Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

Apr 13, 2005 - By Emily Raymond
Canon added the 7.1-megapixel PowerShot SD500 to its Digital ELPH line in February, 2005. The new model again expresses Canon’s ELPH-line philosophy of excellent imaging in small packaging; the SD500 has a 1/1.8-inch CCD with 7.4 total megapixels and a Canon Digic II image processor housed in its thin, 6-ounce durable plastic body. Canon engineers departed from the sharp, linear ELPH aesthetic, opting for a more fluid styling, dubbed the “Perpetual Curve Design.” The compact camera boasts a 3x optical zoom lens and 2-inch LCD screen and retails for a bold $499.99 (USD). The PowerShot SD500 relies on a hefty selection of automatic and preset options. It does add a few manual controls, but it is still likely to disappoint manual photographers without the inclusion of aperture and shutter speed controls. Nevertheless, this Digital ELPH packs a lot of power into its sleek steel-colored, compact body and should be a popular model in the compact high-resolution camera segment this year.
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Viewfinder (4.0)
The Canon PowerShot SD500 has a real image optical viewfinder that looks circular from the outside, but contains a rectangular frame within the window. The optical viewfinder zooms along with the lens and provides a decent view of the subject. It is not completely accurate, but is better than most optical viewfinders on compact models, though the viewfinder itself is significantly smaller. When users frame a tall person in the viewfinder, they can cut off the person’s shins and feet and still get a print of a full person. The viewfinder cuts the view a little from the sides as well as the bottom , but not from the top.

LCD Screen (7.0)
The 2-inch LCD screen is very responsive, but with 118,000 pixels, images are not as clear as they should be. The low-temperature polycrystalline silicon LCD screen boasts 100 percent coverage, so photographers can always be sure their subjects are framed properly. The brightness of the screen can be adjusted in the setup menu. 14 steps of brightness provide users with a range versatile enough for indoor and outdoor shooting. The only point of contention here is the quality of the displayed image — if users don’t mind a pixillated rendering of the shot, the LCD screen should do.


Flash (8.0)
With a small built-in flash, the SD500 has a nice range of modes: Auto, Auto with Red-Eye Reduction, Flash On with Red-Eye Reduction, Flash On, Flash Off, and Slow Sync. The flash lights subjects from 1.6-16.4 feet away, which extends a bit farther than many compact digital cameras. The flash also works in macro mode, illuminating subjects from 1-1.6 feet, although the burst of light casts thick, dark shadows that are uncontrollable. The result is a high-contrast exposure with dark blacks and extremely washed out highlights.

Zoom Lens (7.0)
An all-glass 7.7-23.1mm optical zoom lens, which is equivalent to a 37-111mm lens in 35mm format, graces the front of this Digital ELPH. This 3x zoom lens comes with an additional 4x digital zoom, which should be avoided (all digital zooms deteriorate image quality). In the normal shooting mode, the lens focuses from 1.6 feet to infinity. In macro mode, the lens focuses as close as 2 inches and as far as 1.6 ft. With two variable aperture settings from f/2.8 in wide and f/4.9 in telephoto, the lens actually makes a clicking noise when switching between smaller and larger openings. The clicking within the lens is accompanied by a dramatic change of lighting that can be seen on the LCD screen.

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