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need advice about budget p-a-s ELPH (low light question)

Started Aug 4, 2012 | Discussions thread
OpticsEngineer Veteran Member • Posts: 7,822
Re: need advice about budget p-a-s ELPH (low light question)

The 500HS has a reputation for good low light performance, by virtue of its HS sensor and f/2.0 lens at wide zoom. That is why I bought one. It is a pretty good little camera. It has a touch screen, which is not my favorite way to control a camera, but it works well enough. It 5X zoom is not really all that much of course, and when zoomed in, it drops to f/5.8 and loses a lot of its low light advantage.

Just for fun I compared it to a Sony HX20V this evening, both cameras set to their widest zoom, taking outdoor twilight pictures of my daughter about 15 minutes after sunset. The Sony is f/3.3 when zoomed out. The comparison was not even close. The 500HS had much better pictures, with much less noise.

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