Review: Canon PowerShot S500

A review of Canon's Powershot s500.

I was shopping at Best Buy with my friend, who decided on the SD110, the smallest in the ELPH series. However, after a little research, I found that the s500 is only marginally larger than its smaller sibling. Even so, this marvel can slip into my front pocket easily and takes superb pictures. The s500 also has the distinction of having 5 megapixels--fully 2 more than the SD110, and 1 more than the cheaper s410. I'm thinking if I'm already going to be spending so much money ($500 with an additional battery pack), I might as well go all out for the best, or just stick to a cheap $200 camera. Right? And who wants to buy cheap electronics? :-P

I also have the Canon A70 and the Sony Cybershot U40. While the A70 was my trusty workhorse last year, it is rather homely and bulky. While not *very* large, there would have been no way to slip that brick into my pocket, with it's protruding grip and lens. Also it is only 3.2 megapixels. From looking at the pictures I took today on the s500's "shakedown" around the neighborhood, I can already tell that it takes far more detailed, sharper images than the A70, which suffered from a minor "softness" in the pictures it took. Also, the s500 is less a camera than it is a work of art in it of itself. When off, the camera has a slim, elegant look. It has an nostalgic air of Art Deco about it. From the front, the highly polished silver and handsome gold rings around the lens will catch anybodys' eye immediately--a breathtakingly beautiful machine to take breathtakingly beautiful pictures.

On the other hand, this camera is not nearly as small as the Sony U40, which was about the size of my index and middle fingers put together. However, that had no zoom and took only marginally acceptable images (2 MP and rather grainy)--I bought it primarily so I'd have a throwaround camera. In any case, the s500 is not *as* small, but it still fits into my pocket without any hassle (you'll know it's there, but it won't bother you), and the optical zoom and high image quality more than make up for it.

Again, the image quality is superb, and all in such a portable package.

Manual controls are light. There is AUTO, Manual, Panorama, and Video mode. In Manual, you can control the ISO and F stops, but they are not readily available, and require fiddling with the menu to access. I don't care, personally. I bought the camera for it's portability and ease of use when I want to snap pictures. I leave the wheel on AUTO and I am perfectly content with the images I get--for the average picture taker, too, I'd imagine.

The movie mode is decent. This is a camera and not a camcorder, it's still part of the package, but I'll not put it into consideration when rating this camera. Subpar. My A70 could take 640x480s at 15 frames/second while the s500 only takes a sluggish 10. It's is quite choppy, but bearable. The s500 can have 15 frames a second under the two smaller video resolutions, but they still do not look as good as the videos I captured with my A70. There is just an element of choppiness that I do not like. Perhaps the increased megapixelage necessitates a decrease in smoothness, I don't know. However, the movie mode is just an additional nicety in this otherwise superb piece of machinery, and it decent, acceptable, just not as good as I know it could be, for Canons, but I know this feature is important for many people considering digital cameras.
The proprietary battery is also something that I do not like (I prefer AAs) but I suppose there have to be some trade-offs--I'd suggest getting a spare, since it's theoretically supposed to last only about 2 hours per charge. I'd also suggest getting the skin-tight leather cover for this cam, since you can still fit it in your pocket while keeping that lovely luster intact, away from the coarseness of your pockets.

I'd also suggest getting a CF that has as high a write speed as possible. When taking pictures at maximum size(2592x1944) and maximum resolution (super-fine), my card took about 1-3 seconds to finish recording. I could continue taking more pictures almost immediately afterward, but I would still have to wait for the images to finish writing before turning off the camera. I did not notice this when I took superfine photos at the Medium size settings. Speaking of CF, I'd also suggest getting as big a card as possible. This monster takes pictures at 1-3 Mb each which means about 100-200 picture for me--my 256Mb card doesn't seem so adequate anymore. But it's fine.

So definately a great buy. It takes wonderful, superb pictures, and decent movies. By itself, it is a work of art, and truly is a handsome camera. All this, and is still compact enough to throw in your pocket or for the ladies, purse. There are slightly smaller and cheaper ELPHs, the sd110 and s410, but you will already be spending so much, and if you are, you might as well spring for the full 5 megapixel goodness that the s500 offers--3 megapixel cameras belong back in 2003. And there are other brands to choose from, but I honestly have not seen a more handsome camera that takes such spectacular images, and I think if you are considering this camera at such a price, that surely, you will be considering the aesthetic value of what you are buying. This camera is sure to please.

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