S5 IS: dSLR wanna be
In today's arena of super-zoom cameras the S5 is not a "me too" shooter, but the heir of a legendary lineage

Do you remember the last time that you were fascinated with the fun of a digital camera? These days most digicams are variations over the same old formula, but the S5 is different, and after some months, we still have tons of fun using this compact super zoom.

Fully featured

The Canon PowerShot S5IS has a 12x optical zoom, Ultra Sonic Motor, 8.0 mega pixels, Image Stabilization, 2.5" LCD vari-angle monitor, fully automatic and manual modes. It seems to be a true Photo Aficionado camera: some kind of "G" camera under "S" skin.

This camera is definitely bigger than any slim ultra compact and even heftier than the average compact, yet it is lighter and more portable than the Rebel XTi, Canon's smallest dSLR.

That's one big lens

The optics have a very useful focal length of 36-432mm (35mm film equivalent), and if you even want to expand that numbers you can use both wide and tele converters (already reviewed by us).

The lens is not blazing fast with maximum apertures of f/2.7 at the wide end and f/3.5 at the tele, but for a 12x optical zoom is reasonable. There are some chromatic aberrations at the tele end, obviously due to an extreme focal length. The lack of a fast lens is balanced with the optical Image Stabilization that works remarkably well. The 5S has a "pan stabilizer" that allows you to shoot fast moving subjects. The Image Stabilizer works very well in the powerful Movie Mode (that we'll talk about later).

The S5 is a pleasure to use due to the Ultra Sonic Motor. You can focus quite fast and almost silently. The zoom control has two steps for fast zooming or more precise slower movement.

Mini-dSLR look

Aesthetically, this camera is closer to a SLR than the average compact digicam. The flash is located over the lens and you should manually open it (which is, by the way, a little odd): the dSLR appearance and feel is definitely there. Another hint of the dSLR-wanna-be-look is the SLR-style grip is very comfortable and holds 4 AA's batteries that are available worldwide; the S5 is a very good travel camera, by the way. Battery life is good even with the big screen and electronic viewfinder: buy a set of rechargeable NiMh for longer photo sessions.

Under the grip, sharing the compartment with the batteries is the memory card compartment. In the previous model (S3) there was a dedicated door for the memory card. Now it's gone to accommodate the 2.5" LCD monitor. Although it is a good trade (the screen is very good), the card placement is annoying indeed (to say the least). Check our S5 Quick Tips on how to overcome the problem of batteries falling to the floor every time you change the memory card.

The 2.5" LCD monitor is big and with a good resolution. But the really nice thing is that it is a vary-angle monitor. Canon has been criticized for not using the swivel LCD on the G7/G9 high-end camera. That's bad news for G owners. The vari-angle LCD allows extreme angles and it is very versatile and an extremely useful characteristic of the S5.

The war of the buttons

You'll find plenty of buttons and controls everywhere: on the top you'll find the mode dial, off button and record-play selector. On the side there are the Macro and Manual Focus buttons and in the back you'll find menu, set, function, ISO, display, shortcut and movie-record buttons and finally a 4 way selector. You can even program the shortcut button. The buttons arrangement is somewhat tricky. Even though we are very familiar with PowerShots user interface, we still take some time to find the correct button.

Camera à la mode

The mode dial shows immediately that you have the best of both worlds: fully automatic zones for fast P&S features and creative P, Tv, AV, M modes and even a custom position. The mode dial allows quick access to portrait, landscape, night scene, sports and auto-stitch functionality. You can access even more scenes settings in the SCN mode.

The S5 has a Digic III processor, so you'll find the typical PowerShot array of in camera face detection, my colors, color swap, etcetera.

Power Photos, Superb Movies

The S5 answers the promise of the more expensive TX1: impressive movies and truly great photos. Although the so-called hybrid TX1 is a 10x ultra zoom-ultra compact, the S5 is easier to use and handle. Although it has not a 1080 16:9 resolution, the 640x480 30fps are really good. The Image Stabilizer works great in movie mode and you can always use the optical zoom. In the front you can notice the stereo microphones for great audio. The dedicated movie record button is a very handy feature.

Electronic Viewfinder

The S5 has an electronic viewfinder instead of an optical one. That's good and bad. It is better than the average compact camera viewfinder because it is a replica of the vari-angle information, you can also choose to show grid lines and shooting information. The bad news is that the electronic viewfinders are harder to see in bright light. We are not huge fans of this kind of viewfinders that resemble camcorders.

Autopilot OFF!!

The auto modes are fun and very usable, but the true power of the S5 lies under the Program, Aperture Priority (Av), Time Priority (Tv) and Manual (M) modes. This camera user interface is pretty consistent with all the other PowerShots, yet you get here the whole enchilada. Lower level cameras such as the A720 may share many features, but the S5 is easier to use. Manual focusing works remarkably well and it is a very usable feature. The ice in the cake is the Custom (C) mode that allows you to recall settings previously recorded.

We liked very much the live histogram and the exposure visual aid that is really a big help when shooting in manual mode.

Macro capabilities

Overall Quality

The S5 feels pretty solid and very well assembled. The camera is made of plastic. That's not bad at all, because the S5 is an affordable yet very powerful camera. We remember when a G2 had a price tag of $900. Now, with a street price of $340, you have even more features. The dark gray color is way better than the average silver digicam. With a metal body and the level of quality of the G9, the S5 would be fantastic.

ISO sensitivities and noise issues

We've reached the Achilles' ankle of the S5. Everything is very good in this camera, but as any other compact, there is a lot of noise at high sensitivities. We don't really understand why digital camera manufacturers keep stuffing millions of pixels on really tiny sensors. We would like less pixels but better ones. What about a 5 mega pixels compact camera with the same noise behavior as a Rebel XTi? We would easily take that trade. As you can see in our 100% crops, things get nasty awfully soon. Even at ISO 200 you can already notice the noise. Obviously at ISO 1600 the image is nearly unusable. We'll spare you our Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie joke: the ISO 1600 is for emergencies only. The lack of detail is terrible. At ISO800 even a 4x6" print shows both chroma and luminance noise. The S5 is not a good camera for low light situations. ISO levels must be kept under 200 and, occasionally at 400, but forget about ISO 800 and ISO 1600.

Canon PowerShot S5 IS (100% crops) ISO 80 ISO 100 ISO 200 ISO 400 ISO 800 ISO 1600

That’s it for the techno babble. How does the S5 IS feel?

This is the true enthusiast camera: tons of features, easy to hold, easy to use, yet with the full power under your fingers.

We really miss RAW capability and by this time it is clear that Canon's guys are reserving such format to dSLR and, under danger of mutiny, the G9. The noise reduction algorithms are overly aggressive, thus the RAW files would allow a different approach to noise at high ISO settings.

Image quality is very good, yet it suffers a lot under high ISO sensitivities. We hope that Canon overcomes the High ISO Curse of the small digicam sensor in the years to come. The S5 would be a smashing camera with better low light performance. By now, good image quality is compromised to shots under good light, which limits the camera's true potential.

With a compact size and versatile focal length, the S5 is a very good second camera for a dSLR photographer that wants a powerful compact sidekick. It is far from perfect, but today is one of the best super zoom compact digital cameras available.

The bottom line