Canon PowerShot S5 IS Review

Reviews of the Canon PowerShot S5 IS

7.4

CNET Review

June 11, 2007

The Good: Tons of manual and automatic features; well-laid-out controls; solid body; nice LCD display.

The Bad: Lens aberrations and vignetting; some processing artifacts; lacks raw file support; redesigned lens cap still pops off too easily.

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.

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9.5

alaTest.com

By alaTest | December 2, 2008

Review Summary: Experts rate this product 79/100 and users 87/100. Comparing these reviews to 345974 other Digital Compact Cameras reviews gives this product an overall alaScore™ 95/100 = Excellent.

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No Rating

pcworld.ca

By Dave Carroll | July 24, 2008

Review Summary: An articulable LCD, great image stabilization, and top-quality photos add up to a great megazoom.

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8.4

pcworld.com

By Dave Carroll, PC World | June 6, 2008

Review Summary: Despite a handy function menu for the most commonly used options, the S5 IS has an overabundance of hey-let's-just-throw-it-in features that can clog menus (a wolf-howl sound effect for the self-timer? Really?). This feels indicative of the uneasy balance

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8.1

cameralabs.com

By Gordon Laing | February 20, 2008

Review Summary: The PowerShot S5 IS is certainly a powerful super-zoom camera with some neat features. The 12x range gives you decent coverage, the stabilisation is effective, the flip-out screen allows for unusual angles, the movie options are some of the best around on

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Manufacturer: Canon USA

Part number: 2077B001

General

Product Type Digital camera - Compact
Weight 15.9 oz
Width 4.6 in
Depth 3.1 in
Height 3.1 in

Main Features

Resolution 8 megapixels
Image stabilizer feature Optical stabilization helps prevent blurry pictures, especially for handheld cameras at slow shutter speeds or when using high optical zoom.
Sensor resolution 8 megapixels
Optical Sensor Type CCD
Effective Sensor Resolution 8,000,000 pixels
Total Pixels 8,300,000 pixels
Optical Sensor Size 1/2.5 in
Light Sensitivity ISO 200, ISO 800, ISO auto, ISO 400, ISO 80, ISO 1600, ISO 100
Digital Zoom 4 x
Shooting Modes Frame movie mode
Shooting Programs Landscape, Aquarium, Macro, Foliage, Sports mode, Snow, Fireworks, Beach, Portrait mode, Night snapshot, Night scene, Stitch assist, Indoor
Special effects Color Accent, My Colors, Color Swap
Max Shutter Speed 1/3200 sec
Min Shutter Speed 15 sec
Exposure Metering Spot AF area, Center-weighted, Evaluative, Spot
Exposure Modes Aperture-priority, Automatic, Program, Shutter-priority, Manual
Exposure Compensation ?2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps
Auto Exposure Bracketing 3 steps in 1/3 EV step
White Balance Custom, Automatic, Presets
White Balance Presets Tungsten light, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Flash, Fluorescent light (daylight), Daylight
Digital video format AVI
Still Image Format JPEG
Continuous Shooting Speed 0.9 frames per second=1.5 frames per second
Remote control None
Color support Color
Image Stabilizer Optical
Remote Control None
TV Tuner None
Video Capture AVI - 320 x 240 - 19 sec - With 32MB card, AVI - 640 x 480 - 13 sec - With 32MB card, AVI - 320 x 240 - 34 sec - With 32MB card

Memory / Storage

Flash Memory 32 MB Flash - SD Memory Card
Floppy Drive None
Image Storage Normal JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 99 - With 32MB card, Fine JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 20 - With 32MB card, Normal JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 41 - With 32MB card, Fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 52 - With 32MB card, Fine JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 32 - With 32MB card, Normal JPEG 640 x 480 : 270 - With 32MB card, Super-fine JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 18 - With 32MB card, Super-fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 29 - With 32MB card, Fine JPEG 3264 x 2448 : 14 - With 32MB card, Normal JPEG 3264 x 2448 : 29 - With 32MB card, Super-fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 111 - With 32MB card, Super-fine JPEG 3264 x 1832 : 11 - With 32MB card, Fine JPEG 3264 x 1832 : 18 - With 32MB card, Super-fine JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 11 - With 32MB card, Normal JPEG 3264 x 1832 : 39 - With 32MB card, Normal JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 64 - With 32MB card, Fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 171 - With 32MB card, Super-fine JPEG 3264 x 2448 : 8 - With 32MB card
Flash memory 32 MB - SD Memory Card
Supported Flash Memory MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card

Lens System

Type Zoom lens - 6 mm - 72 mm - F/2.7-3.5
Focal Length 6 mm - 72 mm
Lens Construction 9 group(s) / 11 element(s)
Lens Manufacturer Canon

Additional Features

Self Timer Yes
Self Timer Delay 10 sec, 2 sec
Flash Terminal Hot shoe
Additional Features Takes photos while movie recording, USB 2.0 compatibility, Auto ISO shift, Display brightness control, Focus bracketing, DPOF support, Face detection, Audio recording, MOTION PRINT, PictBridge support, AE lock, Digital tele-converter, 16:9 widescreen mode, RGB primary color filter, Digital noise reduction, FE lock, Built-in speaker, AF lock, Direct print, Digital image rotation, Camera orientation detection, In-camera red-eye fix, Auto power save, Histogram display

Camera Flash

Effective Flash Range 1.6 ft - 17 ft
Type Pop-up flash
Flash Modes Flash OFF mode, Fill-in mode, Slow synchro, Auto mode, Red-eye reduction, Rear curtain sync
Red Eye Reduction Yes
Effective flash range 1.6 ft - 17 ft
Features AF illuminator, Flash +/- compensation

Viewfinder

Viewfinder Type LCD
Color support Color
Diagonal size (inches) 0.33 in
Resolution 115,000 pixels
Field Coverage 100%
Dioptric Correction Range -5.5 to +1.5

Display

Type LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2.5 in - Color
Mounting Rotating
Resolution 207,000 pixels

Digital Player (Recorder)

Type None

Microphone

Type Microphone - Built-in
Mode Stereo

Connections

Connector Type 1 x Composite video/audio output, 1 x USB, 1 x DC power input
Expansion Slot(s) 1 x SD Memory Card

Lens Systems

Auto Focus TTL contrast detection
Type Zoom lens
Focal length 6 mm - 72 mm
Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 36 - 432 mm
Focus adjustment Automatic, Manual
Min Focus Range 19.7 in
Macro Focus Range 0-50cm
Lens Aperture F/2.7-3.5
Optical Zoom 12 x
Zoom Adjustment Motorized drive
Lens construction 9 : 11
Features Aspherical lens, UD glass, Ultrasonic Motor (USM)

Miscellaneous

Carrying Case None
Cables Included USB cable, 1, 1 x A/V cable
Included Accessories Neck strap, Lens cap
Min Operating Temperature 32 ?F
Max Operating Temperature 104 ?F

Power

Power Device None

System Requirements for PC Connection

Operating system MS Windows ME, MS Windows XP, MS Windows 2000, Apple Mac OS X 10.1.5 - 10.3, MS Windows 98 SE
Peripherals USB port, SVGA monitor, CD-ROM drive

Battery

Supported Battery 4 x AA Alkaline battery ( Included )

Software

Type Canon ZoomBrowser EX, Drivers & Utilities, Canon ImageBrowser

CNET Labs' Benchmarks

Labs information All values are expressed in seconds. Please visit our labs information page for information on how digital cameras are tested.
CNET Labs Flash shot to shot time 2.1
CNET Labs Shot to shot time typical 1.6
CNET Labs Shutter lag bright 0.5
CNET Labs Shutter lag dim 0.8
CNET Labs Typical burst speed 1.6
CNET Labs Wake up time 1.3