Canon PowerShot S500 DIGITAL ELPH Digital Camera

Great compact camera

By Yahoo! Shopping User  May 1, 2004 | 204 out of 210 found this Canon PowerShot S500 DIGITAL ELPH review helpful

Pros: Small size, solid construction, picture quality, good focus in dark situations. Really fast to power on and get ready for next shot. Good balance of features for a compact camera.

Cons: Battery life could be better, does not use the same battery charger as other canon cameras, included memory card is small (but isn't that always the way)

I bought this camera primarily for its portability. I have owned a Canon G3 for over a year and it is an incredible camera, but just too bulky to fit in a pocket. I wanted something that could be taken anywhere but would still take high quality shot...s. The S500 seemed to fit the bill.Image quality is excellent for a camera this small. It is NOT as good as the G3 (which is only 4MP), but that is hardly surprising given it's tiny lens. But you really have to put the two shot side by side to see that there is some room for improvement in the S500. The S500 is also really fast - much faster than the G3. You're ready to take the next shot in just a second which is really useful.The camera is the perfect size and weight. There are smaller cameras on the market, but anything smaller than the S500 is very hard to hold and keep steady. It is also a beautiful looking camera and feels really solid.For a camera this size it has some nice features like panorama mode and and AF assist light that allows it to focus in total darkness (more useful than I at first imagined it would be). The camera works with Mac computers right out of the box too. The first time I used the camera, the battery seemed to drain fast. I was using a lot of flash however. The battery indicator on the LCD only appears when the battery is almost dead which is not particularly useful. Probably a good idea to get a second battery. The battery charger is a sleve type device that you insert the battery into - you cannot charge the camera with the battery still in it like you can with other Canon cameras and video camcorders.One other disappointing thing was that my 1GB IBM Microdrive that I use in the G3 is too thick to fit in the S500 memory slot. The S500 is short on memory out of the box.Finally, I'm not sure whether it was worth paying the extra $100 for the S500 over the 4MB S400. Apart from the higher resolution, most other features are identical.All in all however, this is an excellent camera and probably one of the best in the compact class. Read more Less