the mission was to capture every moment possible christmas morning when the kids opened presents excitedly from santa clearly. it has only been 2 weeks since i bought it and i can't get enough of it. the image produced is so clear and the zoom is amazing.

Easy to Use; Efficient; Quality Construction; Reliable

None

This compact camera with a 16 megapixel sensor is fitted with a 30X optical zoom and the boast of a 60X zoom when moved into the digital enlargement zone. In 35mm film terms this is a 24–720mm optical range. The lens is image stabilised, which it needs to be.

The Canon PowerShot SX500 IS is a super-zoom bridge type camera that sports a 30x, 24mm wide-angle zoom, lens, 16 megapixel resolution, 3 inch LCD screen, 720p movies, full manual controls and a Digic 4 processor.

Just bought this recently and it's my first digital camera. I haven't used all the features yet but I really, REALLY like it so far. I have taken hundreds of pictures and hope to take thousands more. Maybe I'll even become a better photographer because it's so easy and fun to use.

great zoom and clear pictures

nothing so far

I am returning this camera because: 1. Very bad fringe on picture edges, red on right, green on left

Very impressive stabilization to take fully zoomed pictures and videos from hand

Very bad fringe on picture edges.

The cheap CCD senor is big drawback in this camera for this price range. Im wondering why canon did not use CMOS sensor which would have increased the image quality in low light conditions and also faster FPS performance

The SX500 IS caters to photographers who want a lot of zoom for little cash. It succeeds well at this task, though image-quality purists will bemoan the lack of RAW and visible fringing issues on photos.

Small and lightweight; 60x Zoom Plus feature works well for low-res shots; Simple to use

Video-only 720p; Screen is difficult to see in sunlight; Average video quality

A year or so ago I was attracted by Canon's SX30 IS, a 35X digicam. So much so that I bought one for family use. And it turned out to be ideal for the purpose, especially in shooting video at the long end! … although this was somewhat tempered by its less than Full HD …

This compact camera with a 16-megapixel sensor is fitted with a 30x optical zoom and the boast of a 60x zoom when moved into the digital enlargement zone. In 35-millimetre film terms, this is a 24mm-720mm optical range. The lens is image-stabilised, which it needs to be.

A problem with all super-zooms is finding the subject in the viewfinder when the lens is at its longest focal length; This camera has a button on the side of the lens that, when pressed, gives a wider view.

Apart from the absurd zoom range and far too many pixels

With prices constantly coming down in the digital camera market, Canon's range was crying out for a low-cost camera with a very powerful zoom, as already proffered by the likes of Olympus and Nikon.

Practical to handle; clear interface; Quick zoom-out button to find a subject that's moved out of view at telephoto settings; Good sharpness levels in the middle of the frame at all focal lengths

Very plasticky build / Screen looks dark when viewed from below; Photo-to-photo turnaround is too slow; Sensitivity isn't great; chromatic aberration visible on 4" x 6" photos; Video mode could be better (contrast; noise; audio; etc.