Canon PowerShot S500

This is an Excellent Digital Camera. I recently purchased this camera, which was New Old Stock. The S500 was introduced about two years ago. The newer, smaller Canon models have larger LCD Displays, but make compromises in Lens Quality and Ease of Use (buttons are too small on newer models). So, because I consider the Canon S500 to be the last of the Real Deal Canon Compact Digital Cameras, I decided to buy the older Canon S500. Normal Picture Quality is Excellent. Macros are Very Good, but not the best. The Camera Controls work well, although the Lens Zoom Control is quite fussy. Bundled Software and Owners Manuals are Truly Excellent. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this Fine Product from Canon.

Excellent normal pictures. Macros are very good. Bright, High Resolution (118,000 pixels) LCD Screen. 10X Playback Zoom. Great Bundled Software. Lens Quality. Durable Metal Housing. Stylish Design.

Weaknesses: Cheap Plastic Battery Compartment and CF Card Compartment Lids. Small (by today's standards) 1.5" LCD Display. Fussy Lens Zoom Control.

Canon PowerShot S100, Nikon CoolPix 4500

I haven't had to use customer service for this product, but I was happy with the service on the Canon PowerShot S100 that I previously owned. On that camera, I had an issue with close-up (macro) focusing and Canon bent over backwards to please me. Turns out they couldn't please me because the camera focusing system just was not accurate for macros. The macro focusing on the S500 is much better, although still not in a class with the better Nikon digital camers.

Excellent compact performer. I bought this for when I don't want to lug around my Canon 10D but still want reasonable images. To be quite honest apart from the physical size of the images I am hard-pressed to tell which images came from which camera, it really is that good.

Image quality Build quality exceptional LCD monitor very good Excellent flash

The menus can be fiddly on manual

Canon 10D Olympus E-1

Not needed so far

Although a bit on the pricey side, I would say that you get what you pay for. This camera is small and light, yet extremely powerful and versatile. The digital zoom may as well have not been included. It stinks like it does on every other digital camera I have ever seen. The 3x optical zoom is more than acceptable for a camera this size. It does come in handy. However, this is not the camera for you if a strong optical zoom is needed. The small LCD screen is better than screens twice its size. Considering that you can zoom in to the image while it’s displayed on the LCD, the screen size should not be a deterrent. In fact, it is quite good. Very sharp while bright enough that you can see it clearly in direct sunlight. I have not had much opportunity to use some of its advanced features but one that I have used is its "stitch" function. This function allows you to line up an image with the previous image so that you can take panoramic shots without having to guess where you previously left off. It does this by creating two windows on the LCD screen. One is fixed with the previous image; the other is the current image. All you have to do is line up the left side of the current image with the right side of the previous image. Useless...but cool. It will take 30 second videos. They are grainy (I think the max resolution is 640x480) and the sound stinks, but this isn't a video camera so there really is no grounds for complaint. The flash is incredible for a small point-and-shoot. It will easily light up a large room. Battery life is OK - I don't have anything to compare it to. I'd recommend getting an extra if you won't be able to charge the first for a while. One battery is good for about 40 images with a flash, 80 without it. You could probably get more if you use the view finder instead of the LCD screen. Most importantly, this camera creates incredible images. So good, in fact, that my wife (a magazine photo editor) has used it to take pictures of the magazine staff that are placed in the magazine. (They were supposed to be only test images.) When I said that you get what you pay for, the image quality is what I was referring to. I could bore you with examples, but that would...well, bore you. As more reviews are posted I think that you will be able to trust that image quality is second to none for a camera this size and price.

Image quality Image quality Image quality Flash LCD screen (small but excellent) Small and light (easily fits in a pocket) Manual adjustments are plentiful (just about everything except manual focus)

Battery life Digital zoom Optical zoom (it's a very small camera so you can't realistically expect a strong optical zoom)

This is my first digital camera.

Not needed. However, having bought the camera in Taiwan, I was relieved to find that Canon makes its manuals available on line. (Mine came with a manual in Chinese.)