
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