I am "really" still largely satisfied with the previous camera, but its 4x zoom enough sometimes just not enough. Time record from the ship, a building on the bank? Times a castle just across the river? Granted - exceptions, still annoying. Refinishing, cutout on the PC - put everything not what I imagined. Read reviews without end, then opted for the 500 HS. Criteria: Zoom 12x, dimensions, reviews of image quality, menu design - and of course the price. After two weeks traveling through the UK and some shots here, partly also "macro", I can draw an initial conclusion. The zoom range is exactly what I needed. The image stabilization does its job very well. The digital zoom is as well common practice "botch". You have to watch something so that the does not turn on accidentally. With very little light, the results were sometimes surprising very good, sometimes disappointingly weak. It may be that I would have gotten through appropriate settings better results registered but to just not enough time - it should be real snapshots. Since I found the automatic not reliable enough. Nice gimmick is the grid, I can put on the screen for me. Often I have previously "wrong" held the camera only a few degrees and annoyed by the images. On PC then straightened. Bring me no fun. With the colors I am thoroughly satisfied. The battery lasts for ~ 150 photos, so many I do in my day never. Nevertheless, a second battery is not wrong, because ultra-just the battery gauge is not. All in all: the small dimensions make the Ixus really a companion who is always there and never bother with unremarkable. Whether for snapshots, qualitatively appealing travel memories or something ambitious designed images - the Ixus has since hardly any weaknesses. Facial recognition and all other frippery - for me is not important. The whole scene modes may indeed be great, I would have to think for too long, that just at the moment is because the right thing. Pleasant I find that rather high weight, which helps me to keep the camera steady. The controls are small, but I'm so just in time - mostly with a fingernail. All this at a price of well below 200 now - I am very satisfied so far. However, I take the occasionally bad reviews here also seriously - it seems to me that there is a very wide variation in the quality of the Ixus. Apparently I've got lucky.
