After reading all the professional and consumer reviews I purchased the Canon Elph 310HS. I primarily shoot with my Nikon D300 DSLR, but I also like to have a "pocket camera" for times when I can't or don't want to haul around the big camera and all the lenses and accessories. After giving the Canon 310 a trial run shooting some fall leaves out in the country as well as a few portrait and other basic shots, I have concluded that the image quality is significantly lacking. While the camera does have a lot of nice features and bells and whistles, my #1 concern is image quality, and this camera doesn't cut it. I used both the Auto mode, as well as manual override to adjust and compensate, but to no avail. The images did not capture the brilliant colors or the details. Most of the leaves lacked detail and it looked like just a "mush" of color - could not really distinguish one leaf from another. Same issue with details on the tree trunks, pine needles and leaves on the ground. Also, the color saturation was really lacking, and appeared dull and lifeless in most shots, even when I compensate by using the built in color boost (red, green, blue and also tried the vivid setting. Not any better). My ancient Casio 4MP 3x zoom point and shoot takes nicer images (but lacks the features and longer zoom). I was looking forward to upgrading to a new pocket camera with a longer zoom, and wider angle lens, large LCD screen and better image quality. While the Canon 310 had all the former attributes, it definitely does not have better image quality. I'm very disappointed, and can't figure out how it garnered such glowing reviews. Perhaps I got a rare dud, but regardless, it's getting returned to Costco where I purchased it. Now it's back to the drawing board to figure out which one to try next.