Canon PowerShot ELPH 520 HS 10.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 12x Ultra Wide-Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom Lens and Full 1080p HD Video (Black)

I'm really happy with this camera. It takes great snapshots, and it is so small that I can always have it with me. Nobody will ever mistake it for a several thousand dollar DSLR, either in price, weight, or picture quality, but the 12x zoom in such a small package was the sweet spot for me. And lets face it, for most of us, being able to get the shot because you have your camera is much more important than the really high quality picture--that you're never going to blow up to room size anyway--that you would have got if only you hadn't left your big, heavy, awkward DSLR at home! Some folks have compared the quality to cell phones. There's no comparison. I can get shots that are just dark blobs on the iPhone. The battery is pretty small, though, so make sure you have two or three, which I have always done anyway (they're small, so it isn't that big a deal). Be careful if you buy an off brand battery: Many of them have LESS capacity. Don't go by the picture, many of them appear to be photoshopped to say 1000mAH, but the specs give you the real value. I picked up the Wasabi Power Battery for Canon NB-9L and Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS, ELPH 510 HS, ELPH 520 HS, ELPH 530 HS , and it seems OK so far, but I haven't rigorously tested it. The reviews were pretty good, though.

At the time I ordered this camera, a black one, there were some 300 reviews posted. I read them all. Some people had valid gripes I suppose but after trying three other small 5x zoom cameras, 2 Samsungs and a Fuji for about 1/2 the price of the Canon I decided to try the Canon Elph 520 despite some negative comments. I was also intrigued with the 12x optical zoom in such a small package. I have two other cameras that I use but wanted a more portable / pocketable camera but didn't want to loose out on the higher zoom that I need once in a while for bird pictures. I have shot some 160 pictures, including a few videos and have transferred via cable to my laptop many of the recordings. I have also used the mini SD card in a card reader to transfer photos to my ipad and my laptop. It all works well. the SD card is a bit small but isn't really all that hard to handle but you do need to be careful where you are when you are handling that dime sized card. The picture quality has been terrific with great colors and sharp clear images. I have not experienced any of the softness or graininess some people have reported. I have the P mode set for ISO 200 and the Auto mode for auto ISO. If there is any question of grainy photos I use the P mode and a tripod. But so far I am just super pleased with this camera's performance and it is becoming my #1 goto camera. I wouldn't call this a drawback but there is no manual control for aperture, shutter speed or focus so the really creative types won't be pleased by that but they can buy some other camera instead of griping about this one. I'm not much of a fan for the included Canon software either. I have taken good photos by the light of our street light and got a good moon shot with it too. It's a small camera with a 1/ 2/3 sensor that works above it's pay grade because of the Digic 4+ help. The battery charger I received is just a little box with a flippy plug on the back side. It plugs in easily and stows away cleanly. The charger has a separate light indicating the charge is complete. I like that feature. One of the cameras I tried left me guessing about when the battery was done charging. One of my other cameras is an old Canon SX 120 IS I've used for a long time and the new Elph 520 takes a very similar picture (maybe a bit better). I like this camera.

I bought this based on the reviews, and am satisfied, but not jumping out of my chair with excitement about it. I've been using it for about a month, mostly in settings that are easy for just about any camera to handle: outdoors in daylight. I've mostly used the "auto" setting, but have also played around in "Program" and with some of the cooler features like the movie clips (each time you take a photo, it takes a tiny video and stitches a day's worth together). What I've found: ***THE GOOD -Nice macros. For a little point-and-shoot, it handles macro detail well. -Compact. Really small and easy to carry around in my pocketbook. -Most photos come out reasonably in focus, with good lighting. -You can zoom like crazy. My results have been mixed; some of the ultra-zoomed photos have come out well, others are out of focus. -Cool features. I haven't played with all of them yet, but there's a nice range of effects and features to try out here. ***THE BAD -Too much noise overall. That's the only significant disappointment I have. Zoomed in or not, ideal lighting or not, there's just too much noise in the photos. (Noise = graininess, or spots of discoloration throughout the photo, seen when you look at the photo on your computer monitor afterward. It's most obvious when you blow up a photo on your computer screen and zoom in.) I did switch from "fine" to "super fine" and that helped, but not tremendously. -Buttons are not entirely intuitive. I have to keep stopping and thinking to remember how to delete a photo, for instance. -Doesn't handle moving subjects reliably. It's not *bad* at this, but not particularly good at it, either. My daughter is a constantly moving subject, so she frequently appears as a blur in photos. -Battery needs recharging every day that I actively shoot photos. All things considered, I'm still okay with this camera, but am left wondering if there's another at the same price range that takes sharper photos.

First and foremost I can tell you that I have been doing nothing but gushing over this camera since my husband and I bought it. For the price it is a perfect little point and shoot. And it literally is that. It took fantastic pictures right out of the box (well technically not, but I'll touch on that a little later). We didn't need to play with the settings or fuss with it in low light. The flash worked great and the face detection system is spot on. And I can't say enough about the optical zoom. There is not too many, if any, cameras out there at this price point with a 12x optical zoom. And it works great. You can zoom all the way to 12 and your shots still are sharp and crisp. Of coarse the digital zoom goes to 48x but you lose resolution the further you go. Now to touch on the out of box functionality. The one draw back with these cameras is no memory. And that is the case here. A couple shots is all you get unless you have a micro-sd ready to pop in. But those are quite inexpensive now and I popped an 8gb in and you can take over 3000 shots at full resolution. In closing, we loved this camera. We loved it so much we bought a second one so we can each have one. I got the cool blue colour though, red is his thing haha. But as DSLR users we totally appreciate the functionality of this little compact camera and fully endorse it. Happy shooting!

I have to give this product one star. I feel bad doing this, but if you are like me and only plan on using the camera for video vlogs / vlogging, you will be disappointed. I bought this camera because its small form factor and the video specifications, on paper, is an improvement compared to the ELPH 330 HS. On paper, the 520 HS is superior in that it can record 1080p@30fps vs the 330 HS's 720p@30fps. It is newer than the 330 HS, and its base price is higher. There are positive reviews all over the web and there are not many negative reviews. I could not, however, find reviews that specifically target video. So I went for the 520 and hoped for the best. The camera feels solid, and I cannot knock it for its form factor and its performance when taking photos. It seems to excel at taking photos, and its slim design makes it easy to carry in your pocket. At first it seemed awesome as I recorded the first few videos. I noticed that autofocus was not turned on, and I continued recording after I turned on the autofocus setting. Once I started to edit the clips, I heard a sound that resembles a mix between a metal click and a plastic click. It is repetitive and consistent. At the bottom of this review I will provide a link so you can hear the sound I'm describing. I first thought that the sound could be coming from the plastic dongle of the wrist strap hitting the side of the camera as I moved around. It made sense and it would explain the metal / plastic sound I heard. After removing the strap, however, the sound continued. I noticed that the microphone is embedded into the metal ring around the lens. Usually the microphone is under the flash (as in the 330 HS). This small difference actually makes a rather large impact on the audio quality and makes the 520 HS's microphone super sensitive to any motion of the lens. Once I became aware of the root cause, I searched for any reviews that referenced the same problem. I found only one review that I would consider a trustworthy source (PC magazine- [...] ) PC magazine hit the nail on the head and noticed the issue, but since they were mostly focused on photo specs, the problem only received one sentence in their page long review. Here is what PC magazine says: “The camera can zoom and focus while recording, but the sound of its lens moving in and out is audible on the soundtrack." I read the PC magazine review prior to purchasing this camera, but the issue did not stand out. Furthermore, the 330 HS has the same sound issue when focusing, but the *key* difference is that the 330 HS has a faster autofocus mechanism, and on top of that, the microphone is below the flash. Both of these factors diminish the sound from the lens in the 330 HS. Since the microphone is literally on top of the lens in the 520 HS, the sound of the lens is amplified rather than filtered out. It was very disappointing and I can’t believe Canon did not pick up on this during QA. I don’t understand the benefit of moving the microphone into the lens. Lastly, I am not the only one with this problem. There are two other popular vloggers that I know of who recently upgraded to the 520 and their initial reviews were positive. After a few weeks of video, however, they also noticed the problem. Since they use several different camera models simultaneously, it took longer for them to catch this issue. During this time, however, I bought the camera. So if you plan on buying this camera for primarily video work (such as vlogging), DON’T buy this camera!!! Go with the 330 HS instead. -Michael & Claire One of my videos that highlight the issue: [...] (listen at 3:35 but it happens throughout the video). I usually hide it with background music, but that only goes so far.

For some years, I have had a Canon Digital ELPH S100, with which I have been very pleased. But time marches on, and the 2MP resolution of that fine little point and shoot has long been left behind. As I recall, the camera also offered only three or four times optical zoom, if I'm not mistaken. So when I saw that Canon was offering this ELPH 520 with 10MP and 12X optical zoom -- and Amazon was selling it for less than half the price I paid for the S100 back when -- I couldn't resist. Incredibly, this new model is even more compact -- both thinner and lighter -- than the S100. As other reviewers have stated, I don't know how Canon gets a 12X zoom into this little body, but they did. Needless to say, this gives you much more flexibility framing shots from one vantage point. I didn't know if I would miss the optical viewfinder of the old model, but the 520 has a large (3-inch), bright LCD screen, and I just went out and shot some beautifully composed pictures of nearby architectural landmarks here in the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan. As someone wearing both glasses and a brimmed hat on a cold day, I appreciated being able to compose pictures despite those encumbrances. I have barely begun to delve into the wealth of features this mighty mite of a camera offers, including HD video capture with stereo microphones, plus a long array of shooting modes to handle particular situations and subjects, including fireworks, portraits, low light, under water, snowy backgrounds, and more. The camera also offers some artistic special effects like vivid color, posterized shots, fish-eye lens, monochrome, plus the color accent so popular in advertising photography (one object in color -- the rest of the photo in monochrome). Best of all, you can set the camera to AUTO mode, and it will determine the best settings for any situation automatically. The camera comes with a USB cable to download photos to your computer, a proprietary battery and charger, wrist strap, plus photo software. You will need to buy a MicroSD memory card; I thought I had one or more in the house, but found this card is smaller than the ones I had bought a few years back. I must also state that the red color of the camera body is MUCH more attractive than it appears in the photo on this page. It is a beautiful red wine color, with an iridescent glow. If you like gadgets in red, you will NOT be sorry buying the camera in this color, I assure you! I will report back if I encounter any drawbacks or problems. (I saw one reviewer complaining about slow read/write to the memory card; after reading the camera instructions, I believe he needed to conduct a "low-level" formatting of his memory card, which is supposed to solve such a problem.) Until then, I am thrilled with this little gem and can't believe what a superb and convenient camera you can buy for the money... UPDATE: it was a beautiful, sunny, early spring day today, and I took a walking tour of lower Manhattan, bringing along this little Canon. THIS MIGHTY MITE TAKES THE MOST INCREDIBLE PHOTOS!!! EVERY single shot was perfectly exposed and in focus. In addition, I think there's something in this camera that even improves the photo composition. The image stabilization works perfectly too, which is handy when you're zooming in on the top of a sixty-story building. Decades ago, I used a fine (and expensive) Nikkormat 35mm camera, and out of 100 photos there were sure to be a few clunkers. I took 103 photos today, and every one was a winner! Trust me, folks, you will NOT be disappointed with this camera. I only wonder why anyone would need anything larger or heavier to take great pictures; I don't think you do anymore. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

This camera takes nice still photos but the video leaves much to be desired. I was quite disappointed in the quality of the video, especially when using zoom. Also, it uses a file format that is incompatible with my Panasonic HDTV so I cannot hook it up to the tv to watch my videos. Also, I cannot edit the video using Windows Live Movie Maker as when I try, it crashes the program. I don't recall the format but you may want to check this out before purchasing. If I had known the problems I was going to have, I would have purchased a Panasonic Lumix, which would have been compatible with my tv (albeit for a lot more money). I think it cost around $100 but I was able to apply my Discover Card rewards so I only paid around $69 I believe. Pros: Small and portable; 12x zoom; nice still picks; nice looking camera and easy to use; affordable. Cons: Poor video and file format that can be a problem, depending on the devices your hooking it up to.

A tiny little brick of a camera. I took a few shots with it in my dim living room and compared them with both the Canon A620 and the Canon Rebel XTI...all in "auto". The 520 HS took noisier pictures, yet they were much better to view than the others, which were less noisy but much darker. Which is better, a black frame or a noisy picture? I switched to Program mode and started playing with the settings and menus. The first thing I noticed was that JPG compression was set at "fine"...not "very fine" which is an option. File size went up, but noise decreased quite a bit. Much of the noise was in fact jpg compression artifacts. The IS seems to work quite well. The zoom is fantastic for a camera of this size. The lens is not "flat"...you can achieve quite nice bokeh for a point and shoot. It has user defined white balance, which I believe is one of the most important features to getting good photos. The super slow motion is cool, but kind of a gimmick. I got some great video of hummingbirds around the feeder, but it is low resolution. There is no printed manual, just a PDF file on the included CD ROM. Flash is unobtrusive, but semi-weak. Overall, I'm quite happy with my purchase. I think you'll get way better pictures than most point-and-shoots if you switch to the "Program" mode. Your best camera is the one that you actually use to take pictures. The availability of an inexpensive Ikelite underwater housing and the camera's ability to take HD video mean that the Canon Elph 520 HS is going on vacation with us, while the Canon DSLR is sitting at home. My Canon A620 took fantastic underwater video and stills, but alas, after many scuba trips and several dozens of hours underwater (and many years) it doesn't like humidity any more. I'd give this 5 stars based on what it is and what it's intended to be used for, but in the end I rated it 4 stars because it is a bit noisy in "auto" mode. I'll update this review after we get back from vacation where I'll really get to test the underwater mode and low light performance of stills and video. Update June 10th -The more I shoot with this camera the more I like it. It is able to capture fantastic images in natural lighting with true to life colors. The myriad of scene modes makes getting the right shot on the first try very easy. I really wouldn't call this a point and shoot...the images in auto mode are good, but when you switch into scene mode you can get fantastic images if you select the appropriate scene. I'm upping my rating to 5 stars.

I had initially wanted a DSLR and actually bought a Canaon T3 with an extra lens and battery and case, and it was just too complicated for an amateur like me. I researched and ended up getting this Canon Power|Shot ELPH 520 on sale and love it. It was a good decision. I have been taking shots and using different settings (pre-set!) and am so happy with the quality. It has a focus zone so you can tell immediately if your subject is in focus. I've used it for flower gardens, family visits, soccer games, lake vistas, and bees pollinating....I can see myself using this camera until it falls apart. The only thing that I'm not too happy with is the3 battery life, however, I have to keep in mind that I preview my shots a lot, so perhaps when I stop doing that it will last longer.

this arrived and it wasn't until we had it all unpacked that we discovered that there is NO MEMORY CARD SUPPLIED, not even a tester to get you started. The memory card that it requires is a microSD card so none of the cards we had in other cameras would fit it. Now having to go to Argos to get a card to see if the camera works. The adapter that was supplied to plug the charger into the wall looks as if it was bought from a market stall, never seen anything so cheap and flimsy on any electrical product, doubt that it complies with HSE requirements in the UK.

I bought this after Christmas 2013, I believe, and it's the worst point-and-shoot camera I've ever owned. Even my older Elph, with its 5x zoom, is better than this, and of all my point and shoots, my old Canon PowerShot S3 IS remains the best. Overall image quality on this newer Elph is poor no matter what my setting (whether one of the scene modes, on auto, or in program mode with my own settings), particularly when taking snapshots of my pets, be they outdoor or indoor shots. (It does pretty well on floral macros, though.) I strongly recommend investing in a better camera, whether that be Canon or another brand. Don't waste your money on this Elph.

it is very good for family use, don't give high quality picture for printing purpose on big poster etc. I did not realize that. other than that it does job very well and also battery very good

Great camera, + Really easy to use + Good picture quality + No touch screen which I like. - Not perfect as the battery life is slightly shorter than I would like, although it lasts a fair few days.