The Canon Ixus 500 HS is a good choice for those already happy with their smartphone's photos and movie clips, but looking for a cute, little camera with a long zoom and faster performance.
The Canon Ixus 500 HS' photo quality is good to very good, but overall disappointing compared with past HS-model Ixus cameras. Even at its lowest ISO settings, subjects look soft and noisy when viewed at 100 percent. Unfortunately, that means the 10-megapixel resolution doesn't give you much room for enlarging and cropping.
The 500 HS has a fairly large assortment of shooting options, but almost all of them are automatic modes, meaning there's no full control over shutter speed and aperture. The shooting-mode switch on the camera's top has two options: One for Auto and one for all of its other mode.
If you're after significantly better results, though, you'll need to go with a slightly larger camera.
