We recently added yet another camera to our collection of digital cameras. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my current Canon EOS Digital Rebel. I find it to still be a great camera and I’m having a wonderful time figuring out how the different lenses can give me different shots and how to really work the camera. The goal is to not just happen upon a great shot here and there, but really start to understand photography better. At some point I would like to take some classes to get some formal training in it.

Additionally, my old camera (or Tammy’s camera as it’s known now) the Canon PowerShot G3 is also still working great. It’s prosumer point & shoot qualities make it a great camera for your average day of shooting. It’s also nice that Tammy and I can go shooting together and we’re not sharing a camera. At some point, we’ll get another digital SLR body and we can just start sharing lenses.

However great both of these cameras are, especially the Rebel, there is one thing that neither of them are and that is light and portable. With our upcoming trip to Europe I found myself really wanting another camera that we could take for just whimsical shots around Paris or more importantly something I could have on the bike with me and take shots while riding in France. I read our tour guide and as it mentioned all these great sights from our ride I knew more and more I wanted a camera that could make the trip with me. (As it turns out, I’ve gotten a handlebar bag that is big enough that I could probably fit the Digital Rebel in it if I wanted, so I may have options.)

We purchased the Canon PowerShot S500 for both of these qualities. I’ve shot about a hundred pictures with it and so far I’m very pleased. We previously had made a trip into the small & portable digital line with the Canon PowerShot S230 and returned it because the pictures were horrible. This camera hasn’t had any of those problems. Pictures are crisp and clear, focusing is good, color quality seems nice and shooting a 5 megapixel image means we can still get really nice prints if wanted. Important as well is the case. This camera is built like a tank and I don’t think twice about just sliding it in my pocket and forgetting about it.

(You can tell I have a thing for Canon. I find their cameras to be particularly intuitive and the overall design is well done. I appreciate Nikon’s lens variety and camera quality, but their firmware on the camera is just not intuitive and has caused me frustration nearly every time I’ve picked one up. I’m sure I would get used to it if I worked at it, but I’m stubborn.)