Canon PowerShot S500 5MP Digital Elph with 3x Optical Zoom
- 5-megapixel sensor captures enough detail to create photo-quality 13-by-17-inch enlargements
- Canon 3x optical zoom lens combines with 4x digital zoom for 12x total zoom
- 9-point autofocus; movie mode; PictBridge compatible
- Store images on Compact Flash Type I memory cards (32 MB card included)
- Powered by rechargeable battery pack NB-1LH (included with charger)
Product Description
Elegance DefinedSleek, powerful and eminently portable, PowerShot S500 offers the ultimate in contemporary style. Memorable images are a click away, with a high-resolution sensor, 3x optical zoom lens, and impressive capabilities that are as easy to use as they are advanced. 5.0 Megapixel CCD Powerful ZoomPowerShot S500 digital camera is equipped with high-resolution CCD sensors that capture a wealth of detail. Even your largest prints will exhibit the clarity and r… More >>
Canon PowerShot S500 5MP Digital Elph with 3x Optical Zoom
Tagged with: Canon • Digital • Elph • Optical • Powershot • S500 • Zoom
Filed under: Canon Powershot SD
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The new Canon PowerShot S500 is a 5MP upgrade to the immensely popular S400 model, which was a 4MP digital camera. The S500 produces excellent images, is easy to use, and is compact enough to carry in a pocket. 3X optical zoom is standard on these cameras. Besides shooting still photos, you can record low-res video clips as well as audio clips, but don’t expect high quality on either.
For a hundred bux less, you can get the 4MP S410 model which is otherwise identical to the S500. Should you go for this or the S410? I think for most consumers 4MP is plenty enough, with room for cropping and enlargements. 5MP is only necessary if you really crop a lot *and* plan to blow up the cropped images. The S410 strikes a great balance between pixel count and price — it’s a better value.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is my second Canon digital elph camera. Both were great cameras. Recently upgraded to the S500. About 6 months later I get the dreaded E18 error. I searched the Internet and found numerous people having problems. When I determined the problem to be the lens not fully extending I decided to give it a tug. It clicked and the camera came on, ready to take pictures. Turning it off and on produced the E18 again. While turning it on I gave it a nice little bump on the side (where the USB connector is) and the lens popped out on its own. No problems since.
Its a nice compact and light camera and takes great photos and videos. Only complaint (other than E18) is the limit of 30-second videos on 640×480 mode. I’ve got a 512MB compact flash card, I should be able to take as much footage as I have memory in one take.
Rating: 4 / 5
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?
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(2592×1944) 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.
Conclusion.
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
The Good:
Great pictures. Nice size. Average battery life. Loved the panorama mode. This was the best camera I owned until “E18″ appeared on its LCD screen.
The Bad:
The E18 Error. I treated this camera with great care. I knew of the E18 problem from other reviews. I avoided everything that might trigger it. It happened anyway. At first sporadically, now E18 happens evertime I turn the camera on. Within 4 months of purchase, my S500 has become un-usable. Many people encounter the E18 problem with Canon cameras (not just the Canon S500).
Comments:
I’ve owned five digital cameras since 1996. All continue to work with the exception of the Canon S500. I have shipped software that works with digital cameras. I know very well how reliable digital cameras are supposed to be. It would be ridiculous for me to claim that every Canon S500 will eventually get this problem. But, based on some very easy-to-find-via-google user experiences, that something is amiss in Canon’s engineering process and that Canon has spotty quality control. I will not recommend any Canon camera until Canon acknowledges and addresses this problem.
Rating: 1 / 5
Canon have done it again and produced this year another great ultracompact camera. The Powershot S500 really hits the mark for me. Small, and well designed it is also a well-rounded performer in the digital camera world. At 5 megapixel resolutions you can take very good quality pictures. The camera itself is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. It comes with 32 MB compact flash, so you may well want to upgrade this capacity. Also, a case is not supplied in the box. Still these are small minuses. Like a lot of the newer ultracompact digital cameras the S500 has a movie mode, and can capture 2-3 minutes. Outdoors it takes some very nice pictures, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by its indoor performance with flash. It is possible to take some good photos without red eye problems. You cannot really go wrong with this camera if you want a good high performance compact.
Rating: 5 / 5