Canon PowerShot S5 IS

Canon PowerShot S5 IS Digital Camera

PowerShot S5 IS Review, by Dave Carroll, PC World June 11, 2008

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• Latest User Reviews 1 review
• Reviewed by: jsussex

  Duration of ownership: 1 Month

  Strengths: Quick response especially with HS SD card Fully adjustable for those who like to have creative freedom. Face detection works great 640x480 30 fps works great ( I used 2 GIG HS type III SD memory) Easy to use slide show tool and movie tool direct from camera to TV

  Weaknesses: lens covers - after 3 generations Canon should have got a lens cover that stays on. A wider wide angle even a 32 would be much better than the 36mm You need an extension tube and must purchased an expensive wide angle attachment to extend the Wide Angle range.

  Overall: I purchased the camera and a 2 gig type III HS SD card. I photographed candid shots at an outdoor 35th high school reunion party. The full articulated view finder made it easy to take candid pictures. Kicking up to the auto ISO high speed allowed me to shoot without a flash into the evening under outdoor lighting after sunset. As the speed increased the image did degrade but no different than the old film days. Flash pictures continued to be well exposed when face detection was used. Including dark backgrounds and brightly lit areas. The next day I photographed pictures of my brother in law playing with his grandson. I switched to the 640 x 480 movie mode. During the filming I was able to take a few stills that only created fraction of second blank spots while the audio continued. I bi-passed the USB process and slid the SD card into my computer Card slot to speed the file transfer. Again the HS SD moved the files to the hard drive faster than expected. Note SD HS memory may not read unless you have a very new computer. I've loaded an HP patch to my 3 HP computers running XP and all 3 now read the HS SD card in the computer memory slot.

• Reviewed by: sportfanatic66

  Strengths: Great quality pictures. Excellent camera for the price.

  Weaknesses: Lens cap

  Overall: This is a excellent digital camera. Have used it alot during sporting events. Love the sport feature. shutter speed excellent. Have own numerous name brand digital cameras and not one of them compare to this Cannon S5 IS.

• Reviewed by:

  Strengths: Lots of features, good movie mode

  Weaknesses: My S5 has broken twice in just over one year, requiring it to be sent to Canon for repair.

  Overall: The lcd on my S5 went black (icons visible but no picture) twice in one year. The first time I had the problem was just a few weeks after buying the camera, and it was fixed under warranty (I had to pay for insured shipping though). Now the same thing has happened again one year later (not under warranty). The good features of the camera are NOT worth the hassle and expense of getting it repaired constantly.

• Reviewed by: anecessaryevil

  Strengths: Uses AA batteries - rechargeable batteries last a long time. A large number of features and modes. Full manual for those who want it. Easy access to most controls.

  Weaknesses: The lens cap pops off too easily. I can see why they did this but it is a bit irritating. Exposures on dark images are grainy. Raw would be nice but exposure bracketing mostly makes up for it's lack.

  Overall: I use this camera to shoot a lot of High Dynamic Range images. It's exposure bracketing makes this easy. Do be aware that some of the versions sold in the big box stores are somewhat crippled in their options. My mother wanted to start working with HDR photography and went to a major retailer, the same place where I bought mine 5 months earlier, to check out the various cameras available. The S5 IS cameras they had in stock did NOT have exposure bracketing available. We went to a camera store and the version they had did have the exposure bracketing. The problem was that there was no indication on the box that the camera versions were different. Would I recommend this camera to others? Definitely yes. The 12X zoom is very nice. The videos it shoots at 640x480 are very sharp and clean. Realistically, for the money spent I could not expect to get a better camera. The sample shots here are processed HDR shots.

• Reviewed by: Deb4u007

  Strengths: Great Lens, DIGIC III Processor, Good Flash, Great LCD

  Weaknesses: Lens cover and cumbersome switch on-off button. No rechargeable/charger provided and bad battery life.

  Overall: Overall its okay as a camera...mine was an impulsive buy but I repent now that I did not check for another still better camera from NIKON COOLPIX P80 model for almost similar price but far better features. Please reader you do not do the same mistake as mine. It has 18x optical zoom and 10.1 MP lens plus rechargeable batteries and more.....

• Reviewed by: SSingh1975

  Strengths: -Excellent pics in "P" mode at ISO80, with Vivid Color Mode-Decent zoom-BEST video mode for cameras in this price range-Full manual controls for those willing to indulge in that-Add-ons

  Weaknesses: -Low light limitation incl weak flash-Noisy at more than ISO200-No wide angle lens

  Overall: I bought this during a special at Dell ($286 with 2GB mem card combo) and this was after I bought and returned the Panasonic Z18 from CCity.After 3 weeks of ownership, I stay firm with my decision! The canon S5 is the most versatile camera under $300 and with the ability of add-ons like Macro, PL, UV lens/filters, the results are endless.While I liked the Z18 for its wide-lens and high zoom, anything higher than ISO80 were noisy. That camera suffered from low-light shooting too but it was worse than the S5. The video quality is also nowhere as good as the S5.IF you download the CHKD hack, then you will more options open up to you but I'm perfectly happy with the defaults for now.And, STAY AWAY FROM AUTO MODE!!!! U'll be disappointed and will bad mouth the camera even though its not the camera's fault. Use the Program mode, ISO 80, Vivid color mode and the camera wont let you down...I guarantee you that. Here's a photo of the Golden Gate bridge that I took with my S5 last weekend.Hope this helpsSS