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December 11, 2007

Canon PowerShot S5 IS 8Mp digital camera

The sturdily built Canon PowerShot S5 IS is what is commonly known as a 'bridge' camera – so called because it forms a bridge between a point-and-shoot compact and a digital SLR.

The Canon PowerShot S5 IS qualifies for that tag by virtue of its 12x zoom lens with built-in image stabiliser (hence the 'IS') that, in theory, provides a sufficient focal range for any eventuality.

The only obvious sticking point is that the Canon PowerShot S5 IS costs as much as some entry-level DSLRs, although it does offer 36-432mm equivalent range in a much more compact and portable form.

You get a creatively flexible video mode with stereo sound that has its own record button and allows full use of the zoom. An ultrasonic motor ensures lens movement is both swift and smooth, while the Canon PowerShot S5 IS's comfortably rounded handgrip houses four AA batteries and a supplied 32MB SD card, adding to the solid feel.

The Canon PowerShot S5 IS is activated via a rotating switch. Although this feels fiddly, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS is quick to power up, taking around a second for its lens to extend to maximum wide angle and either the electronic viewfinder or rear LCD to burst into life.

The monitor can be flipped out and rotated, making it useful for high or low angle shooting where it would otherwise be difficult to get your eye to the viewfinder.

Taking a shot, any shutter delay is minimal, and the committal of images to memory is similarly swift – a top quality 8mp JPEG wrote to the card in around a second. Surprisingly, given that the Canon PowerShot S5 IS is a semi-professional camera, you don't also get the option to shoot uncompressed RAW files.

With the Canon PowerShot S5 IS's image stabilisation set to continuous, blurred results at maximum telephoto setting are refreshingly rare. Like most compacts, there is some pixel fringing evident between areas of high contrast, although only when zooming in.

Noise is more of an issue with Canon PowerShot S5 IS shots, however, creeping into shots upwards of ISO400 and images at maximum ISO1600 appearing as if you're viewing them through frosted glass.

The Canon PowerShot S5 IS produces shots were colours are well saturated and skin tones are warm and flattering.

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Independent customer reviews from

Canon PowerShot S5 IS scored:
8.9 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 16 reviews:

08 Aug 2007 roger, birmingham, west midlands

10

Good Points

i simply love the camera because its easy to use and its an all in one there are no lenses to change except the addition of the wide angle converter. i don't necessarily have to muck about conecting to a computer to print of my images. its easy to go direct to a printer and use the editing suite on the camera and the prints are realy good i just love it thank you canon for coming up with a terific little camera it has replaced my canon A1 which i've had for years and loved that too. roger

Bad Points

i hav'nt found any yet

04 Feb 2008 Pacoflan, West Sussex

8

Good Points

The main advantage to this camera is its fantastic rotating lcd screen which comes in very handy especially when shooting over other people. 8 mega pixels is plenty to get great detail even with larger prints, and the optical zoom is decent. The movie mode also allows pictures to be taken in the middle of recording, and you can use the zoom for the movies as well so this feature is impressive [for a digital camera]. The two colour scenes (colour swap and colour accent), which are exclusive to Canon, allow great creative shots, whereby you can highlight one single colour to be highlighted in your photo, with the rest taken in black and white, so overall, this camera is absolutely great.

Bad Points

Zoom could be a bit greater. No rechargeable batteries included, so be prepared to buy some You're likely to need to buy a large size memory card to take advantage of the movie mode and take pictures at full quality.

See more Canon PowerShot S5 IS reviews on Reevoo.com

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Total reviews: 4,313

See product specs

expert rating

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Features

4/5

Value for money

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Overall

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Canon PowerShot S5 IS

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