Canon PowerShot 520 ELPH HS 10.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera

What customers say about Canon PowerShot 520 ELPH HS 10.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera?

1. 69 of 71 people found the following review helpful

   
   I love this little camera!, April 2, 2012

   By 

   Ron (SF Bay Area) –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Canon PowerShot ELPH 520 HS 10.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom 28mm Wide-Angle Lens and 1080p Full HD Video Recording (Black) (Electronics)

   I received the 520HS on Saturday. I am coming from the Canon SD1000, so I loved the fact that the 520HS is the same size, but 3/4 of an ounce lighter. You can read about the features on Canon’s website. I really want to comment on the face recognition feature. I took some photos on my computer to set up the face recognition. Today, I took pictures of my daughter’s three month old twin girls. I was amazed that the camera recognized their faces. The camera did not use flash even though we were indoors. I must say the pictures are truly amazing. They look like a professional photographer took them. I have read some negative reviews that claim the camera gives poor low light pictures. Some reviewers did not even have a micro SD card in the camera. Well, that is not the case. The DIGIC 5 processor is exceptional for indoor shooting without a flash. The reviewers complained that they already had SD cards and did not like the fact that they would have to get a Micro SD card. I got an 8GB, Class 10, micro SD with the Amazon name for $11.99. I can’t comment on the battery life yet because I have not had to recharge it. I didn’t get the 530HS because I had heard negative feedback about the touch screen. The only thing other than the touch screen that is different is that the 530HS has wi-fi. The 520HS cost at least $50 less. I am leaving on a cruise and will report back when I return.

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2. 19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

   
   seems a winner, May 2, 2012

   By 

   G. T. Spigel “shutterbug” (olean,ny) –
   
     

   This review is from: Canon PowerShot ELPH 520 HS 10.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom 28mm Wide-Angle Lens and 1080p Full HD Video Recording (Black) (Electronics)

   I purchased this camera a few weeks ago after having a canon powershot 710 is for 5 years. That camera had many attributes such as an optical viewfinder and AA batteries, but was only 6X optical zoom. I had tried other cameras over the last 1-2 years but the quality of the pictures was not good. This camera seems to be a winner. The pictures are nice and clear, the new cmos sensor works great in low light, it’s very small so fits well in your shirt pocket, and it has 12X optical zoom. I’m not real enthused about the image browser software as the older canon zoom browser seemed easier to use but it’s new for me. I had to by a micro SD card, there is no optical viewfinder, and it uses a rechargeable lithium battery, which seems to hold its charge well. It would be nice to have a printed manual rather than a CD for more in depth discussion of the camera but this is an industry trend. The movies are also quite good. I bought the camera at BJs where it was a little cheaper but had to buy the micro SD card which can be gotten cheaper online. All in all this camera seems like a winner and will update if my intial impression changes

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3. 31 of 35 people found the following review helpful

   
   Noisiest camera ever owned., May 17, 2012

   By 

   HCedrinks –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Canon PowerShot ELPH 520 HS 10.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom 28mm Wide-Angle Lens and 1080p Full HD Video Recording (Black) (Electronics)

   I was looking for a camera to replace my aging Casio EX-Z1000, which has served me well over the past 5 years or so. I wanted something with a similar form factor, with the expectation that a newer camera would naturally include newer (and better) technology. The EX-Z1000 was great, but had problems with color accuracy and excess noise even at moderate ISO settings (ISO 400 and above).

   I’ve heard good things about Canon point-and-shoots for a while, so I figured I would go with one this time around. I settled on the Elph 520 HS, which at that time had the best reviews among its siblings (the 1xx and the 3xx series).

   I immediately tested the 520 HS upon getting it, shooting somewhere around 20 images before charging it and another 60-70 images after. The shots ranged from very-low-light situations (dark hallway in my apartment) to relatively bright outdoor shots (overcast day, parking lot on edge of forest).

   First the pros. The 12x zoom was nice. Color accuracy is better than my old camera. The settings only went down to ISO 100, but that’s acceptable. I consider megapixel count to be irrelevant; anything above 8 MP is good enough in my book. The IS feature seemed to work well enough, but my hands are pretty stable so my opinion might not count in this matter.

   Now the cons. In a word: NOISE. On the camera’s built-in screen, everything seemed fine at first sight. But zooming in, I began to notice the extreme amount of noise present in nearly all the pictures. Even at ISO 100, the noise was still painfully obvious — and that’s just on the camera’s LCD screen. Viewing the pictures on my computer merely exacerbated the problem — even monochromatic objects shot under good lighting conditions exhibited innumerable slightly off-color pixel bunches. Textured objects fared much worse, to the point of becoming blurry and riddled with what seemed to be noise removal artifacts. I had problems with noise on my EX-Z1000, but never to this extent; if I didn’t know better I’d swear that the 520 HS is trying *too* hard to eliminate noise, which actually results in *more* noise. The noise issue was so bad it made the camera’s other shortcomings (somewhat confused autofocus, relatively weak flash) seem insignificant. If you plan on printing out photos at the standard 4R size, then this might not be an issue. But if, like me, you like to set your photos as desktop wallpapers (or print them at larger sizes) then look elsewhere for your camera needs. As for me, I’m returning this camera.

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