Canon PowerShot S5 IS Bridge Camera

Canon S5 - Best camera I've had (I'm a non-professional, amateur at best)

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

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

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...
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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!

By hotblade - May 2, 2008

excellent camera

Strengths: camera is great for all around, good quality pics that when printed off on printer can t tell difference of this and prints at a print shop

Weakness: not a whole lot

i would recommend this camera to anyone looking for above average photos with great zoom. great for someone looking for a good quality picture but not the the expensive price. love this camera, very nice.

By Dtrapp32 - Dec 12, 2007

Canon S5 IS is VERY nice!

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 -

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

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...
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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!

By BarryK; - Jan 14, 2008

Canon PowerShot S5 IS

Strengths: Excellent quality photos, ability to go from super macro to 12x zoom almost instantaneously

Weakness: Noisy in low light

I'm a huge fan of Canon cameras. I started with the A85; within a year I got the PowerShot S2 IS and now, needing more MP to permit good-quality prints after some cropping, got the S5 IS. I couldn't be more pleased. I prefer the viewfinder to the LCD screen, but it's neat that it's a bit larger now, and that it articulates is helpful in situations where I must shoot something from an odd angle. I...
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I'm a huge fan of Canon cameras. I started with the A85; within a year I got the PowerShot S2 IS and now, needing more MP to permit good-quality prints after some cropping, got the S5 IS. I couldn't be more pleased. I prefer the viewfinder to the LCD screen, but it's neat that it's a bit larger now, and that it articulates is helpful in situations where I must shoot something from an odd angle.

I haven't gotten an external flash yet but like that I can, and will.

I knew from reading pre-purchase reviews that shots above 400 ISO would be noisy, and they are, and I wouldn't shoot above that except for record shots.

The manual is well written and easy to understand, but sometimes one needs assistance from a live person and one of the other reasons I like Canon is its easily accessible toll-free tech support service. Helpful people are almost just moments away. I have rarely if ever waited more than a few minutes for one to answer the phone.

By mimbrava - Oct 22, 2007

Canon Powershot S5

Strengths: Nice LCD..Hot Shoe for slave flash..Eash to use

Weakness: None so far..except len cap falls off easy like S2IS camera

This camera is replacing my S2IS canon and I'm very happy with the inprovements. Pictures are very clear..clean looking. You get a lot for your money with this camera. I purchased a couple lensmate adapters to add filters like I did on the S2IS camera. Then you can buy a good fitting lens cap that doesnt fall off easy. I was going to buy SLR but I wanted video and LCD preview of picture that I...
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This camera is replacing my S2IS canon and I'm very happy with the inprovements. Pictures are very clear..clean looking. You get a lot for your money with this camera. I purchased a couple lensmate adapters to add filters like I did on the S2IS camera. Then you can buy a good fitting lens cap that doesnt fall off easy. I was going to buy SLR but I wanted video and LCD preview of picture that I was taking. This cameara was worth the upgrade and pretty cheap price for what your getting. A fun camera to own with a nice zoom for close up pictures.

By Barngal - Sep 11, 2007