The speed of the LCD is sufficient to not show any jerkiness during panning and the brightness is sufficient for any indoor work and for much outdoor use, but not in bright overcast or direct sun. It is also surprisingly difficult to learn to move the camera for framing. I'm sure it will become natural, if you will be switching between this design and an SLR or rangefinder it could be a problem. In front of the mode switch is the wonderful EasyPilot wheel. Poking the wheel brings up a menu on the LCD, rotating the wheel moves you quickly through the menu, and poking it again makes the selection or moves you to the next level.
Every command is quickly accessible.
I wished that both Play and Record controls were accessible at the same time, but most cameras insist on a strict division between the two modes so we can't really quibble with this. The speed of switching between the two modes could clearly be better. After taking a shot the camera cannot be switched into Play mode or turned off until the image is properly recorded on the SmartMedia card, which is clearly a good thing. On the other hand, there is no user benefit to the requirement that you can't switch out of Play mode until the image is completely displayed, and there are times when it would be extremely helpful to be able to cancel the exposure that has just been made. In play mode it takes a full 12 seconds to display an image, and you have no choice but to wait until its done.