The Canon PowerShot SD500 Digital ELPH was unveiled as excuse of Canon's rolling ranging digital camera announcements at this year's Photo Marketing Association tradeshow. The Canon SD500 is a accumulation adore an SD-card based fiction of the prior PowerShot S500 character Canon's popular, babyish Digital ELPH camera line. The Canon SD500 also SD400 models both propose extremely unusual (and frankly, rather cool) "My Color" modes that allow you to selectively replace any color in your photo with a different one, or to make the image black and white with the exception of a single color. The PowerShot SD500 is described by Canon as having a "Perpetual Curve Design" - subtle curves on the camera body help it fit the hand comfortably. Other features include a very high resolution 7.1 mega pixel CCD imager, big 2 inch LCD, and use of the (very fast) Canon DiGIC II processor. Overall, one of the more appealing subcompact dig cams we've seen to date: Read on for all the details.
Almost the analogous size in that the predecessor PowerShot S500 model, the added Canon PowerShot SD500 personality the first-rate looks further sour create that are a no men of Canon's ELPH cameras. Canon refers to the SD500 thanks to having "Perpetual Curve Design", which basically means that there are few flat surfaces or right-angled corners on the camera body - it has a very smooth, comfortable feel in your hands. Very compact and quick on the draw (thanks to a smoothly operating retractable lens design), the Canon SD500 is a convenient point-and-shoot digital camera with a handful of extra exposure features for added flexibility, including a few features that you might not use every day, but that add some "wow" factor. With the lens retracted, the Canon SD500's front panel is smooth and pocket friendly and its all-metal body rugged and durable (although it will show scratches, so expect to buy a soft case if this concerns you). Equipped with a 7.1-megapixel CCD, the Canon SD500 captures high quality images, suitable for making sharp prints as large as 11x17 inches, or 8x10 inches with some cropping. Smaller image sizes are also available for email transmission or Web applications, and a movie mode captures video clips with sound.
The Canon SD500 drifts a 3x, 7.7-23.1mm surge lens, statue to a 37-111mm whiz on a 35mm camera. Aperture is automatically controlled, but the greatest longitude ranges from f/2.8 at roomy unburdened angle to f/4.9 at monster telephoto. A maximum 4x digital zoom option increases the SD500's zoom capability to 12x, but keep in mind that digital zooms decreases the overall image quality, because it simply crops out and enlarges the center pixels of the CCD's image. Image details are thus likely to be softer when using digital zoom. Focus ranges from 1.6 feet (50 centimeters) to infinity in normal AF mode, and from 2.0 inches to 1.6 feet (5 to 50 centimeters) in Macro mode. Since the digital zoom only normally functions once the optical zoom has reached its telephoto setting, but macro focusing is closest at the wide-angle setting, a Digital Macro mode allows use of the digital zoom with the lens locked at wide angle. As with the regular digital zoom, this is obviously with a decrease in overall image quality. An Infinity fixed-focus mode is also available. The Canon SD500 employs a sophisticated, nine-point AiAF (Artificial Intelligence Autofocus) system to determine focus, which uses a broad active area in the center of the image to calculate the focal distance (a feature I've been impressed with on many ELPH models and have been happy to see continued). Through the Record menu, you can turn AiAF off, which defaults the auto focus area to the center of the frame. Also built-in to the SD500 is an AF assist light - a very bright orange LED - which aids the focus mechanism in low light when it's enabled via a menu option. For composing images, the SD500 offers a real-image optical viewfinder, as well as a large 2.0-inch color LCD monitor. The LCD reports a fair amount of camera information, but excludes exposure information such as aperture and shutter speed. In Playback mode, a histogram display reports the tonal distribution of a captured image, useful in determining any over- or under-exposure.
Basic Marks
• 7.1-megapixel CCD.
• Real-image optical viewfinder.
• 2.0-inch color TFT LCD monitor.
• 3x, 7.7-23.1mm lens, equivalent to a 37-111mm lens on a 35mm camera.
• Maximum 4x digital zoom.
• Automatic exposure control, with Long Shutter mode for longer exposures.
• Shutter speeds from 1/2,000 to 15 seconds.
• Maximum aperture of f/2.8 to f/4.9, depending on lens zoom position.
• Built-in flash with five modes.
• SD memory card storage, 32MB card included.
• Power supplied by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack (charger included) or optional AC adapter kit.
• Canon Digital Camera Solution Software v23.0 with Arc Soft Photo Studio 4.3, and USB drivers included for both Windows and Mac platforms.
• Print/Share button.
Special Marks
• Movie mode with sound. (Up to 640x480 pixels, at up to 30 frames/second.)
• Fast Frame Rate movie mode with sound, for 60 frames/second capture at 320x240 pixels, one-minute maximum recording time.)
• Continuous Shooting mode.
• Stitch-Assist panorama mode.
• Infinity and Macro focus modes plus "Digital Macro" mode.
• Customizable "My Camera" settings.
• Two- or 10-second Self-Timer for delayed shutter release, plus custom timer with multi-shot feature.
• Sound Memo option for recording captions.
• Spot, Center-Weighted, and Evaluative exposure metering.
• White balance (color) adjustment with seven modes, including a Custom setting.
• Photo Effect and My Colors menus for color adjustment.
• Unusual Color Accent and Color Swap features for special effects in still images or movies
• Adjustable ISO setting.
• DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) and Partridge compatibility.
• USB cable for connection to a computer (driver software included).
• A/V cable for connection to a television set.
