The Canon PowerShot S500 is a great 5 megapixel, 3x optical zoom ultracompact camera. The unit is small enough to slip into your pocket, making it extremely travel friendly. Moreover, the PowerShot S500 has excellent battery life and can shoot many, many shots before requiring a recharge. This camera makes a wonderful replacement for the popular Canon PowerShot S400, which was a 4 megapixel camera.

The Canon PowerShot S500 digital camera
 

Design and Construction

The Canon PowerShot S500 measures 3.4” x 2.2” x 1.1” inches and weighs 6.5 ounces  (without batteries). The camera is made of a very sturdy and pretty magnesium alloy chassis. It’s not only very portable, it is also one of the coolest looking digital cameras on the market today.
 

Optics and Resolution

Featuring a 5 megapixel resolution and 3x optical zoom, the Canon PowerShot S500 is capable of shooting great photos. Its optical system performs brilliantly – it’s able to focus as close as 2 inches in macro mode, with shutter speeds of up to 1/2000 of a second.

The Canon PowerShot S500 has an ISO range of 50 to 400. In low light conditions, or for fast moving subjects, I found that ISO 400 was still capable of capturing some pretty nice shots. 

The camera features a powerful 9 point Artificial Intelligence Auto Focus (AiAF) system. This allows even novices to achieve good focus in a large percentage of their shots.
 

User Controls

The user menus on the Canon PowerShot S500 are bright, intuitive and neatly organized. You can use a jog-dial to select between auto, manual, panoramic or video modes. If you need to capture several shots of a moving subject, there’s also a continuous shooting mode which snaps pictures in quick succession.
 

Storage and Transfer

The Canon PowerShot S500 accepts Type I CompactFlash memory cards. The camera kit comes with a 32MB card, which you certainly would want to upgrade if you want to take 5 megapixel pictures.

The in-built USB port supports the USB 1.1 standard. You can readily transfer images pretty fast using this port and the included USB cable.
 

Battery Life

The camera comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery (NB-1LH). I found that the camera could last about 92 minutes on a fully-charged battery. You may want to purchase an extra battery if you plan on shooting for a full day.
 

Shortcomings

There two some areas where I feel the Canon PowerShot S500 can improve. Firstly, 10% of my indoor shots are a little on the reddish and yellowish side. You usually need to switch to use the Manual Tungsten mode and to correct this. Secondly, the camera only comes with a measly 32MB memory card. This is clearly insufficient for more than a couple of shots. I wish Canon could do away with this card and just shave some dollars off the cost price of the S500.
 

Conclusion

In short, the Canon PowerShot S500 is a great little camera. It takes excellent pictures, and has a very nice, sleek design. The S500 is great for beginners and those just entering the world of digital photography. Its full feature set will last you many years – until you’re ready to upgrade to a more advanced camera.

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