Canon PowerShot S500 (Digital IXUS 500 / IXY Digital 500)

Opinion: - my first digital camera, nothing else to say
- in those times i was happy about every feature and every bug of camera:)

Opinion: I bought this camera as a present for myself nearly two years ago at Christmas. At the time, I bought three cameras to compare, Sony DSC-W1, Nikon Coolpix 4100 and the Canon S500. I liked the instant on of the Sony, as well as the large screen. Nikon also had a fast startup. I picked up the Canon because I had prior experience with the S400, of which I admired the picture quality. I did a shootout on my own. Instantly, the Sony got blown out of the water by the Nikon and Canon in terms of picture quality. The Nikon and Canon were close contenders. Ultimately, the Canon offer greater detail in the photographs than the Nikon. I also found the Coolpix colors to bee too rich, although that can be circumvented with a little post processing. I kept the Canon and returned the other two.

It has been nearly two years, and about 4000 photos. The cameras has seen several continents, numerous landscapes, and varied lighting conditions. It has delivered supreme performance throughout. Some of the pictures it has taken rival professional, published images. I have played with numerous compact and ultra compact cameras over the span of ownership and across the board, the S500 delivers on par or better images than the latest offerings out there. It may not have the fancy big screen, or the latest ergonomic shape, but what is important to me is the image quality, and this little thing delivers time and time again. The manual controls are a great bonus, something a lot of recent models have been stripped of.

Opinion: Had this camera for two years.Gave excellent results provided you switched off the Ai focus -this switches the focus point and gave out-of-focus results. On a few occasions this camera gave spot-on focus and very sharp results.

Opinion: We had an S400 that was lost on a vacation. Looking for a replacement, I noted the S400 was out of productions and examined the SD400/SD500. I thought the large LCD nice, but a poor trade-off for the lack of any place to put your thumb when holding the camera. Also found the very thin SD cameras hard to hold two handed and impossable to hold one handed. Bought one of the last S500's (essentially the S400 with a bigger sensor) from NewEgg for $245. Just got it, tried it out. Excellent pictures. Easy to hold. Easy to use. Just the right size. Only thing missing is manual controls, but pictures are great even without that. This is a superb little camera.

Opinion: Fantastic camera! As my old Canon S400 is slowly dying (was dropped) I began to search for replacement. Naturally I started to look among new models: Nikon Coolpix L1, Panasonic Lumix LX1, Canon SD400, Sony P-200. I tried them all. Although these models feature more pixels, functions and LCD sizes, their shots do not even come close to those of S400/S500 models in terms of color representation and sharpness. If you are looking for picture quality S500 is the benchmark among ultracompacts.

Opinion: I bought this camera about one year ago mainly because of good image quality combined with its compact size. I compared this camera against a Minolta G-530, took exactly the same shots of one object, maximum zoom, printed the JPG's on Kodak paper and the IXUS 500 was superior in terms of colours and image quality. (I even convinced the sales girl to change her opinion on what camera was best) The IXUS is extremely lightweight and is a permanent travelling companion. The LCD viewer is small but crystal clear, camera handling is easy, zooming from wide angle to maximum zoom should be more gradual but is not really a nuisance.

Opinion: It's slightly bigger than my two-way pager and I bought a pouch so I can carry it all over. 5 mpx is not just to produce large prints but also good to crop and get a good 4x6. The pic quality is amazing considering its size. I use it for my photo journal.

Opinion: A "Best Value" for the money. I have owned two other DC's and borrowed a number of others, but this is one great pocket camera. It was FREE. Take a look. http://www.FreeDigitalCameras.com/?r=18513344
Pros: Quick power-up and shutter response, Inexpensive compact flash memory, Great Canon imaging, Fairly rugged construction, A huge number of shots per charge.
I would buy this camera again.

Opinion: I travel worldwide for business and purchased the S500 in December 2004 as a more compact alternative to the bulky NIKON Coolpix 5000 I previously owned. The S500 is truly portable, and while there are lighter cameras in its size range, it seems to be solidly built.

The idea was that I would take more pictures of my travels if I was able to easily take my camera with me (anyone here remember CYCWY from photo mags? 'Carry your camera with you!). I found the S500 too bulky for pants and jacket pocket use and worried about getting dust and fuzz in the mechanisms this way.

The elegant solution to this was to order the Canon kit for this camera which comes with a usable camera bag, spare battery (important) and most important, a leather belt carrier that makes this camera as easy to keep around as a cell phone. I would highly recommend this last accessory as essential for safely toting this camera around as well as for protecting it. I think it would also serve for purse or bag use well for those who do not wish to wear on the belt.

I recently used the movie feature for recording fireworks and was delighted by the sound and picture quality for this.

Overall I find the S500 a good balance of features for my use Again it's not the lightest, but optical quality of the 3X zoom is fine for most of my travel and worksite documenting tasks. Many now prefer cameras that are about half the weight and thickness but I would caution that these trade off more lens/image quality.