Canon PowerShot SX500IS 16MP 30x Optical Zoom Digital Camera - Black

I'm an amature photographer. Took photography classes in college. This is my 2nd digital camera. I am on a budget, but I needed to upgrade my camera since I love to travel. Took this camera with me to Big Bear, CA. The pictures were incredible. The battery life is good, I did buy 2 additional batteries as spares for out in the field. I also used a 32GB Memory card & I adjusted the pixels for my photos to be larger so I could print them as needed. On average I took 125 pictures, before I needed to replace the battery. No flash on any of the pics. I use Picsa to upload the pic. I have to say, this camera performed incredibly. Highly recommend it.

I've been using a point and shoot for years,(Olympus), but it finally died, then bought this Canon-big mistake! I read about it and others thinking Canon name, features looked good etc., but the truth is I got old waiting for the camera to actually take the pic! I've been included in a juried art show with my photos, so it's not me. Out of 60 photos and a lot of time taken, just shooting one after the other, I only had about 5 that were sharp, in focus-even on auto, or worth keeping. This camera is going out the door to a "regift" shop for sale. I'm back to finding a point and shoot that means it.

Overall it is a great camera for travel, light and easy to stow away. The zooming capabilities is great. It is easy to operate. I use the video mostly for sports events. Taking pictures are great. It only lacks the speed on shooting after shooting pictures.

Very good camera, very good zoom, Great in daylight!!

My last camera was the Canon Powershot S1IS which was a great camera. When it stop working and eventually lost, I decided on another Canon camera since the previous one had excellent features and picture quality. I am so happy that I got the PowerShot SX500. The zoom range is great, the picture quality has true to life colors, high mega pixels. If you like to study photography, but don't have the budget for a DSLR, this is a great option. It has a manual option so that you can experiment with f-stop, ISO, etc. When you are on vacation or other outing and you want quick snapshots and not have to think about settings, then switch to auto and its a great point and shoot camera. It also has image stabilization which is a great feature if your hands are not perfectly steady. The only con with this camera is that it does not have the flip-out screen which is very convenient when you want to take photos over the heads of a crowd, etc and the other con is when it is set to auto and the flash is needed, the flash does not automatically pop up, you have to manually lift it. It took me a little bit to realize that since I was use to it popping up on my old camera. Those cons are not deal breakers to me, but are nice if you have it. I still give the camera 5 stars since all of the must-have features are included. A nice surprise was that the battery charger is included. I had to buy one with the old camera. Although the battery is included, it's a good idea to buy a 2nd one for back-up while the 1st one is recharging.