PowerShot ELPH 520 HS First Impressions Review

Conclusion

The PowerShot ELPH 510 HS was a fine camera and the 520 HS seems to be a great...update?

Wait. What exactly did we update here? Sure, a few minor features have been amped up. More picture effects, scene modes, the all-important DIGIC 5 image processor, and of course the touchscreen interface has finally been abandoned. But we also get a smaller sensor, slower burst mode, identical optical zoom, and less megapixel resolution.

What happened?!

According to Canon, many of these decisions were made to achieve a smaller, lighter form factor. It's true, the 520 HS is nice and small, and Canon claims general interface responsiveness has been improved by 16% thanks to the DIGIC 5.

This is going to be one of those situations where we cannot make any kind of recommendation, even a vague one, without getting the camera in the lab. Image quality alone is certain to dictate the value of this camera, since we know the feature set and hardware package won't. We're dying to give the 520 HS our full review treatment, if only to solve the Mystery of the Shrinking Spec Sheet.