• Home
• TVs
• Laptops
• Cameras
• Monitors
• Printers
• Hard Drives
• Camcorders
• Desktops

Photography

»Digital Cameras

»Cameras

• Canon Powershot S5 IS Black Digital Camera

• Price Range

  $299.00 - $399.95
• 
• Avg User Rating
• 
• Specs • Add Your Review

• • SORT BY DATE
  • RATING
• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by: jsussex

  Updated:07-10-07

  Duration of ownership:1 Months

  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 Evaluation: 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.

• Overall Rating
  4 Star Review

  Reviewed by: anecessaryevil

  Updated:07-26-08

  Duration of ownership:8 Months

  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 Evaluation: 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.

• Overall Rating
  3 Star Review

  Reviewed by: Deb4u007

  Updated:07-23-08

  Duration of ownership:8 Weeks

  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 Evaluation: 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.....

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by: SSingh1975

  Updated:07-10-08

  Duration of ownership:

  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 Evaluation: 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

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by:

  Updated:05-23-08

  Duration of ownership:2 Months

  Strengths: I love everything about it, specially the 12x zoom. I was able to video and take pictures for my son't graduation even though I was very far away.

  Weaknesses: I have it for 2 months now and I have not found any weaknesses yet.

  Overall Evaluation: I've been looking for a good camera for the past 5 years within this price range but I always ended up selling them or giving them away but now I am so thrilled because this is the best camera I have. I highly recommend it!!

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by: hotblade

  Updated:05-02-08

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: - Amazing picture quality- More than enough options for a photography enthusiast- Great features between a point-and-shoot and slr but only at P&S prices

  Weaknesses: - none if you get the right stuff (i.e. get rechargable batteries, and a highspeed sd card)

  Overall Evaluation: This is my third digital camera, and first canon. The first 2 were sony's (s75 and w70) and I absolutely love this canon. I keep my w70 (compact) for casual/fun shots like at parties. I've only owned my s5 for ~3 weeks. I was considering the s5 or the G9. But price was the main determinant for me, I got the s5 for $273+tax when it was on sale. And I'm not a pro, not by a long shot. I only know to try to adjust the exposure value.I only bought it the day before leaving for a amsterdam/belgium vacation. It was very easy to use (having not read the manual). Don't make the mistake I did, get yourself rechargable batteries. I put in regular energizers and it gave me low battery warning after ~80 shots (I was using the lcd too). I went and bought the energizer lithium ion batteries and used the viewfinder mainly (occasionally using the lcd screen) and got another 500 shots without the battery going out.I got beautiful shots. So happens my friend had a G9 and comparing our amateurish pictures, I couldn' tell the difference. The 12x optical zoom is really nice! Especially coupled with image stabilization (I did not have a tripod with me, but little tricks I learnt - like stabilizing my camera holding arm against a wall or lamppost helps).It's true, the lenscap does come off very easily (actually that helps when my other had is full and I can turn on the camera with one hand - probably shouldn't do it too often though). But it's not really a problem, if it happens it's usually only when I'm taking it out of the camera bag (which is fine since I'm intending to take pictures anyways).All in all, it's the best camera I've ever had. Amazing picture quality and enough options for a photography enthusiast but non-professional. And at the price of pointandshoot cameras, it's a great buy!

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by:

  Updated:02-18-08

  Duration of ownership:1 Weeks

  Strengths: Comes with 12x optical - full 48x zoom,lots of scene options,color swap and color accent and many more which i have never seen in a camera b4,recording with stereo sound ,and one touch movie button.

  Weaknesses: a bit of noise in low lighting and high iso ...no biggy unless you love taking pictures at night.

  Overall Evaluation: If You are a professional photographer ..great camera on the side..if you are just starting out or want a cheaper Awesome camera absolutely get this camera You will Love it ...I guarantee it ..I knw i did. :-)))))

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by:

  Updated:01-14-08

  Duration of ownership:3 Days

  Strengths: -Great video quality & stereo sound-Incredible pic quality-Uses standard AA batteries!-Supports SDHC format-Supports audio notes on stored images-customizable sounds for camera functions-

  Weaknesses: -No RAW image support-No rechargible batteries or charger included

  Overall Evaluation: Best combination of features and quality in its price range. If you are shopping in this range, you won't do better than this. May come close, or match... but not better!You may hear that the lens cover comes off too easily. Nonsense! It's not like it falls off by simply moving the camera around or turning it over. It stays on unless you bump it or take it off. And consider this: It covers a lens that extends outward from the camera body every time you turn on the camera. And sooner or later you will forget to remove the cover before you turn on the camera, And when this happens the cover simply pops off, with no strain or damage to the zoom lens or the tiny gears inside. Clever!Also. I ordered from Buydig.com on Wed 1/9/08 using free 7-9 day delivery. Received via Fed-Ex on SAT afternoon 1/12. SAT Delivery? Wow! And the Fed-Ex guy apologized for not getting to me sooner in the day. What a great experience so far. About memory- Order a min of 2GB... for the price, less is just not worth it. Also, have a backup plan. If you order an 8, 16 or 32 GB card just for the convenience of having 1 card that will outlive all your needs... consider what happens if it fails or is lost when you are traveling. You are basically out of film! And, you may lose massive amounts of pictures/irreplaceable memories. Consider several 2 or 4 GB memory cards instead... or an 8GB and one or two 2 GB cards. Have a backup plan! One more thing on memory- the SDHC cards are HIGH MEMORY CAPACITY - and not necessarily high speed! Meaning, you can get a "regular" SD 2GB card that may be WAY faster (time it takes for the camera to store images to and retrieve images from the card) than a 4, 8, 16 or 32 GB SDHC card. Speed is an important factor in determining how quickly you can take one picture after another. Why get a nice fast camera and then slow it way down with a slow memory card. Search the web and understand the diff between speed and storage capacity. Buying two or more nice 2 or 4GB 133x speed or 150x speed cards may be what you really want, rather than a single and possibly slower high-capacity card. And dont forget that having only one card puts all your eggs in one basket. That could be hundreds or thousands of eggs (pictures) depending on the card and picture quality settings! And for Pete?s sake.... get decent rechargeable batteries! And make sure they are at least 2700mAh NiMH batteries. And, equally as important as the batteries (perhaps MORE important) is that you get a good charger! DO YOUR RESEARCH!

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by: vikra007

  Updated:01-04-08

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: 12x optical zoomcanon brandlight weight

  Weaknesses: bulky look

  Overall Evaluation: This is an amazing camera with all the features enabled. 12x optical zoom is great for distant pictures. Even though it looks bulky (bcos of zoom) it is light weight and ergonomic.

• Overall Rating
  5 Star Review

  Reviewed by: chami

  Updated:01-03-08

  Duration of ownership:3 Months

  Strengths: great image stabilization, photo quality is the best, user friendly, ability to attach an additional flash, lcd panel swivel

  Weaknesses: the lens cap comes off easily and too sensitive in power detection of the batteries

  Overall Evaluation: upgrade to this camera from a top name brand point-and-shoot camera that is 3 years old. the image stabilization works superbly. even though i have shaky hands, the pictures all turn out beautifully "stable". i love the indoor mode, the color turns out as they are in real live. my previous camera could not do so.the automatic settings on the camera are user friendly even without having to refer to the manual. the manual settings needs practice and patience. tried taking Chicago's night view from the bar at the top of John Hancock Building with the manual setting and it turn out pretty good (of course taken into consideration of numerous take and me being a novice). this is so much better than any camera i have used (mine and my friends). however, under manual setting, i have to set it on the table so that the pictures are not blurry (i have shaky hands).the lcd is very clear and displays true colors and it can swivel to face front; very convenient especially when taking group photos with timer (less running and more time to pose :) ).all in all, i would definitely purchase this again in a heart beat and would recommend friends to purchase this camera.

« Back to product pricing for...

Canon Powershot S5 IS Black Digital Camera

$299.00(9 sellers) • Avg User Rating •Specs