A nifty little five-megapixel beauty encased in brushed stainless steel, the Canon digital Ixus 500 takes good quality pictures effortlessly.
This latest model sports the popular Ixus series' sleek, pocket-sized chassis. At just 228 grams, it feels solid and well-built. However, competition in the ultracompact digital camera market has pulled ahead in terms of features and performance and the Ixus 500, while a good camera, ends up being a safe choice but not an outstanding one.
A simple snapper, the Ixus 500's 3x zoom lens has a fast maximum aperture of F2.8 to F4.9. Light sensitivity is either automatic or manual, and there is a choice of evaluative, centre-weighted or spotlight metering. For white balance, there is an automatic option, five presets and manual control.
Start-up takes under five seconds but switching between camera and playback modes is slow. At 1.5 inches, the liquid crystal display is too small. However, it does show the whole scene and is sharp and easy to use outdoors.
The new Canon can capture jpeg photos at four resolutions and three compression levels, as well as 30-second clips of 640x480 pixels and 10-frame-per-second mpeg video with sound. The video function is especially disappointing as most cameras in this class can capture at least 15 to 30 frames per second mpeg video.
For an entry-level camera, the Ixus 500 more than meets the mark. But do not look for state-of-the-art snapshot features here. No contextual help menus, no composition guidelines and scene program modes. Even the cheaper, no-frills Casio QV-R51 has slightly more features but can't quite produce such good colours. The 500's pictures are attractive, detailed and rich in colour, though skin tones tend to be too orangey.