Originally Posted by ve2vfd
As your only P&S cam, it's not worth it... as a "beach camera", it's pretty good.
Sort of where I'm at. Oh I also figured out my mysterious circles. A quote from another forum:
Well I finally figured out the cause. I'm going to say 50% "I'm an idiot" and 50% "The designer was an idiot". I'm well used to keeping the front of a point and shoot clear so as not to cover any sensor, etc. However on the W60 there are two things that will bite you if you don't also keep your left fingers completely behind the front plane of the camera. First the flash is located right in the top corner. Second the lens is, of course, completely recessed into the camera because of the sealed nature of the W60. Add these together and if your middle finger drifts into the flash cone (which is basically anywhere in front of the camera) you will likely get bounce back into the lens. On the S series the lens obviously protrudes significantly and also the flsh is located, IMHO much more sensibly, in the center of the camera so this is basically impossible. I consider this a design flaw because it is just too easy to interfere with the flash. Sure the main user will know but when someone else takes some pictures of/for you it is an accident waiting to happen.
I also tried the suggestion of turning down Contrast, etc. but did not notice a significant reduction in noise.
I should also be noted that others have seen the same misaligned panel/optics that I had on my first W60. It usually shows up as blurring towards the left or right of the frame. People should check theirs very carefully the first few days.
For anyone that cares I took a series of shots with a new OptioS12 I just got, my OptioS, and the OptioW60:
Picasa Web Albums - Daryle - OptioS12 vs. ...