I'm a professional photographer & have had many camers I still work with the EOS 500 with several lenses to produce amazing black & white images, modelling portraits art images, always prefered SLR to DSLR though I have both, I always shoot on manual settings on all cameras perfect for events also with speedlite, love it I'm old school :)

Long lasting. I've had the Canon EOS 500 since 1992!!!!!! I've shot over 300 rounds and I have never ever requested any service. I have to admit I take care of it and not put it in too much unhealthy conditions but... over the years it has gone to sea, mountains, forests, crowded places and some pretty extreme heat (over 45oC) and cold (less that -20oC). So far, it's not giving any hard times. I only have changed the rubber around the eye as it eventually got cut off last year.I'm buying a digital only for the convenience...

Very good SLR, now replaced by EOS 300, have made lots of picture sales from this camera, (provided lenses are good quality too!). Have replaced it with EOS 50 but preferred the lighter 500, easier to conceal when backpacking and less value to worry about. Performed great in all weathers and temperatures, will buy EOS 300 next, good enough for prof. sales.

I love this camera. It's not a real pro camera(pro cameras:Nikon F4, F5, Canon EOS 1, 1N, 1V, 3), but it has a lot of features. It is a cheap and very good camera. This camera is good for from children to professionals.

I use the Canon EOS 500 35mm SLR camera for copy photography and have found that using a 50 mm micro lens coupled with a life converter and using 100 asa film I am able to produce excellent copies of old photographs.
This camera also doubles as my general camera and using the lens supplied when I purchased the camera, I am getting the results I am very happy with. This is in all conditions.

The Canon EOS 500 35mm SLR camera does everything I want without a huge price tag.
If i smashed it tommorrow, i'd be back out to get another.
As it's my first SLR i cannot compare it to any other, so i don't think the star ratings are appliccable but they have to be filled in.

I have 10 years experience behind me to quote that some thing is lacking in the Canon EOS 500 35mm SLR camera when u use it with built in flash in any auto mode at night (green, P, A-dep). In all these modes where u want to capture the moments instantaneously, many many of my photographs turned out to be under-exposed. When i used it manually with another semi-auto flash (non canon, vivitar) thing came out excellent. Auto-focusing is excellent in the darkest times.

Not to hard to master, great for both manual and automatic operation.
can achieve some very professional photos.

I'm a beginner in photography and I really find that the Canon EOS 500 is very easy to use even in manual modes which is very interesting when you want to discover the artistic sides of photography.

this is my first canon and find it one of the best cameras yet.

Excellent if you want to take photography seriously. I use a telescopic zoom lenes and the results are amazing..