Canon S5IS Digital Camera Our rating:

The Canon S5IS digital camera is a very versatile and user-friendly camera. It features a classic yet stylish body, contoured for a perfect fit into your hands for easy picture-taking, and a rotating flip-out 2.5″ LCD screen. The various shooting modes (Auto, Av, Tv, Manual, Custom, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Special Scene, Night Snapshot, Super Macro, Stitch Assist & Movie) stay true to the Canon line, and live up to the Canon standard. With the optical image stabilization and Digic III image-processing on top of the 12x optical zoom (48x digital) and 8.0 mega pixels, this camera is really one all-in-one package just below the quality of a digital SLR that is very hard to beat. With its zoom function and shutter in the same vicinity, as well as review control and mode switch wheel also nearby, it’s quite simple, straightforward and when necessary, speedy to take high-quality photos. The adjustable ISO settings, optical zoom and normal/macro/super macro functions make it easy to get creative and do just what you want to do with the camera instead of its functions limiting you.

I found it quite easy to learn how to use, and if I have any problems I can turn to the ever-helpful user manual or online support from Canon. The S5 IS is very sturdy, and taking videos is very easy as well, with a separate record button on the back of the camera. The video and audio quality is remarkably good. The lens is a Canon lens, and I’m quite impressed with the overall quality and clarity of the pictures I’ve taken. As an avid photography hobbyist, this camera has fulfilled all my needs, wants, and even more. It keeps surprising me with the professional quality of photos and as I continue honing my skills and becoming more accustomed to the S5IS. It only gets better and easier to use, as opposed to other cameras I’ve used that only seemed to become more problematic over time and more use. This canon has really held up in even very adverse conditions, such as rain, snow, extreme heat and bitter cold, and over time and more use. Since it takes SDHC cards, the memory availability is only limited to the cards available on the market now.

Although I’ve fallen in love with this camera, it does lack what a more expensive, truly professional digital SLR camera has, and is a bit on the large size. Also, it requires 4 AA batteries (I’ve found it’s good to use rechargeable canon NiMH batteries and a canon charger to power it as these last longer than the usual rechargeable batteries), which means it’s quite the power hog, and this makes it almost an absolute necessity to at least purchase rechargeable batteries. The lens cap is very loose, and falls off often, after a bit of research I found this is the case on most if not all models. This is a problem if you are carrying it in conditions or a situation where it could get easily scratched. However, other than these few issues, the S5IS has been a very pleasing camera to own. With it’s price of between 250-350$ dollars, it’s really the most bang for the buck out of cameras in its price and function group. It is possible to upgrade the camera hardware, so this is a great camera for anyone, whether you are a hobbyist like me, a professional perhaps looking for a second camera, a tourist or even a mom who just wants to get clear pictures of her kid’s soccer game.