The M417 is a 5.2 megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom and 7x digital zoom. The camera does have an optical viewfinder along with its 1.8 inch LCD. There is a brightness adjustment for the LCD. The image in the LCD is not very impressive, sluggish and grainy. The worst part about this is that it’s hard to tell if you’ve captured a decent image until you transfer it to your computer.
The built-in flash has a range up to 12.5 feet when taking wide angle shots and 7.2 feet at full telephoto. The flash modes are Auto, Red-Eye Reducing, On, Off, and Night (longer exposure with flash). The recycle times for the flash between shots was longer than most recent cameras — I had to wait at least 3-4 seconds for the flash to charge.