Canon PowerShot ELPH 530 HS 10.1 MP Wi-Fi Enabled CMOS Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom 28mm Wide-Angle Lens with 1080p Full HD Video and 3.2-Inch Touch Panel LCD (White)

I have been looking for a good compact camera for a long time. I am an amateur photographer with a Canon 5D and wanted a small camera I could have with me without the weight of the 5D. Any compact I tried suffered from poor quality photos or very slow responsiveness. The time from pressing the shutter release to actual capture of the photo was my biggest issue with using a compact camera for `snapshots.' If I was just trying to capture a moment at a party, the compact's delay was always an issue. So I was stuck with carrying the giant 5D everywhere or missing out on some photo opportunities.The ELPH 530 HS has completely filled my requirements. I spent a few days wandering around my house and yard with both cameras and taking the same shots. The quality of the 530 was almost always up to that of the 5D. The automatic settings are excellent, and even in some tricky backlit situations made the right call on exposure. The only situation where the 5D beat the 530 (but not by much) was in very low light, non-flash situations. So when I'm taking photos in dark churches I will still rely on the 5D, but on almost every other situation the 530 will do nicely.I did not think I would use any of the special effects on the camera but quickly found some useful. When at a dance competition for my daughter I was able to use the color filter function to snap B&W photos where one color is left in. This was great for shots that made the red of their outfits pop in a sea of gray. I could have done this with the 5D, but would have needed to load the photo on my PC and do some work in photoshop. Instead I had the photos on Facebook within a minute of taking them.That's the other main reason I chose this camera over some others I was looking at, such as the Canon S100 - it has built-in wifi. And it works really well with my iPhone which was my hope for future vacation photos sent from anywhere to friends or posted to Facebook without needing to lug a laptop around. I have not tried the other connections possible from the 530, such as your home wifi to a folder on your pc or to the Canon sharing site. I wanted to be able to get the images to my phone and do what I wanted with them and this works perfectly. When I am home I pop the card into a reader on my PC so I don't see a need to use the home wifi. It seems you need to choose the images individually to save them to your iPhone, but as that is what I normally do I haven't tried to do anything else, such as `send all photos to my iPhone.'The one negative I noticed in other reviews is battery life, and from the perspective of the 5D DSLR, it's very short. I can go all day with the 5D on a single battery, shooting 1,000 images and not thinking about it. Of course I have spares for that camera and cycle them through the charger when on a vacation. The literature states 500-600 photos on a charge and after a full day of shooting that is probably about right. I purchased a pair of third party batteries on Amazon fairly cheaply and they seem fine.I rarely shoot any video and haven't tried it on the 530, but it's there and in HD.In a direct comparison to a DSLR like the 5D the 530 would hold up fairly well in my opinion in most aspects. Of course the reason to use a DSLR is to have control over the exposure and the 530 has limited `modes' rather than a method to set the exposure directly. The Canon S100 had this ability and I nearly bought it for that reason, intending to add a wifi memory card. When I thought about my true reason for a compact camera, the ability to have a quality camera with me at all times to capture everyday shots, I realized I did not need the control of the S100. For over $100 less the 530 seemed a good buy. Since the 530 includes wifi, that made the s100 another $80 more expensive as I'd have to add it.The only feature I could think of that the 530 was missing is a GPS function that records the location of images. That would have been nice, and some compacts have that, but it wasn't a deal-breaker for me.So, after about a month of trying it in a number of situations I am very pleased with the 530. The camera works as I hoped and the wifi and software for transfer to my iphone work well. I gave up on the image-browser software for the PC as I still use an old version of Canon zoombrowser to transfer to my PC. Imagebrowser seemed very slow as it tried to organize the thousands of image son my PC.

I spent 6 hours trying to get this camera to connect to my computer using the WiFi technology. Every time it said "Connection Failed". I am not a tech expert but I do have a lot of experience with digital cameras, computers and smartphones and I have never had as much trouble as this. My computer is brand new so it can not be because of old computer technology.The touch screen is very difficult to use and does not respond well at all. I agree with the other reviewer that smartphones and tablets are a lot easier. You have to really press your finger down and hold it for a couple of seconds before it recognizes the touch.I took the exact same picture with the exact same settings using this camera and my 6 year old Canon camera and my old camera took better pictures than this one.I am a huge Canon fan but this is a big disappointment.

The quality of the photos is pretty good, comparable to other canon powershots, but there were a lot of things that I didn't like. The shutter cover doesnt look like it will protect the lens so I worry for its safety. The camera did not come with a memory card, and has no internal memory, so you have to provide a microsd. I selected this camera for its wifi capabilities but I have not been able to get it to work. I'm pretty tech-savy, so its definitely not an easy step by step process. In my research so far, I believe it requires installation of software on the computer and setting it up through there, but that hasn't worked yet. The battery is different than many of the other powershot cameras - this one uses the provided nb-9l. The touch screen took some getting used to, but works ok. The flash options are auto and off. There is no permanent "on" flash option. I would probably exchange it for something else if I haven't run out of time.

I have had this camera a few weeks, and it took some time to learn how to use it. The touch screen functions are quite different from the usual switches, but I am getting used to it. You have to touch the screen fairly hard to select a function, but that is better than being too sensitive.The touch screen appearance is great, and you can see it outdoors, but not with the sun directly on it.A few of my pictures have had poor color, but most are excellent. I believe the poor color has happened when I pushed the button too fast and didn't pause at the halfway position long enough for the software to get the settings right. One evening I shot several pictures indoors with Auto setting, and the automatic flash came on about half the time. On the pictures without flash, the ASA figure went higher. That made the pictures a bit inconsistent for a single event, but almost all were very good.Video is great, and you can zoom while you are shooting. The only video problem I have seen is the stability of the camera. It is so small and lightweight that it is hard to get a good, steady video.I have used the wireless transfer two ways. One way is to transfer through my wireless router. In that case, you connect the camera to the router, and the router is connected to the PC. Another way is to connect directly between the camera and the PC. That works ok, but you have to disconnect the PC from any other wireless, and connect directly to the camera. These connections are both straightforward when you realize there are two ways to connect. It took me a while to realize there are two ways, and not to confuse them. I also set up the camera to transfer to the Canon Image Gateway, a cloud storage service, and that works very well; it does not take long.The battery is small and doesn't last long for wireless transfer, and it may not last long for video, but I haven't shot that much video. I bought a second battery and I alternate batteries, recharging one or both when I am home.I gave the camera only four stars because of the touch screen difficulties and the few pictures that are somewhat off color. That should never happen with a Canon!