Canon PowerShot ELPH 500 HS 12.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with Full HD Video and Ultra Wide Angle Lens (Pink)

I was tired of the dark, grainy, low-res photos that my video camera and phone took. All the great shots of my cute little daughter were just terrible in print quality.Looking for the best bang for my buck, my priority was Shutter Lag, and indoor performance w/o flash.Love. This. Camera. The touchscreen is GREAT, large screen for reviewing. Get a Sandisk Extreme III SD card, and you'll be able to hold down the shutter to grab up to 3 or so photos PER SECOND! (Have to have the flash OFF for this!)Remember, the more you zoom in, the smaller the aperature will be, which means, to get the brightest, clearest shot indoors, DON'T USE THE ZOOM! Just hold the camera closer to your child and you can snap off 3 photos per second and catch the perfect moment.Also, a bonus...the video mode is AWESOME. Takes just as good 1080p video as my $400 Sony Handycam dedicated video camera.So...if you are mainly wanting great picture quality, and also shooting video, don't get a videocamera that takes pictures (the pictures will always be crappy). Get a still camera that also takes video. Then you will have great pictures and also great video.CONS: Battery life seems short. Good news: it comes with a dedicated charger (you remove the battery from the camera and put it in the charger), so you can charge a second battery while using the camera. I haven't bought an additional battery yet, but I may have to do so.

I bought this camera for a gift; I'd had excellent success with an earlier Elph so thought this one would serve the gift recipient in the same way. Problem was, she could never get it to work right --- the touch screen, both when composing shots and after taking them, showed dark, washed-out images and nothing she or I did remedied the problem. When the camera did work right one time, it only lasted for about a minute before reverting to the "dark side", including gray vertical lines on the screen.So after we spent hours with the camera, manual, online helps, and solution disc with no success, I arranged with Amazon online to return the camera for a replacement, which is where I couldn't believe the excellent return process. I followed the online instructions late yesterday afternoon, printed out the bar code sheet, wrapped it and the camera, and early this morning UPS picked the box up; a new camera has already shipped and is scheduled to arrive first thing next week.I have to believe there's a "short" or something in the electronics and look forward to seeing how the replacement camera works. I'm giving the camera three stars for now based on the great return process, and will upgrade to four or five if the replacement operates well.

I know it sounds silly, but for my wife to use a camera, it has to be pink. Not hot pink, a nice calm pink like this Canon ELPH 500 HS. Luckily, Canon has made a lot of nice pink cameras over the years, and this is no exception. The low light performance is excellent compared to our previous cameras. The full 1080p video with stereo sound is amazing for a point and shoot camera! Many people are recording life moments on decent quality cell phone cameras, but dedicated cameras have really advanced in the past few years.

I had extremely high hopes for this camera. The pictures aren't any better than my previous camera, that I've had for 5 years and is wearing out. But the videos are horrible. I had to reformat every one to play on my computer and to be able to burn onto a dvd. Plus the sound was awful. The voices were muffled and I could actually hear when I used the zoom.

I bought this for my wife as a Christmas gift. I did plenty of research and found this to be the best bet for the money. During the research process only reservations about this camera was that some users seemed to have trouble with the touch screen and complained about the short battery charge. After taking this into consideration, I felt it was worth the risk considering the alleged advantages - so I bought it.So here's the scoop after 2+ months of use: 1. Touch screen takes some getting used to, but works fine. 2. Pictures are clear and crisp in optical mode, but digital mode stinks when compared to my 870IS. 3. Outstanding features and awesome view window. 4. Recharge battery is "so-so."The bottom line is that my wife loves this camera and uses it frequently. Worth every penny as far as I'm concerned. Perfect for her and does the job quite well overall. Cannon nailed a good product for the money here.

We had a previous lower-end camera of this class, but it was too slow between shots. This camera is simple to use (or has manual modes if you like), but takes outstanding shots. It is ready for follow on shots quickly, and allows specific areas of focus via the touch screen. It also does nice video as well. Buy it without hesitation.

I have been a Canon fan for years, and was excited to buy this point and shoot (my 3rd from this brand). I was especially looking forward to using the new HS technology.The bulkiness isn't a problem (for, make no mistake, this camera is not 'sleek'). My biggest disappointment is about the picture quality/clarity. Photos oftentimes come out blurry in darker conditions, and the image is far from being 'vibrant' in general, even under good lighting conditions (during the daytime, indoors). I've tried all different of manual settings, but the pics just don't seem to look good. Standard/average at best.Spend a bit more money and get a better Canon!

We replaced another PowerShot which was dying right before a vacation. After taking video and photos throughout Europe we looked at the results and they were truly marvelous. The size of the camera and function are terrific. It's cute and lady like. You get SO MUCH better result from this camera than a like-pixeled cellphone and if this one holds up like the last Canon we'll have this for years. You can take shots that can be blown up and printed and the videos are stunning when you put them up on your monitor or tv.