Customer Reviews
Great pocket digi-cam for the buck
I bought the SD500 6 months ago and it does satisfy the needs of the avarage amateur photographeur. Pro's: small size, high pixel count, good battery life, good pic quality for pocket size. Low's: LCD has increased dead pixel amount over just 6 months, Focus and flash seem to be sluggish when a quick shot is necessary.
Additional things to get: second battery, 1GB sd card (saves hassle of frequent changes).
Conclusion: very good buy if you are looking for something under 500$ including the 1GB Sd card and battery.
Very nice
I have had a Canon sd110 for the last couple of years and have thought it to be remarkable and not easily replaceable. When I sat on it and broke the LCD I was absolutely inconsolable. Then I decided to give it to my thirteen year old (he can still take excellent shots using the view finder) and splurge on one of these. Darn it if I am spoiled once again. Great camera. Incredibly accurate in almost every situation. I don't use it for external night shots or for real fast action and of course it is only a 3x optical zoom. I have a nice and huge Panasonic lumix with a stabilized 12x Leica for that, but it so big and inconvenient that I find that I use it less and less. The sd500 on the other hand is always in my jacket pocket (in a nice leather case - I learned my lesson thank you very much)...
I bought a new 1 gb SD card and I think it is almost a requirement because I find that the 7 megapixel images are almost double in size from the sd110's 3.2 megapixel shots.
The color balance is absolutely perfect. I don't see purple fringes unless I push the lens to the exteme. The ease of use and the quality of image balance is what makes this little baby a great camera for the beginner and the enthusiast like me that will go out on a Saturday morning stroll and shoot 150 shots.
Very satisfied.
Ideal on-the-go Camera
While I have a canon single reflex camera, which takes absolutely fantastic pictures, I wanted a camera that could just fit in my purse and be easily available for all those unexpected picture/perfect moments while still maintaining the ability to have framable prints in the end. This one fits the bill perfectly! While not as slim and tiny as others in the market these days, it takes beautiful pictures and is a snap to download pictures onto my computer. Of course, you've gotta love instant gratification and the truth is, the pictures are often even better than how they appear on the viewfinder. It has a great feel, the controls are very straightforward and easy to use. The LCD is big enough that I can continue to deny my need for bifocals in seeing small print. There are bigger LCD's out there, but I also believe this is the most breakable part of a digital camera, not covered by warranty. So bigger isn't always necessarily better.
On the downside, admittedly, the red-eye feature doesn't necessarily work in that I still get the redeye thing (obstensibly because the flash is so close to the lense -- a common problem in compact digitals), but that's the easiest thing to correct with today's computer software. Plus, there are cameras on the market that now take regular batteries vs. risking the possibility of the chargable battery dying at the worst possible moment. But my daughter's camera (using AA's) seems to drain batteries at a really rapid clip. Also, there is no internal memory card (unlike the 550) and the card that comes with the camera is really small.I recommend buying a larger card immediately, especially if you want to use the video function.
While I am somewhat behind the general population in that this is my first digital camera, if you're looking for a fun camera that has plenty enough of bells and whistles to be creative AND yet takes great point and shoot pictures, this is a good choice.
