Introduction

Ease of Use

The diminutive Canon IXUS 500 HS is very stylishly designed, harking back to the classic rectangular styling of previous IXUS models. The IXUS 500's faceplate is an exercise in cool minimalism, its slightly textured surface broken only by the mirrored circular detailing of the lens surround, a tiny round window for the AF assist/self timer lamp above the lens, even smaller holes for the stereo microphone and speaker, and to the right of the lens a narrow sliver of a window for the on-board flash. As this is positioned at the far right edge of the faceplate, it does tend to fall prey to being obscured by your fingertips when gripping the camera with both hands to take a shot.

Weighing a mere 155g with the slim battery and tiny microSD memory card fitted and measuring just 19.2mm thick, the IXUS 500 HS slots comfortably into the palm of your hand. As its lens is internally stacked, it only protrudes from the body when the camera is in use, thus it can be easily stored in a trouser pocket between shots. Build quality is excellent, with a mix of mainly metal body and plastic buttons, controls and port covers. Like its other IXUS siblings, there's very little on the 500 HS to get a firm grip on, except five slightly raised dots on the right of the camera back that provides a small degree of purchase for your thumb.

The IXUS 500 HS' modest 10-megapixel CMOS sensor once again indicates that Canon is continuing to call a halt to the race for more megapixels in preference to improving said sensor's ability to perform better at higher ISO settings. The 12x lens is a real highlight on such a small and relatively slim camera, providing enough reach to take close-up sport and action shots, with the 28mm wide-crucially as wide as most rivals. It can also be digitally extended to 21x with the ZoomPlus option. The optically stabilized zoom provides a 3.5 stop advantage, very welcome given the 336mm maximum zoom setting, while the Intelligent IS system analyses the focal length, focal distance and type of camera movement and applies the most appropriate mode from seven possible settings.

The IXUS 500 HS has a large 3 inch LCD screen in the regular 4:3 format. The resolution of the LCD is a welcome 461k dots, and it's perfectly visible in all but the brightest sunlight. If you turn the IXUS 500 through 90° to shoot in portrait fashion, the images automatically orientate themselves when played back.

An operational feature shared with most recent IXUS offerings is Smart Auto with Scene Detection technology. This is Canon's version of other manufacturer's intelligent auto mode, whereby the user points the camera at a scene or subject and the IXUS 500 HS recognizes it and adjusts its settings accordingly to deliver optimal results with minimum user input. For example, if you point the lens at a close object the camera will switch to macro mode automatically, now detecting up to 58 scene types and choosing the most appropriate one, which is a lot more intuitive and reliable than trying to choose the correct mode yourself.

Front	Rear

Further hand-holding features include face detection, auto red eye removal, blink detection - flagging up the fact that your subject has their eyes closed so you can take a replacement shot at the time - and the Smart Shutter mode. This lets you take a picture simply by either winking or smiling at the camera, or when another person enters the frame. Face ID registers up to 12 faces, automatically focuses on them, then tags images with their names in playback. The Face Self-Timer option sets the camera to shoot automatically when it detects a new face appearing in the frame, useful for including the photographer in a group shot. The Smart Flash Exposure mode intelligently adjusts the built-in flash so that it doesn't overpower the main subject.

Photos are recorded to removable microSD media - there's no internal memory to fall back on and no cards are supplied in the box. The IXUS 500 offers an intuitive menu system for beginners thanks to the 'hints and tips' text that pops up when the user alights on a particular setting. More experienced users can deactivate this feature via the menus should it start to prove tiresome. ISO 100 through 3200 is selectable in Program mode, and among the 22 shooting modes is a Low Light mode that boosts the ISO to 6400 equivalent, albeit with a reduction in image size to 2.5 megapixels. The Handheld Night Scene mode combines several shots into one sharp and optimally-exposed image.

The IXUS 500 features the new Digic 5 processor 'under the hood' to keep things zipping along, with continuous shooting offered at a fairly snappy 2.8 frames per second at full resolution. If that isn't fast enough for you, the High Speed scene mode increases the burst speed to an impressive 6.8fps, albeit with a reduction in image size to just 2.5 megapixels.

There's the ability to record high definition 16:9 widescreen ratio movie clips at Full 1080p 1920 x 1280 pixels resolution at 24 frames per second with stereo sound in the Mov format (H.264 compression level). There are also 1280 x 720 and 640 x 480 modes at 30 fps. A side mounted HDMI port is provided for hooking the camera up directly to a compatible device. You can also use the 12x optical zoom complete with image stabilizer when shooting movies, and thanks to the lens’ quiet drive system there's less audio interference when zooming than on other compacts. Unfortunately the zoom moves much more slowly during movies than when shooting a still image, seemingly the price you have to pay for the reduction in noise levels.

The Dynamic Image Stabilizer helps to reduce camera shake when recording your movies. A novel feature is the ability to capture movie footage at 240fps and then play it back at a much slower 30fps via the Super Slow Motion Movie mode, although only at a rather meagre 320x240 pixel size. Smart Auto with Scene Detection technology is also available in the Movie mode, identifying the scene from 21 different options and adjusting its settings accordingly. There's also a creative Miniature Mode for still images and movies too, shooting footage at a slower frame rate and blurring parts of the image to make the subject look like small-scale models. The Movie Digest mode records the four seconds preceding each still image and combines all the clips from one day into a 720p HD video clip.

Front	Top

The top plate of the IXUS 500 HS features a band into which the operational buttons are recessed. There's a two setting slider switch for alternating between Smart Auto capture and Camera recording modes, a Playback button and an On/Off button. The main shutter release button is round, large, springy and obvious, encircled by a responsive zoom control lever with just the merest suggestion of a lip at the front for catching the forefinger.

Press down on the On/Off button and the IXUS 500 HS powers-up quickly in just over a second, the rear LCD bursting into life with a brief flash of the Canon HS logo before reproducing the scene before the lens, which extends to the 28mm wide-angle setting ready for the first image capture. A twist of the zoom lever and the lens powers through its focal range to maximum telephoto in just over three seconds, the transition smooth and steady. Take a shot in the regular single capture mode and the camera commits a full resolution JPEG to memory in around one second.

In the absence of an optical viewfinder the IXUS 500 HS's backplate is dominated by the previously mentioned 3-inch LCD, with 7 other rather small controls positioned to the right. A one-touch Movie Record button is logically located just under where your right thumb naturally grips the camera.

Underneath that are five buttons which effectively replicate the command/dial scroll wheel that most compacts have. It's here that alterations can be made to exposure compensation, flash settings (auto, on, slow synchro, off, with the additional ability to implement automatic red eye reduction via the on-board menu folders), turning the display info on or off, which includes - in playback mode - bringing up capture details including, date, time, resolution and a histogram, and setting the auto-focus mode including normal, close up (to 1cm from a subject) or infinity. Unusually there's no manual focus mode, which will disappoint those looking for finer control than the AF system offers.

Any changes to the status quo are naturally effected with a press of the Function/Set button. While this simplifies the camera's external controls and provides room for the larger LCD screen, it does make the IXUS 500 HS a touch more difficult to operate, particularly if you're in a hurry. For example, we'd have liked Canon to have found room for a dedicated delete button somewhere on the camera back. As it is, no less than five button presses are required before a duff shot can be deleted.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Pressing the Function button brings up Canon's now familiar toolbar onto the screen, running from top to bottom of the left hand side of the screen rather than in the L-shape of previous generations of IXUS. If Smart Auto capture mode has been selected, here we get the chance to influence the self-timer, drive mode, image size and resolution, movie quality and that's it. Flick the top plate slider switch across a notch to the Program shooting mode, however, and many more user selectable options present themselves. Here you can tab down from the first option, Light Metering (evaluative, centre weighted or spot), and select one of the camera's additional built-in scene modes. Each time one of the options - from portraits to kids and pets, fireworks, aquarium and ISO 6400 equivalent low light mode - is highlighted, a small 'hints and tips' box of text appears instructing the user as to the benefits of and uses for the proposed settings.

Additionally manually selectable in Program mode are the usual suspects: white balance, ISO settings (ISO 100-3200), self-timer, drive mode (single shot or continuous shooting), aspect ratio, image size, compression, movie quality, plus Canon's regular 'My Colors' modes that allow the user to switch to optimal settings for more vivid colour, neutral, sepia, black and white, positive film, lighter skin tone, darker skin tone, vivid blue, vivid green or vivid red and finally a custom colour setting that can be adjusted to the user's preference.

A press of the Menu button at the bottom of the rear controls brings up two folders on-screen - the first containing the shooting menu, the second the more general purpose set up menu. Folder number one provides the ability to activate the digital zoom, call up grid lines or a 3:2 format ratio guide on screen, activate Canon's exposure adjusting i-Contrast, image stabilisation modes (continuous, shoot only, active when panning, or off), plus face and blink detection. The second menu folder contains the Set Up menu, offering the chance to tweak various sound and start up options, plus format the optional but essential microSD card in use.

Leaving the back plate, the right hand flank of the IXUS 500 HS - if viewing it from the rear - features one covered port housing the mini-HDMI connection and a dual purpose AV out/USB connection. The base of the camera meanwhile features a standard metal screw thread for attaching it to a tripod, plus a sliding door protecting the microSD/microSDHC/microSDHX card port (with no internal memory to fall back on) and another for the rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Battery life is only around 190 shots from a full charge, which is below par rather than class leading.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10 megapixel Superfine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb.

The Canon IXUS 500 HS produces images of good quality. It recorded noise-free images at ISO 100-200, with some noise and slight colour desaturation at ISO 400. ISO 800 shows more obvious noise but still remains perfectly usable, and even the faster setting of ISO 1600 doesn't suffer too badly. ISO 3200 is perhaps a step too far though.

The Canon IXUS 500 HS handled chromatic aberrations very well, with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations and generally at the edges of the frame. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds being long enough for most after-dark shots.

Anti-shake works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. Macro performance is excellent, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject. The images were a little soft straight out of the Canon IXUS 500 HS at the default sharpening setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Canon IXUS 500 HS. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes via the My Colors menu option.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Canon IXUS 500 HS's 12x zoom lens provides a focal length of 28-336mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.

28mm	336mm

File Quality

The Canon IXUS 500 HS has 2 different image quality settings available, with Superfine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

10M Superfine (3.72Mb) (100% Crop)	10M Fine (2.39Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Canon IXUS 500 HS handled chromatic aberrations well during the review, with limited purple and green fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)	Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Canon IXUS 500 HS offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 1cm away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Canon IXUS 500 HS are Auto, Flash On, Slow Synchro, and Flash Off, with Red-eye Correction and Red-Eye Lamp settings available via the Flash Settings main menu option. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (336mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (336mm)

And here are some portrait shots. Neither the Flash On or the Red-eye Correction settings caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red-eye Correction	Red-eye Correction (100% Crop)

Night

The Canon IXUS 500 HS's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds in the Long Shutter mode, which is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 5 second setting the actual exposure takes 10 seconds.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Canon IXUS 500 HS has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/8 sec / 28mm
1/4 sec / 336mm

My Colors

The My Colors function menu option contains the now familiar range of colour options for tweaking the look of your images before shooting.

Off	Vivid
Neutral	Sepia
B/W	Positive Film
Lighter Skin Tone	Darker Skin Tone
Vivid Blue	Vivid Green
Vivid Red

Creative Filters

The Canon IXUS 500 HS has 9 different creative filter options to help spice up your images.

Fish-eye Effect	Miniature Effect
Toy Camera Effect	Soft Focus
Monochrome	Super Vivid
Poster Effect	Color Accent
Color Swap

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon IXUS 500 HS camera, which were all taken using the 10 megapixel Superfine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Turned On

Isometric View

Isometric View

Isometric View / Lens Extended

Isometric View / Lens Extended

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

Rear of the Camera / Function Menu

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Canon IXUS 500 HS is a good attempt to marry the classic styling of the IXUS range with a big zoom lens, but the tiny controls, poor battery life, so-so image quality at high ISO speeds and the eye-watering price-tag detract somewhat from its overall appeal.

The IXUS 500 HS' 12x zoom lens proves to be a real boon to your creativity, especially given the camera's diminutive size and weight, providing enough width for landscape and group shots and more than enough reach to take close-up action shots, despite being able to easily fit inside a trouser or even shirt pocket. Maximum apertures of f/3.4 and f/5.6 are nothing to write home about, but we can excuse them on what is after all a consumer-oriented camera.

The IXUS 500 HS doesn't quite deliver all the goods in terms of image quality. Disappointingly noise starts to rear its ugly head at the rather slow speed of ISO 400, on a par with other similarly priced compacts, although chromatic aberrations are commendably well controlled. Full 1080p HD movies complete with stereo sound and (rather slow) use of the 12x zoom are also very welcome.

Casual users are more than catered for by the wealth of hand-holding technologies on offer, but the IXUS 500 HS' lack of external controls does mean that some things are more difficult to access than they really should be. An over-reliance on the Function and Main menus slows down the camera's operation, something that beginners' won't mind so much, but which will particularly irk more serious snappers. Nobody will like the short 190-shot battery life, with two batteries required for more than half a day's shooting.

The IXUS 500 HS doesn't really live up to the High Speed part of its name. While 2.8fps at full resolution is perfectly acceptable, there are some Sony models that can shoot at 10fps at full resolution, which rather dwarves the IXUS 500's headline speed of 6.8fps at a paltry 2.5 megapixels. Likewise 240fps movies played back at 30fps are a novel feature, but they're very low resolution and the specification is again bettered by several Casio models.

The final problem for the Canon IXUS 500 HS is that £309 / €349 / $299 price-tag. A little more money in the UK and Europe will buy you the PowerShot S100, PowerShot G12 or even an entry-level DSLR like the EOS 1000D, while a little less gives you the choice of several better-specced rival models. In summary the IXUS 500 HS combines a stylish, almost retro look with more up-to-date features and an appealingly long lens, but there are still a few too many negatives that hold back Canon's latest super-compact super-zoom from true greatness.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4.5
Ease-of-use	3.5
Image quality	4
Value for money	3

Specifications

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