Canon PowerShot SX500 is 16.0 MP Digital Camera with 30x Wide-Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Black) (Old Model)

This was a gift for my kid. We had to go with used because momma can’t afford a brand new one. The kid loves it! Takes great pictures and we have an adapter to put them on her phone for easy sharing. The battery is holding up and love that it came with the memory card. Still figuring out the settings but that’s part of the fun.

I got the SX500 IS as an upgrade from my 8 year old Lumix, not wanting to go full DSLR, but maybe something in between. Portable, inexpensive, yet with a high optical zoom and good image stability. There are undoubtedly other models with better features that take higher quality pictures, including Canon's own SX50, but none for under $200 that I could find. Checking on reviews at various sites also led me to believe the SX500 IS was at least comparable, and usually better than the other 30x "ultra" zoom cameras.After playing around with it a few days, mostly on the Auto setting, I'm very happy with the optical zoom and the image stability you get at 30x, better than I got with the Lumix at 10x. Macro shots at an inch or less look great, at least in good light. Low light shots get very grainy as the ISO kicks up to 800 very quickly so I'll be playing with the manual settings more there. Tons of those settings that I'll have to really study--as another review pointed out, this isn't a beginner's camera, but then I didn't want one and am willing to dive into the details a bit.Possible cons: movies are "only" at 720, but look plenty good (for 1080, maybe consider the SX50?). The aperture speed was rated low for this camera at just under 1 sec. Haven't taken any high speed shots yet, say a bird in flight, so I can't comment on it yet. The battery life is also supposedly short, but I always get a spare (2 for $15). My maybe biggest gripe is the awkward shape, which is to say the lens is very long, so the camera is very boxy. I don't want to get yet another dedicated camera bag, and it doesn't fit into any of my laptop backpacks or satchels very well. It's not a big camera, it's just not very flat in any 2 dimensions, so just... awkward.All in all, this was a fantastic value, and hopefully a gateway into better photography. I'll update this review after delving more into the finer points of the camera.Update (9/3/2013): I see the price has gone up past $250, and the "super zooms" have gone to 50X. Having done some sports stadium shooting from the back fence to full zoom on the field, I can capture closeups of plays, even fastballs leaving the pitcher's hand from 200-300ft away, so I'm more than happy with 30X, and the stability is very impressive, at least in full daylight (perfect conditions). Still need to test at, say, nighttime concerts, but I still think this is an excellent value, even in the $250 range, and a steal for under $200.

This camera is definitely a great value. But if you are a photography purist, don't even waste your time with this product. First of all, if you're such a purist, you shouldn't even be looking in this price range. Move up to the Rebel 70D, and don't try to impress the masses with your higher than average expectations not being met by a camera that costs less than the lens of a Rebel 70D. That being said, you will get satisfactory pictures, if you are a being a tourist, attending a party, or out with the family. This isn't a camera that will photograph a still hummingbird, and it will not give you good, large format, poster-quality pictures either. First of all, it adds lots of fake color pixels, which become visible once you zoom in to your pictures on your computer. The quality of the image is also not the best, as the images can look rather grainy when you expand them to their correct size on your screen. What do you get then? Well, you get beautiful 5x7 album pictures, and you might even get a decent 11x17 small poster. Beyond that, you should not consider this camera as an option. If you're going to a hockey game, you might also want to steer clear from this camera. Especially in auto mode, the camera takes up to three full seconds to focus and shoot a picture. Even in TV mode where you are supposedly in control of the shutter speed, it is very slow to react. This is not the best camera for a sporting event, that's for sure. Also, make sure you purchase a memory card, as the camera does not have one included. The camera will perform very well in low light conditions, and it has a very decent zoom for a camera this small. Speaking of small, this camera will not fit in your pockets. But it is small enough that it didn't bother me to carry it on my hand.Overall I give the camera a 4 star rating, mostly because in its native image mode of 4608x3456 pixels, the images appear slightly blurred. That's because the actual resolution of this camera is rather low, 180 dots-per-inch. For the kind of money you'll be spending, you will be able to keep beautiful, natural-colored, and vivid album pictures. And that's OK with me if you're just being a tourist, and you'd rather not get whacked in the head over a Leica, or regretting for a long time that your children forgot your EOS 5D Mark III in a bathroom stall.