I was using Kodak CX7350 camera earlier and was planning to buy either a Super-Zoom camera or go for a DVD camcorder, I had first chosen to go for Sony DSC-H9, and was very sure I would go in for this camera, however I had read about Canon Powershot S5 IS.
I visited Croma store in Pune at Ishanya Mall, and saw Canon Powershot S5 IS placed besides Sony DSC-H9, I asked the store representative to show me the operating functions for both the camera’s and I found Canon being able to reproduce closer to real life images compared to Sony, I refer here to exact image reproduced as seen to the eye, with almost same saturation, light balance, since I am a amateur photographer, learning to use a digital camera to it’s fullest capacity, I had never experimented with different ISO settings, saturation and hue settings with my previous Kodak digicam.
Sony DSC-H9 camera was having HD capability, the price difference was coming to 1500 bucks, but Sony was offering 1 GB memory card along with the camera, I decided to go for the Canon Powershot S5 IS which was offering a 2 GB memory card complimentary, for 24000 bucks along with additional accessories.
I have not yet explored all capabilities of the camera but I keep getting better images every time from this camera, as I go testing its various features, it has a DIGIC III Image processor, which helps taking superior quality images, and the 12X optical zoom provided in the camera is strong and does not distort image quality along with the Image Stabilizer function, I have uploaded few pictures here on mouthshut which I have taken from this camera.
The movie shooting function is excellent and records crisp clear sound, which I realized when I shot a sample clip of my house and when I transferred it to my computer I could hear sounds even as low as pressing of a wall button very clearly and the movie shooting function allows zooming while shooting which worked quiet well. The camera also has optical lens adjustment feature which stabilizes image while taking a picture on high optical zoom. I have even tried the photo stitch mode from the camera to shoot some cool panoramic of the skyline, I then tested this camera for night movie shooting when it rained recently in Pune during holi, I could capture the glimpse of rain drops visible across the road light at full optical zoom with very minimal distortion, since I had kept auto ISO settings, on manual ISO settings the results could have being still better. Movie recording is done in AVI format and Images are stored in JPEG format.
I have not tested the camera’s functionality still for a proper night photography, the camera menu is easy to use, and the digicam is also easy to handle physically and offers steady balance while taking pictures, the LCD screen is 2.5 inch and has swivel function allowing you to protect the screen once you are done shooting, however the lens cap is kind of loose and can fall off with a slight jerk, this camera also has good face detection feature, and has different modes of photography available Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Sports, Stitch Assist, Movie and in special scene mode you can customize your camera for shooting modes like, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Colour Accent, Colour Swap White Balance, Daylight, Cloudy and more.
Camera flash function is decent and I have not encountered red-eye factor in the images which I have taken from this camera till now, this camera also allows wide screen photo taking functionality.
It requires 4 X AA Alkaline or 2100 NiMH config batteries, it provides good battery backup as well, and I am yet to check the performance of the camera on rechargeable batteries which I purchased separately along with the camera, have used the 2 sets of 4 alkaline batteries up till now, shooting close to 300 images and few video clips.
I am quiet happy migrating to this camera, and would suggest this camera for users learning photography and also want a decent movie shooting option a good buy for Super zoom camera category.