Canon PowerShot S5 IS Digital Camera Review

Viewfinder (6.0)
The Canon S5 has an electronic viewfinder positioned prominently above the LCD screen and surrounded by a rubber eyecup. The viewfinder protrudes from the body, but not enough to keep noses from rubbing against the LCD screen.

The viewfinder display can be changed via the display button. The various displays can be changed in the Recording menu: shooting info, histogram, 3:2 guide lines, and grid lines. Users can customize two viewing modes with combinations of those displays.

The viewfinder is well sized and comfortable to use, but its resolution is horribly grainy. In the 0.33-inch window, only 115,000 pixels are used to display the image, so individual specks of color can be picked out and it’s hard to tell if subjects are in focus.

On the left side is a diopter adjustment dial that is difficult to rotate because of the tiny grooves and corner it is in; it requires a fingernail to pry it one way or another. This should only have to be adjusted once unless there are multiple users that don’t share the same eyeglass prescription. The diopter control moves from -5.5 to +1.5m in six steps.

The viewfinder is great for outdoor photography or when bright light makes the LCD screen hard to see. The viewfinder is nicely shaded and its view is 100 percent accurate, but its poor resolution makes it hard to use all the time.

LCD Screen (7.0)
The Canon PowerShot S5’s LCD is an upgrade from the S3’s 2-inch LCD with 115,000 pixels. The S5’s 2.5-inch LCD screen with 207,000 pixels is an improvement, but the resolution still falls short of average. Most digital cameras – especially ones that cost $499 – have 230,000 pixels on their LCD screens for a much smoother view.

The low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT LCD screen is mounted on a sturdy platform and linked with a hinge on its left side. The hinge can fold in and out of the camera and rotate 270 degrees. This style looks like a camcorder and is perhaps an allusion to its great Movie mode. The S3’s smaller LCD also came on a folding hinge. The $479 Sony H9 has a larger 3-inch LCD screen with 230,000 pixels; it has hinges on the right and left sides of the LCD that allow it to pop outward and tilt up and down. It doesn’t twist to all the various angles the Canon S5 allows, but it has a bigger and smoother view.

Speaking of views and angles, the Canon S5’s LCD screen can be seen just about anywhere, even when it isn’t folded out and rotated. The screen itself is high-quality in that it can be seen from wide angles right to left, although the view isn’t as good when looked at from above or below. When taken outdoors in sunny weather, the LCD screen is still usable, but appears to have a purple haze. Users will be able to see subjects but not fine details when viewing the LCD outdoors. The electronic viewfinder is easier on the eyes outdoors and makes a better choice in this situation.

Like the electronic viewfinder, the display on the LCD screen can be customized with two viewing modes that include combinations of shooting info, histogram, 3:2 guide lines, and grid lines. The display has two brightness settings in the Setup menu – normal or bright – marked by sunshine icons.

The Canon S5’s vari-angle LCD screen has a smooth refresh rate, wide views, and nice 2.5-inch size. However, Canon could stand to improve the screen's resolution.

Flash (7.75)
The built-in flash unit is the same one included on the older S3, but the new camera adds a hot shoe to its feature set. The hot shoe accepts Canon Speedlite 220EX, 430EX, and 580EX II accessory flashes, and the camera can control the output of those flashes in 19 levels.

Using the automatic ISO setting, the S5’s built-in flash reaches 1.6 to 17 feet when zoomed out and 3 to 13 feet when zoomed in. In Macro mode the flash is only effective from 1 to 1.6 feet, which is common but is probably best avoided. The flash doesn’t pop up automatically, and must be pulled up by the small tabs on the sides. This could be a problem for point-and-shooters who want everything done automatically.

If the flash is pulled open and the camera is set to a Manual or Priority mode, the flash fires every time. In Automatic mode, it fires only when the camera finds it necessary. In Program and Scene modes, the flash can be set to auto or on – supposedly. The manual states changing this is done by pushing the flash button on the left shoulder of the camera body while pushing the right or left sides of the selector. In reality, this does nothing. The model we reviewed seems to be stuck in the auto setting, so there’s no guarantee the flash will fire.

The other flash options work as they should. The red-eye reduction can be turned on and off and the slow sync can be set to first or second curtain. The flash output can be adjusted to three levels.

When the flash is activated in dim lighting it almost always causes deep shadows by or behind subjects. This effect is lessened when the output is manually adjusted; it certainly isn’t equipped with the intelligent flash system that automatically makes adjustments on Fujifilm cameras, though. The flash coverage is a bit spotty too. It appears brighter near the top and center of the image, leaving the corners and bottom darker than the rest.

Though the flash is a bit spotty, its 17-foot effectiveness is decent. The vast array of options like red-eye reduction and slow sync is good to have on hand, as is the hot shoe for Canon Speedlite flashes.

Zoom Lens (7.5)
The most celebrated feature on this “ultra-zoom” digital camera is its 12x optical zoom lens. It measures from 6-72mm, equivalent to 36-432mm in the 35mm format. This isn’t very wide. There are other cameras that offer wider angles. For instance, the Olympus SP-560’s 18x lens is 27mm wide, and Panasonic FZ18’s 18x optical zoom lens is 28mm wide.

Indeed, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS’s lens is on the shorter end of its ultra-zoom competitors. Sony’s H9 has a 15x lens and Olympus and Panasonic have 18x models. The Canon isn’t at the bottom of the barrel, though. Sony has a $299 H3 model with a 10x lens and the $229 Kodak Z710 has a 10x lens. As most other manufacturers have begun to include longer lenses on ultra zoom models, the Canon’s S-series has remained stagnant by using the same 12x optical zoom lens.

The S5’s zoom moves in and out with the zoom ring that surrounds the shutter release button. When pushed, a horizontal bar appears across the top of the LCD screen that has numerical and graphical components to help users know where the zoom is in the range. The zoom moves smoothly, andstops at about 16 different focal lengths throughout its 12x range. It also moves quietly, which can’t be said of all ultra-zoom models.

Digital zoom is available in the Recording menu; it can be set to a standard, 4x, 2x or 1.6x. There is also a digital tele-converter with 1.6x and 2x options that zooms even more – almost like digital zoom applied before the optical zoom rather than afterward, as is standard. Digital zoom degrades image quality, so it should be used sparingly.

The 12x lens’ aperture maxes out at a wide f/2.7, letting plenty of light pass to the image sensor. The aperture shrinks to f/3.5 in Telephoto mode decent for this type of lens.

The lens is backed up by optical image stabilization, which is very effective in reducing blur in still images and visible shake in videos. It has several modes: Continuous, Panning, Shoot Only, and Off for still images and Continuous for the Movie mode. The image stabilization system is quiet, along with the autofocus system, which is powered by an ultrasonic motor.

The Canon PowerShot S5 can be fitted with conversion lenses. There is a button to the lower left of the lens that allows the outer rim of the lens to screw off. Doing so reveals a wide threading where other lenses can be attached: wide-angle WC-DC58A, tele-converter TC-DC58B, and close-up 500D.

The Canon 12x optical zoom lens comes with a cheap plastic lens cap that attaches to the neck strap. This is the pinching kind of lens cap and it falls off easily, making a designated camera case an even more necessary purchase.

The S5’s lens has wide apertures and a healthy 12x optical zoom backed up by image stabilization, but isn’t perfect. We saw a lot of chromatic aberration in images caused by the lens and spotted some barrel distortion in macro images, as well.