Snaphappy

The Canon PowerShot SX500 IS

I'm the first to admit that I don't know the first thing when it comes to cameras. If they take a photo, they're usually pretty fine by me. But the one thing I've been told the most, is that a good camera is vital when exploring another country. But where do you even begin? It's all megapixels this, and optical zoom that, and for someone like myself, it might as well all be written in French. For me the specifications were simple: small and light enough to move around with, good quality photos and videos, a Li-lon battery and most importantly - reasonably affordable! 

I didn’t get very far when I looked online, as everything that looked remotely like I wanted was all £250+. Then as if by magic, during one Sunday evening’s viewing of Downton Abbey, I saw the Canon PowerShot SX500 IS advertised from Argos, for a beautifully eye-catching £139. 16MP, 30x optical zoom and with a three-inch LCD screen, this camera is not only up there with the best technology wise, but also small, light and compact enough to make travelling with considerably easier. 

First of all I was happy to see that the battery only took an hour to fully charge, meaning no hanging around for hours on end before you can take it out. From there it was a simple process to set the time and date and voilà, we were off! Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with all the different modes and functions (or even pretend that I know what they all mean) but I will say that it seems to be a really easy to use camera (even for all you technophobes like myself) and it takes some great photos, even when it’s not on the highest setting. Even though nowadays our phones have great cameras on them, we've all fallen victim to the dreaded "No more space, please delete files" message, something you definitely don't want to happen when you're out and about, with nowhere to download them.  So if you’re looking for something simple to use but with great results, I highly recommend this particular Canon!