Canon PowerShot S5 IS Digital Camera - Review Gist

Though it remains a good megazoom, thanks to continued image and lens artifacts, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS is slowly losing ground to competitors.

The colours throughout all the photos are excellent. *

This SLR-lookalike is a capable compact with a superb lens, and turns out quality images

You should
as the resulting images can be quite noisy. The ISO 800 photo is quite noisy, and is really going to require a trip through some noise reduction software before you can do anything with it. The camera takes well-exposed, colorful photos with just the right amount of sharpness. *

The ISO 800 photo is quite noisy, and is really going to require a trip through some noise reduction software before you can do anything with it. The camera takes well-exposed, colorful photos with just the right amount of sharpness. The MovieEdit task lets you edit videos, complete with transitions, effects, text overlays, and much more. *

The bottom line:
Though it remains a good megazoom, thanks to continued image and lens artifacts, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS is slowly losing ground to competitors.

It's attractive, responsive, and easy to navigate. I can recommend the S5 to just about anyone interested in an ultra zoom camera. The custom can get perfect color even under the most unusual lighting conditions. Image sharpness is right about where I like it: not too sharp, not too soft. The image stabilizer is active, and so is the optical zoom. The camera takes well-exposed, colorful photos with just the right amount of sharpness. The MovieEdit task lets you edit videos, complete with transitions, effects, text overlays, and much more. *

Color balance was good with the Auto white balance setting. ISO 400 shots are soft at 11x14, and chroma noise intensifies. At 5x7 ISO 800 results are quite good. ISO 1,600 images are rough at 5x7, with very grainy shadows, and a more pointillist painting feel throughout, which doesn't get much better at 4x6. *

Photographers familiar with this camera's predecessor, the S3 IS, will feel right at home since only minimal changes have been made to the newer model's controls. *

It's a handy alternative though depending on your style of shooting or when bright light is making the main screen hard to see. *

The camera shoots nicely right out of the box with default settings. There are a number of accessories available, including wide and tele converters that let the lens shoot at about 27 and 645mm focal lengths, respectively. The two shots follow, and while not too bad, the ISO 500 shot is clearly noisier that the 100 ISO. Movies may be captured in AVI format at 640 x 480 pixels and 30 frames per second in either normal or LP mode (LP file sizes are about half that of normal mode), or 320 x 240 pixels at either 60 or 30 fps. *

This sensibility is also reflected in the Auto ISO Shift mode option which only increases the sensitivity to eliminate camera shake after you've effectively agreed to it – a nice approach which should eliminate any nasty surprises at unexpectedly high ISOs. The Canon PowerShot S5 IS is justifiably proud of its video recording capabilities which unusually include stereo sound and the ability to optically zoom while you're filming – and thanks to the quiet USM motor used to power the zoom, any mechanical noise is kept to a minimum. *