Pros: Compact, Exceeded expectations, Convenient, Easy to use
Cons: poor battery life, poor software, so-so low light quality

"I picked this camera over competition from Canon and JVC. For me, the form factor was a key concern, but I was also on a mission.

I have a Super-8 camcorder by Sony that works well but is cumbersome. My wife and I wanted to take more spontaneous videos so we needed something smaller. The SDR-S7K seemed to fit the bill, but there are other small form-factor cameras from companies like Aiptek that seemed pretty popular as well. Three things sealed the deal for me with this camcorder:

-Optical Zoom
Not too many small 'lesser-name' cameras came with optical zoom. This camcorder has 10X optical which is plenty considering many digital cameras today only have somewhere in the 3-10X zoom range. Anything more than this and you'll need to use a tripod or monopod for image stability

-Sound
I like the fact that I can link the zoom feature to the mic, and the mic provides stereo sound capture. Everything I've captured has been crisp, clean, and in sync with the video

-SD Memory
I'm starting to dabble a little in editing my movies to create DVDs and I was going crazy trying to import all of my Super-8 film in real-time (i.e. 2 hr film takes 2 hrs to archive). Now I can download my clips in minutes and have them edited just as quickly.

There are some cons that I must point out as well:

-Low Light
Even though this camera has the 'Magic-Pixel' option of capturing images in low light, it will leave horrible 'ghost' images if you pan the camera at all! This mode must be used with a stationary object and a stationary mount like a tripod or else the images look terrible! Regular low-light produces some video artifacts (a.k.a. noise), so don't expect great capture in those situations

-MotionSD Software
Designed to pull data off of the camera and provide video editing capabilities, the software package has a clumsy user interface and non-intuitive controls. I already have 3rd-party software I use for editing so I only use MotionSD to pull the data off the card so I can store it in a logical fashion.

-Battery Life
The included VW-VBJ10 battery will only give you about 35-40 minutes of consecutive recording time. Found this out the hard way the first time I filmed something away from home. Make sure to purchase an extra.

All in all, for the purpose I'm using it for it is doing a fine job so far (only 3 weeks into my purchase). I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants to have a small, lightweight camcorder for capturing life's spontaneous moments. I carry it with me everywhere and I look forward to using it for a long time."