I've seen some great photo ops in my travels, problem is, I never had a digital (or 35mm camera) on me when I needed to capture them. I don't want to travel by air with expensive equipment that the morons at the airport toss around while they trash your carryon, I also don't like the "stupid American tourist, pls pickpocket me" look that an SLR around the neck labels you.

Enter the S500, compact flash compatibility with the Canon dSlR's should you ever upgrade, ultraportable for shirtpocket storage, quick startup for those once in a lifetime photo ops, and the accessories are as light and easy to carry as the camera. The only thing missing is a 10x zoom, but with 5mp, you have plenty of pixels available to crop and still get a great "enlarged" shot of the one subject you wanted in the picture.

Menus are intuitive if you cut your teeth on canon digital cameras previous to this one, and use other canon digitals besides this one.

Cons - old tech in digital camera age. if you are just starting out, look at the other memory media which allow even smaller ultracompacts. Doubt there will be a Canon S700 with compact flash card storage, but if you lug Canon dSLR's around at other times, or plan to upgrade to Canon dSlR's in the future, the memory media standarization with the S500 is a godsend to protect your memory card investment. and the current price of the S500 is a bahgain!

The get-a-Canon Powershot-for-free "offers" you see spewed everywhere on Amazon don't work! All you will get is a gigantic flood of junk email, telemarketing calls, and junk faxes.

Get the real scoop from the San Francisco Chronicle. Search sfgate.com for "David Lazarus free ipod not really" and you will see what these jokers are really up to.

I bought this camera specifically for my honeymoon trip to Paris. I have never used a Canon before but I decided to give it a go because of the great reviews. The first concern when buying a camera is the picture quality. You ask yourself if this camera will take a good picture every time you point and shoot. Well it does not! It takes about 4 good pictures out of 10. I took 250 pictures on my trip; bought the 512MB memory card, only 60 of them were print worthy. All other came out blurry or with dust particle in the air because of the strong flash. Needless to say that my wife was extremely mad at me for the horrible pictures. It maybe true that you could fiddle around a lot with the menu options that might improve your images, but on the other hand the option menu seems to be in Hebrew, impossible to understand. I'm a very well educated person, engineer, extremely computer and technologically savvy, but this menu is just impossible. If somebody tells you it's a cinch, it's probably because they spent well over a year trying to figure it out or have owned Canon cameras all their life. This is not a Point-&-Click Camera. I just was so extremely disappointed in Canon, so many good reviews that mean nothing. Hopefully this review will shed some light to perspective buyers. What camera should I buy then? You ask. I just don't know. Sony's are truly point and shoot cameras and their menus are much more easy to use. They use words like Menu, Video, and Resolution. Canon uses symbols and letters, very confusing. I would look at Cnet reviews and PC World reviews to see which Sony is on top. But overall this camera is on the bottom of my list. I write this review not to damage the image of Canon or to hurt Amazon sales but to inform buyers into making a right choice from personal experience. I never buy anything without ever reading the reviews, they provide a world of insight that the manufacturer can't mention.

I purchased this camera as an upgrade to a 2mp Digital Elph. It was nice that the 2 batterys that I had worked, and I also now have an additional charger. Picture quality is great...a little red eye here and there, but I think that is more from my picture taking. Included software is good, but i'd recommend Picasa 2...free download from Google, for Window's users. It's as close to iPhoto that I can find for XP. Pictures developed via Walmart look spectacular. 512 mb card helps. The 128 card that I had before would only hold 50 pictures from this camera...

This is my 4th digital camera, yet is the most disappointing one to date. I'm a big fun of Olympus products, but several things led to the purchase of this one:
1. My wife just had a baby and needs an ultra-compact to carry around
2. $50 rebate from Canon with a Pixma printer purchase which I recently made
3. This camera's large CCD (1.8)
4. This camera uses inexpensive but durable CF card vs. XD card of Olympus'


Cons
Uncontrollable noisy level even at ISO 50 when shooting indoor
Heavy purple fringe aberration in most indoor shots
Small LCD (1.5")
Noisy AF operation
No battery life indicator
No scene mode
AF difficulty under low light even w/ AF laminator (AF Lock helps a little but annoying to use)

Pros
Well-constructed metal body, eye-pleasing good looks
Good color balance and saturation
Adequate flash power
Good video performance at highest setting
Good battery life

Bottom Line
If you use your camera more than 50% for indoor shooting, stay away from Canon Elph line

I ordered this camera last week and for the first time, amazon sent it via USPS. Their tracking system said that it was delivered but I never received it. I am shocked that Amazon sent such an expensive item via USPS without any kind of delivery confirmation. I am suspecting that the camera was delivered somewhere in my neighbourhood and obviously they kept it for themselves.

In the past, all my purchases were shipped via UPS and I never lost anything. Very unhappy with Amazon's shipping service...

This is an outstanding camera if you want a 5MP that you can easily take with you wherever you go. It fits into your pocket, and takes unbelievably beautiful pictures. I've also read some reviews from people who say the online FREE sites are a scam and they don't work. Well, maybe some are, but Let me tell you, the one below DOES WORK. I got mine that way, and you can to. These naysayers don't entirely know what they're talking about. Just click on the below link, complete one of the offers, and refer a few friends to do the same....it's easy. the companys are all reputable - I recommend the Video Professor offer, which won't cost you a dime if you return everything within the 10 day trial period. The Blockbuster offer is also great. Just follow the link below and you WILL get your camera FOR FREE!!!

(...)

This is a fantastic camera. Its true you can get yours free...
[...] GOOD LUCK

I bought the Canon S500 just before a trip of a lifetime earlier this year. This camera was brilliant while travelling around Australia Asia and the Middle east. The scenic photos I took came out beautifully the colours were vibrant, I couldn't complain. Ironically I make it back home with camera but that's when it all goes wrong.
The camera was knocked off a side table onto a carpet floor; the lcd screen still came up but that was about it, no photos were taken, none of the buttons to change the settings worked,you couldn't play back images or anything. Sending it off to Canon didn't help either. Although Camera was still within the warranty, it would cost a minimum of $150 (no matter what is wrong with these cameras it seems 150 bucks is the standard fee) to fix as the knock to the camera wasn't covered in the warranty. It just didn't seem worth it to pay that much to fix a camera when I could get a new one for a similar price.
Prior to owning the S500 I'd owned the S300. This camera lasted about 3 years (I upgraded to the S500 for the better megapixels and new functions) and it was not as delicate as the S500, it went all over the world and wasn't always in a camera case and operated perfectly, it's ownly fault was it was superceded by newer models. I know camera's are delicate machines but I expected the S500 to hold up a bit better than this. I hope the SD500 has had some of these kinks ironed out

[...]
MOST (the normal user) will not be disappointed! This is a cool small camera. If you want more power (7 megapixel) and a larger camera go to the Canon G6. This fits great in your pocket. The pictures are clear. Relatively easy to use. A good place to start - unless you are wanting to shell out the big bucks. I only wish it came with larger capacity memory card. But they are getting cheaper everyday. 1GB seems to be getting cheaper everyday.
[...]

B

5

0

A

2

2

I

T

This digital camera isn't really mine though. My dad bought this camera last summer and this camera is pretty cool because it was voted on TIME Magazine that this camera was one of 2004's hottest and best technology. The picture quality is good and you can zoom in as far as you want to. You can also take videos but you may need a bigger Memory card if you want to take videos and pictures together.

I have owned the Canon S500 for 7+ months now and taken over 1000 pictures. I must say that this is a highly capable camera in its class. It's neither too tiny to handle nor big enough so as not to fit in a small pocket. It has more control than a simple point & shoot camera and gives consistently high results.
The LCD though small is higher in resolution and it makes it look better than the bigger but grainier LCD's on certain Sony models.

Surely, small cameras like these are never comparable to professional ones but i would find it impractical to carry a big SLR everywhere! Pictures taken carefully (i.e. proper conditions and settings), are really capable of standing high among the results of much better cameras.

Even though there are newer, sleeker cameras with better video capabilities, I reiterate that when it comes to still picture quality, the S500 is one of the most capable in its size and resolution category.

Finally, you must always remember that a camera with (x+1) mega pixels does not necessarily offer superior quality than one with x mega pixels resolution.

I've only had the camera for a few days, but so far it's great. It's easy to use, takes beautiful pictures, and it looks good.

When i first got this camera about 5 months ago, i loved it
i even liked the little videos. AFTER 5 MONTHS I KEEP GETTING BLURRY PHOTOS. NEXT TIME I'LL BUY A FUJI CAMERA.


CATHERINE FABRIZIO

Our Canon PowerShot digital camera lens froze and with the E18 error. We rarely used the camera and kept it in perfect condition (locked up and well protected). But one day the lens would not retract, and the display only showed the error code "E18" in the lower left corner. I took out the battery and replaced the flash card with a new one, tried everything else I read about.... There is no reason why my camera should have stopped working, unless it was manufactured to do so...

My friends told me that their PowerShot camera did the same thing, so instead of sending it back and getting another that would soon give another E18 error, we decided to purchase a Sony Camera that works.

Canon should take responsibility for this!

i bought this camera after i lost my old canon s230 (3.2MP). i was going to buy the same camera but then decided to upgrade to a 5MP.

i am already familiar with this series of cameras so i wasn't expecting much of a difference, but i was in for a shock.

on my old s230 the flash wasn't very powerful and the digital zoom was never worth using since the pics would come out blurry. also it was an annoying delay when taking action shots.

the new s500 fixed all these pet peeves and i am amazed at the quality of pics. the flash range is great and you can use the digital zoom and still get great pictures. also there is a new mode that takes pics superfast so you won't miss that special moment.

definitely a great upgrade from older S-series.

This is the first digital camera I have ever purchased (I bought it for myself as an early graduation present), and I read tons of reviews before settling on this camera. This is the ideal camera for people who like to carry around a camera all the time because of its compact size, and it takes EXCELLENT pictures!

Pros: compact size but big enough to easily hold onto it, works well indoors and outdoors, flash is great, almost no delay when you press the button and when it takes the picture (a problem I noticed with other cameras), pictures come out with very high resolution even when they are cropped and enlarged, the screen on the camera moves very quickly and smoothly, you can adjust many of the modes with the buttons on the camera rather than going to the menu option (very convenient for changing the flash option quickly), the software makes it VERY easy to upload your pictures onto your computer, the battery charger is very easy and convenient to use, and the case for this camera fits like a glove if you decide to purchase it.

Cons: no battery life indicator (I solved this problem by purchasing an extra battery to carry around with me), screen is kinda small.

As you can see, the pros greatly outweigh the cons. I would highly recommend this camera to anyone. My dad is a fanatic about taking pictures (not sure what kind of Canon he has, but I think it is a Canon Digital Rebel), and the pictures I take with my camera are comparable in quality with his. I have had my camera for almost 3 months now, and I have never had any problems with it! It took perfect pictures for my prom and graduation, and all my friends were begging for copies of my pictures because they were so great. If you are debating over getting a lower megapixel (like the 4 megapixel version of this Canon), I'm sure it would also work as well as this one (especially if you are going to buy normal 4x6 prints for most of your photos), but I have never had any experience with that particular camera. Canon seems to make high quality cameras, and this particular model would be the perfect camera for anyone.

I bought this camera to replace a larger Kodak I had. I was looking for something smaller that could fit in my purse but wanted great quality pictures. I do a lot of scrapbooking, so I needed the zoom quality options.

I take this camera everywhere to capture opportune pictures so it has taken a beating and still works great. (I did accidentally drop it in a creek once and it stopped working. I contacted Canon and they fixed the camera for $75. As mentioned in a couple of other reviews I have read, they are very water sensitive.)

I have been very happy with the quality of the pictures. I have an HP Photosmart 100 and can print the pictures right off the card. Have also designed web-sites and have been able to use the pictures on them.

I bought my Canon S500 in April 2004 and have not even bothered to look over the reviews since my purchase as a result of my seeming satisfaction with this item. Well, I just returned from London where, of course, I experienced the E18 problem with associated lens retraction issues. Since I carry my camera in my pocket, I assumed that somehow I had inadvertently powered up the camera. It is only now that I realize that this is a consistent problem with the camera occurring almost 18 months to the date noted in prior reviews. Thanfully, I have an extended warranty but would be seriously upset if I had to come up with additional money to repair what is obviously an inherent manufacturer's technical issue. The seeming lack of concern on the part of Canon to address this issue easily earns this item 1 star review.

The Canon S400, S410 and S500 have all had serious reliability problems. Read the reviews on this website and you will see that many customers have had a mysterious 'memory error' and/or the lens jamming (E18 error). These problems have shown up at about 18 months on all of these models. Since Canon hasn't fixed the problem in over 3 years since it first started showing up, I wouldn't want to bet that the new SD400 camera won't also turn into a paperweight after 18 months.

Oh - I forgot to mention that Canon will 'fix' the cameras for $150. Nothing like turning a defective camera into a profit center.

I had the same experience as some of the other reviewers. Essentially, I loved my Canon PowerShot until about 18 months after I got it when it started getting memory card errors. I called Canon and they were very unresponsive. At first, I thought I was the only one with this problem until I read the other reviews. Bottom line, I would never buy another Canon product again as they have poor quality control and even poorer customer service. I am going to buy a Sony instead.

This is my second day owning this camera and it is replacing my S50 which I have been using for the past three years. The reason why I bought it was mainly because of the compact size compared to my bulky s50 and also the video mode produced better quality videos than the s50. So far I love this camera!
I have been comparing shots with the s50 and s500 and one thing that I did notice is that the LCD is of a better quality on the s50 and that would mean the images would look much better when viewing from the LCD monitor. I was able to view images that I took with the s500 on the s50 and the images from the s500 looked much sharper , clearer and superior. So I will be keeping the s500 for a long while. I also noticed a few unhappy customers that experienced error problems or LCD cracks. For those, I would recommend that you purchase the camera from a store that will issue a refund like COSTCO , this is my first choice in purchasing digital cameras because you can return it at any time whether its 1 month or 1 year from now, as long as you have the receipt. And they will issue a full refund, plus I got it $100 cheaper at costco off of the retail price.
Also in response to another reviewers concerns about speeding up the shutter speed. All you have to do is change the image capture mode to the "action" mode.
And please read all of the manual! I 'm pretty sure the error screen is appearing because the format of the av/out is not matching up correctly. You have to pick the right format befor you connect it to your tv.

The SD500 has all of the design problems that the SD300 and SD400 have. The most important problem with these cameras is that the LCD is very fragile.

The problem is so bad that Canon's warranty no longer covers the LCD.

I bought a SD400 for use on a 2 month trip to Japan. I needed something lighter and easier to carry than the various digital single lens reflex cameras that I normally use.


Two days and 123 pictures later I found that the LCD screen was not working. The camera had been exposed to normal every day handling.

Best Buy and Canon said that there is no warranty for broken or damaged LCD screens. The bottom line; "Sorry boy, you are SOL."

I have used Canon cameras for over 50 years but this experience has, at long last, cured my addiction to Canon.

This camera is a Power Shot SD 400 Digital ELPH, Serial # 0723361903.

If any one is interested, I can get you a deal on an attractive paper weight.

[...]

I took this camera to central europe last month and it was good while it worked. I dropped it from 3 feet and the mode switch stopped working. I couldnt preview / edit or delete pictures any more- I sent it to canon and they wanted to charge me $125 to repair it. I know it was my fault for dropping it but - shouldnt a camera be dropped once or twice without an important switch becoming useless?

Stay away from Canon, many people are having the same problem with the s400 memory card error and canon won't recall it. Instead they are charging people lots of money to fix it. Look for yourself if you like. Attached is my correspondence:

To whom it may concern,

I have the Canon Powershot S400 and I have been getting the Memory Card Error since it was less than a year old. I was under the impression that it was the card itself but after I purchased a new card I kept getting the error.

Upon research I have found many other people that have had the same problem and Canon is not backing up their product, this is obviously a defect and should be taken care of at no expense to the consumer.

I spent over $500.00 on this camera and I expect it to work. I would like this camera repaired or replaced at no expense to me, if you choose not to support this I will be happy to rally all of the people I can and file a class action suit against Canon for faulty products.

I have enclosed just a few of the many unhappy people so please do not insult my intelligence and tell me this is the first you've heard of it.

I will await your prompt response.

Keith Williams

Phoenix, AZ.


Dear Mr. Keith Williams,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your PowerShot S400.

I regret that your S400 needs service despite the fact that it is relatively new. Unfortunately, no matter how well made or how well treated a product may be, there is always a chance that it will need service. That is why we offer multiple support options for products in-warranty or out-of-warranty. In the case of an out-of-warranty S400 we offer the Flat Rate Repair and PowerShot Upgrade Programs, both of which were developed from customer feedback. There is a charge for both of these programs - I am sorry for any dissatisfaction this causes.

I can understand why you would have misgivings, but I must caution you against relying on information that may not be credible. The fact is that the S400 is a successful and robust design as witnessed not only by its excellent sales but also by the service data we have collected since it was introduced two and one half years ago. Another fact is that Canon has an excellent reputation for a reason. We use our service data and we constantly review our products and processes to identify opportunities for improvement. If we find a problem we will act proactively and appropriately. Examples of this are two different programs related to service notices we published on our website in the past few months. In both programs we are servicing the related models at no cost no matter the warranty status. Further, we are refunding customers who paid for related service in the past. This is how we have always conducted our business and it is how we intend to continue to do so.

I hope that my responsiveness demonstrates our commitment to your satisfaction. I also hope that the information I provide reassures you.
If I can offer any further help, you are welcome to call my toll free telephone number, 866-865-7815, extension 2569.

Sincerely,
Brian Stout
Canon Customer Relations

Once again... the memory card error is showing up, although I have not dropped the camera or done anything that would cause damage. This is the second time this happened. the first time I had it repaired with Cannon and this time I am just fed up! NO MORE CANNONS FOR ME... It's ridiculous that the same thing keeps happening for me and so many others yet they want to charge us $150.00 each time just to repair it.

While the camera worked it took great pictures.

8 Days after I purchased it, however, the LCD screen no longer functioned at all - it just showed strange colors, but no images (in both the shooting and viewing modes). I can not link the problem to any event (I did not drop it, etc., I handled it carefully). I brought the camera back to the retailer who said I must have placed too much pressure on the screen and so it's my fault. I am about to send it in for warranty repair, but from what other reviewers suggest, Canon will NOT repair it for free. I had a Pentax Optio for over 3 years and I never had this problem. I do NOT recommend this camera.

If only I had known about this error before getting the camera! I received this error while on vacation several weeks ago and it rendered the camera useless. Do a search of the internet on this issue prior to purchasing. This issue has come up on several of Canon's point and shoot models and their is currently a class action lawsuit being investigated by a California based law firm.

Don't buy this camera!!! Prone to "Memory Error" & E18 errors after warranty is up. Cost min $150 plus shipping to fix.

This camera was great until 23 months went by then I started mysteriously losing pictures due to file format errors. I switched memory cards and it happened again. Then the "memory error" displayed after a month or so of losing pictures. Now it doesn't work at all. I called canon to see what type of service could be provided and if they would fix what appears to be a factory defect since so many people have reported this problem. Minimum cost is $150 or I could upgrade to a refurb S500 for $199 w/6 month warranty. They have to be kidding, $250 get me a new one. For what appears to be common problem I was expecting more from canon. Guess I won't be buying another canon.

Google this "Canon "Memory Error" E18" and see for yourself that Canon cameras have problems.

After owning three other Canon cameras I am through with Canon. All my other cameras were fine. This cameras LCD broke within the first month of normal use. Never dropped! All of my other Digital cameras held up for years. Ive had two powershot s50s 1 lost and 1 stolen. Never had a problem and those were both dropped numbers of times.

This is a product defect/design flaw and Canon will not cover it under warranty. $150.00 to get it repaired and It will happen again, or you may start getting the E18 errors. This is a expensive paperweight!

Poor design. Very dissapointed. I will never buy another Canon product again.

I purchased the canon powershot s500 digital elph last March. I kept getting blurry pictures so I called Canon technical support. They went through the whole procedure to make sure my camera was all set up. Well I followed their directions but everything was the way it should have been. So they said I should send it in because there was obviously a problem with it. Then I sent it in and had to pay for the shipping there. They sent it back and said they had switched out some optical thing. Well I just finally went to get my pictures developed and they all have the same problem. They never fixed the problem. Mind you this was the approximately 9 months of my son's life before the age of 2. I called tech support and ended up having to wait more than 24 hours for a call back from a supervisor. She said they would send me pre paid envelope to check out the camera. Well I was greatful and had to tell her that during babysitting in late August a little boy had dropped my camera so there was damage to the outside part of the camera, but it did not effect the quality of the pictures because they were the same as prior to the day it was dropped. She said that they would probably not cover it due to the fact that it might have been caused by the dropped camera. I told I have proof of when it happened and that the pictures prior to that date are coming in blurry just like it was before I sent it in the first time. I started to cry that my son's 9 months are all ruined and she was practically laughing when I got off the phone. The camera is worse than a disposable camera. Don't waste your time or money on this piece of junk. I recommend Olympus. My Olympus prior to this was only 3 megapixels and was better quality than this piece of junk. I am planning on contacting the Better Business Bureau regarding this matter. Please don't waste your time on this, like I have to! I hope this helps people make better choices! Good luck! I wish someone could have forecasted this for me!

I needed to replace a lost S4oo we had for about a year. Looked at the SD series and thought them too small for comfort. There is such a thing as too thin to handle comfortably. The S500 is, like the S400, just right in size. Big area on back for thumb so you an even one-hand hold it. Try that with any SD. Pictures are excellent for a hand-held. Not Nikon N70 film SLR good, but plenty good enough for any snapshot purpose. Bought one of last new S500's available at NewEgg abd very, very happy with it.

1 year old... 3 e18 errors 2 battery erros shipped back for service 4 times! search the net for e18 before you buy!

This was my first digital camera that I have ever bought, and I am completely satisfied with it. Talk abt the resolution or the camera's feature. All of it is packed into one small sleek camera. I recommend this digital camera to everybody. And I would say if I would decided later in future to get another one. I would alwayz go for Canon. They are the best in making Digital Cameras.

The Canon is more powerful, more compact, easier to operate, takes better pictures, has more flexible storage, doesn't cost any more than the older weaker cameras I have owned.

The things that impressed me most were a) the giant bright and vivid screen, nice enough to show the photos to your friends without any other electronic device, b) the quick response time (no irritating delay), c) the quality of the digital movies you can take with this (they are short but full-speed). I've dispensed with my camcorder altogether in favor of the Canon's fully satisfactory performance.

I have owned digital cameras for almost a decade, but this one is so far advanced over my previous ones in convenience and quality that it leaves me feeling like some old fellow who grew up riding horses getting a ride in his first horseless carriage. It's really a pleasure to own.

After just over a year, my lens jammed and the display read "e18". So I was pretty upset to discover that this is an extremely common defect - and a defect that Canon refuses to admit. Try Googling Canon S500 e18", and you'll see what I meant.

Don't buy it unless you want a very expensive paperweight.

I have known Canon to be a very high quality company. However, I was deeply shocked and disappointed to find that this camera fails to meet the expectations I had about this camera. A few years ago I bought the Fujiffilm 3800. I loved this camera but after a few ski trips I found it rather bulky. I then bought the Canon S500 becaus of its small size and after many good reviews about the S400. For most of the pictures I take on a ski trip this camera is fine. However, if you are taking pictures other than outdoors in the daytime, this camera is worse than a disposable camera. First, there is no red-eye reduction. It simply does not work when I set it to take flash with red-eye reduction. Second, pictures taken at dusk or dawn come out blurry. I would speculate that the shutter speed is way too slow and you would need a tripod. Third, night picture?....Forget about it. I tried to get a beatiful picture of the Chicago skyline but the picture was underexposed. So, I tried the manual mode and played with the exposure settings and I could not get a setting that would produce non-blurry pictures. Looks like I'll be back in the market for a Fujifilm. After all the reviews I've read, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop (E18, LCD, etc.). Not to mention the terrible service that I have been reading about.

Over 90% of pictures I took by this Canon are blurry. No way can you fix it. I really got fed up with it. Waist your money. Waist your time. More important, waist your precious moments!

I'm surprised to see that a lot of people only give 1* to this camera! I've had it for 2 years now and i just love it! Thanks to it, I discovered I had a real passion for photography... It's very easy to use and my pictures are great! When I show them, people usually tell me " you must have an expensive camera"... and i just show them my little Canon S500 and they are surprised with the result!
I'm just loving it!

A birthday gift for my daughter. Lots of great digital pictures were the result! Great quality pictures, the only minor problem was a loose on/off knob. It still works but requires more attention than it should. But still takes super quality pics....

The size of the camera allows you to even carry in jeans pant pocket, which is impossible in A-series. Image stabilization is very good, pic quality is good even when traveling in car. The flash is pretty powerful. This is the best cannon camera for all those people who want to keep the camera in pockets and not in bag or hand.

I received this camera as a gift three years ago and it has served me well. It is easy to use and takes high quality pictures. It tends not to want to take the picture unless the image is in focus, which I love. And I have never experienced an E18 error. I also love the video feature and have captured some great moments on it (works better with a larger memory card).

My complaint is that it does take a long time to power on which can be annoying when youre trying to quickly snap a picture of something that is happening right at that moment.

As time has gone on, the power on has taken longer than it did in the beginning, and it takes a REALLY long time (10 seconds-ish) to switch back from play mode to snap mode. And sometimes it will just shut itself down when I go from play to snap mode, even with a full battery.

I am assuming that these faults have come with the aging of the camera and that my beloved first digital camera is slowly dying. It really has served me well for these 3 years but now it is starting to malfunction, and repairs are not cheap! (I dropped it while at the circus recently and the panoramic,b&w and video functions stopped working and I was told it would cost a minimum of $134 to fix it.)

This Camera was my primary camera until I bought the DSC-S700. This Camera Takes great Outdoor pics but so far as indoor pics there is much to be desired. I gives this a 1 star since that any camera that you pay for should take ALL pics Good regardless if it is indoors or out.

I got this camera about 4 years ago, and I just lost it/got it stolen so in a way, this is a tribute to it..

So, it goes to say that this camera definitely lasted me a long time. I loved the digital zoom [which I used constantly since it came in great use during concerts, shows and for small things I want to capture out in the distance] and the image size of my pictures [and resolution] when I uploaded my pictures on my computer. It always made me look normal- some of my friend's cameras just made people look weirdly colored or not as clear, but mine always shone through. Even when all the new, slimmer, touch-screen cameras came out, I thought of getting a new one but I always loved my camera and I used it a lot. Yes, it was bulky and yet it never prompted people to say, "WOW, let me see your camera!", but I loved it. The only thing that did annoy me a little was the time that it took to start up and stuff- I missed some good moments because of it. And its video recording format is really limited [I think it had a time limit and you can't zoom while filming? I think.] But overall, I loved it and I miss it. Go Canon!!

This was my first digital camera that I received back in 2004 - and only now do I see it failing on me (there are lines that look like scratches that are probably produced on the image due to worn out card reading mechanism). I also own a Canon EOS Rebel 35mm camera and will say Canon is the brand to go with.

I would buy the s500 for any really young person today trying to learn digital photography...and not paying much for it. Yes, it doesn't look as fancy as the new ones, but my photos have been amazing quality in the highest resolution modes using manual mode. [...]

The only thing that has been upgraded over the years with all the cameras has been the size of the LCD screen - which I've gotten used to. Yes it's about half as small as a standard cellphone screen nowadays.

The boxy size of it fits in all jeans pockets and small purses.
It does video too and is one of the old-fashioned digital cameras compared to today.
I was a 35mm experienced photographer when I began using it for candid shots and was not disappointed due to the ability to control a lot of the functions.

Also it uses the old style compact flash cards as memory, which are bigger, as are the rectangle batteries, but it's very compact made as a whole. Best quality are the photos!