At the top end of Canon's wildly popular Elph compact digital camera line, sits the 12.1-megapixel Canon PowerShot Elph 500 HS. This powerhouse pocket camera features a bright, wide lens, a sharp touch-screen LCD, and excellent image quality, putting it a notch above most compact shooters. At $299.99 (direct), though, it's in an awkward price spot—for, say, $30 more, you can get a better camera, like the 18x-zoom Editors' Choice Nikon Coolpix S9100 ($329.99, 4 stars), and for about $50 less you can find some models that are almost as good. Still, if you're willing to spend the $300, and you want a touch-screen interface, the 500 HS won't disappoint. Design The 6.5-ounce PowerShot Elph 500 HS looks a bit different than most compact cameras, thanks to its tapered edges—instead of the ever-present blocky rectangle, it has a sleeker, rounder look to it. Measuring 2.18 by 3.96 by 0.98 inches (HWD), it's definitely pocket-friendly. The camera comes in silver, pink, or brown. The lens and built-in flash are front and center, and there's a sliding door on the bottom panel that covers the battery and memory card slots, next to the tripod mount. A swiveling flap on the right panel reveals a USB and HDMI connection, and up top are the Power button, Zoom trigger, and Automatic/Program Mode switch. For everything else, there's the LCD—a big, bright, 3.2-inch touch-screen display. The screen is filled with 461,000 dots, which is double the resolution of most pocket cameras, making it super sharp for both images and text. Navigating by touch is easy: the screen is very responsive, registering even very light presses. It's nowhere near as powerful as the touch-screen technology you'll find on, say, an iPhone—there's no multitouch or pinch-and-zoom—but for switching modes and changing basic settings it works fine. The excellent and familiar Canon interface does a lot to make the touch screen even easier to use. There's a large, dedicated on-screen button for most of the common functions including flash control, video recording, mode selection, and more. If you have to dig into a menu, scrolling can be slightly finicky, but most settings are only a tap or two away. I appreciate the physical zoom trigger, though; that's one feature that's tough to master on a touch screen. Also, there's a physical Playback button next to the display. The lens is another strong point here. It's bright, ranging from f/2.0-f/5.8, which means it'll perform well in low light without a flash. The lens is also wider than average, reaching out to 24mm (most cameras only hit 28mm), and zooming in to 105mm (both 35mm equivalents)—that's 4.4x zoom. The 500's less-expensive sibling, the PowerShot Elph 300 HS ($249.99, 4 stars), packs a 5x zoom and an almost-as-bright, f/2.7 lens. The sensor on the 500 HS, though, is much smaller than that of our Editors' Choice compact camera, the Canon PowerShot S95 ($399.99, 4 stars) and a few other pricier high-end compact cameras like the Samsung TL500 ($449.95, 3 stars) or the Olympus XZ-1 ($499.99, 3.5 stars), whose sensors are about 50 percent larger than the one you'll find on the 500 HS. Performance As with all of Canon's Elph models, the 500 HS is incredibly fast. The camera takes an average of 1.9 seconds to power up and capture its first photo, and then averages 2.3 seconds between shots—both numbers are very impressive, even faster than the $100-more-expensive PowerShot S95. At 0.6 seconds, shutter lag (the wait from button press to image capture), was merely average, though. There was also the very occasional lag with the zoom mechanism, which led to me over-zoom a few times during my tests. 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In terms of sharpness, the 500 HS scored an otherworldly center-weighted average of 2,115 lines per picture height—scores higher than 2,000 are rare for compact models. This means the 500 HS shoots incredibly sharp, detailed photos. Among less expensive options, the Kodak EasyShare M580 ($199.99, 4 stars) scored slightly higher, at 2,127 lines per picture height, and the Elph 300 HS scored a lower-but-still-good 1,861. If Imatest measures higher than 1.5 percent noise within an image, it will likely be visibly blurry or grainy. The 500 HS was able to go up to ISO 800 without hitting that 1.5 percent threshold, another excellent score. A few models, like Canon's own S95, can go up to ISO 1600 without recording more than 1.5 percent noise, but the 500 HS showing is still pretty impressive. In most lower lighting situations—indoors, or in the evening—the camera will still take clear, sharp pictures, but it's probably not the best choice for, say, your night-club shots. Video, Connectivity, and Conclusions I was very impressed with the quality of the video shot by the 500 HS. The camera can record in high-definition 1080p at 24 frames per second, or 720p at 30 frames per second. I always recommend shooting in 720p, because 24 frames per second can lead to a slightly jerkier feel in the video, especially when there's motion in the frame. Both resolutions looked fantastic, though, and I was particularly impressed with the microphone: It captured an excellent stereo image, so I could hear things moving from left to right, and it picked up my voice nicely. The camera also allows you to adjust the zoom and autofocus while recording video, which isn't common for a pocket camera. Videos are recorded as .MOV files, which can be uploaded directly to YouTube or Facebook. Like all the Elph HS models, the 500 has a mini-USB port for connecting the camera to a computer, and a mini-HDMI port to facilitate image playback on an HDTV. Both are industry standards, so replacing lost cables is simple. The camera accepts SDXC/SDHC/SD cards to store photos and videos. The Canon PowerShot Elph 500 HS is a top-notch compact camera across the board: It's fast, produces stellar images and video, and includes a touch-screen interface that's simple to use. It's a little pricey for a pocket camera, though, and for $50 less the 300 HS performs almost as well. (But you won't get the touch screen.) The Nikon Coolpix S4000 ($179.95, 3 stars) offers a touch screen for a lot less money, but overall, its performance pales in comparison. If a touch screen is a must, and you're willing to pay $300, the 500 HS is about the best you can find.