I purchased a new digital camera because I was very displeased with my low end quick shot camera.
I did extensive photo tests with both cameras because I felt the Canons overall sharpness was much better than the quick shot.
Both cameras are 16mp and although I'm a Canon fan I have to say I love the A3300.
Even with setting custom sharpness, contrast and saturation, the normal straight out of the box settings were way better from the point and click camera.
The two problems with the canon were most photos even bright outdoors were to noisy.
The other problem was no matter what setting and focus type, only the center areas were in OK and I mean OK focus.
Compared to the point and ckick,...
wow, much better and much sharper.
When fully zoomed in there was a bit of noise but that is expected.
Night shots depending on how you take them also have noise but again depending on how and what you can work around it a bit.
There are minor differences with the two cameras like the zoom smoothness was a bit better on the canon and the user interface and menu screens were also a bit better on the canon.
Not a deal breaker at all because I'd rather have quality over cosmetic things.
The other minor things I found were that the point and click just wasn't that high of quality.
Also the on off and photo/play aren't buttons they are switches which I'm a little worried about breaking so we'll see how they last.
One of the biggest differences is that this camera is faster.
I found that saving photos is almost instantaneous on the canon, while the click and shoot, it was about a 4 sec pause to save before you could take another (a "busy" icon shows up.
Most of all the functions on the Canon are faster and I like being able to grab the camera and take photos quickly.
Overall I'm all about quality and sharp photos and this camera does that.
If you don't care about the spare battery cost or that the user interface and menus look like somthing from start trek, I think you'll be happy with this camera.
Photos for the most part are well exposed and using the full Ai seem to always come out perfect.
There will be a slight bit of noise in certain shots but sharpness is never an issue.
The whole thing, about higher mega pixels is better, is true, but it's more about the sensor size.
Do some research about that as I did, but believe me, this camera really does a great job.