The Canon S500

So here it is. My first digital camera. I've purchased two others for my son and my Zire 72 as well as my iPaq 3715 both featured 1.2 mega pixel cameras, this is the first digital camera I've purchased for myself. After the untimely loss of the 3715, I've needed something to fill the void and my 1GB compact flash. My brother Steve has been a Canon user and fan for several years and to be frank, the little camera has impressed me for sometime. This model boasts 5 megapixels but a lack luster 3X optical zoom. This is ok for general photography and while the lens is general purpose in design, it does a decent job of macro photography. The batterly life has been reasonable so far and the actual time between taking pictures is not nearly as bad as my son's Gateway camera. (elcheapo model). The user interface is pretty simple to navigate although I did get quite the chuckle when I realized that Canon included "themes" for the camera. When I say themes I mean background images and sounds for each fuction. Yep. There's six of them and really can't understand why anyone would want the sound of a cricket to be their shutter sound.. but... with this camera they have the freedom to choose! Oh.. did I mention this thing can take video? My brother got all Steve Spielbergy on me when he started using this feature on his camera. The quality (highest setting is true VGA) is pretty impressive, although it is limited due to the OS and caching sizes to roughy 2 minute clips in that resolution. All in all I'm pretty happy with this purchase. It's a close companion adding yet more critical ounces to my already straining utility belt...