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Friday, May 9, 2008

Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

Front View:  Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom(click to enlarge)

Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

If you have been thinking about a Digital Camera will just about do what ever you want, including drive your car this is it...just kidding about the driving your car thing.

What I will say is that if you are thinking about or have made up your mind about buying this camera then I would get it from Amazon.com and this will take you Amazon through my affiliate link...why not share in the profits and help a guy that is trying to put gas in my car to get back and forth to work and coach my little league team with the gas prices as high as they are... the profits from my affiliate links will help buy the tools for these inner city kids to be successful at the game of baseball... thanks for reading and thanks for buying through my affiliate link through amazon.

Back View:  Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom(click to enlarge)

While at this time I will tell you that I don't have this camera but if I had the money I would, according to the 309 user reviews that this camera has gotten from amazon (200) 5 stars and (79) 4 stars and the rest really don't matter as you will not be able to please everyone all the time.

Here is the last user review posted at amazon to give you an idea of why I always recommend amazon as the place to review your potential purchase, you can not post a review unless you have bought the product you are reviewing from amazon, so you are not getting a review from someone that doesn't even own the product.

This is from D. Fox from California...I had been eyeing this camera since it was first announced. I was looking for a decent camera, a step above the compact point-and-shoots, and a step below the DSLRs. This camera seemed to fit the bill, and it was at my price point also. I bought the camera with the idea that this would be the be-all-end-all of non-DSLR digital cameras for the next couple years, and I bought it before the review sites had their reviews up.
Anyway, I've used the camera for a couple days now and taken about 400 shots with it. It is pretty good, although I want to share my thoughts on a couple things that other reviews have brought up.

PROS

Very quick.
This camera focuses extremely quick (and beeps to let you know it's in focus), and when it can't focus it lets you know. I use it in the 'P' setting mostly, and if it can't focus (due to low light or no contrast) it just doesn't beep. It is very quick to turn on and extend it's lens.

Feature-packed.
The amount of features on this thing are truly spectacular, even the creature comforts are nice (such as the histogram and over-exposure detect). The rotating LCD screen is awesome. It enables shots that otherwise wouldn't be possible. You won't find another ultra-zoom on the market at this price range that offers more in this area.

Feel
This camera feels nice. It feels solid (as long as the lens cap is off). The rotating LCD doesn't feel loose or cheap. The on/off button is nicely located. It makes it fun to use. The zoom is silent too.

There have been a lot of complaints about the battery door being too flimsy. I think this is a little overblown. It's not as nice as some other cameras, but it's not that bad really. As for the batteries being in the same slot as the memory card, I can see why for some people that would be an issue, but for 90% of the users I don't really see it as that much of a problem. I think of it as only having a battery door since I rarely take the memory card out of my cameras anyway ( I just use the supplied cable to transfer the images and a very large memory card).

Front View with optional extended lens:  Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom(click to enlarge)

CONS

Noise present.
There is an unpleasant amount of noise at the 8 MP setting, especially in ISO 200 or above. This seems to be the trend, cram as many pixels as we can into this thing because the market dictates this. Noise is comparable to the FZ8 in my opinion, however, the noise reduction is not so aggressive.
This being said, I prefer some noise way more than an aggressive noise-reduction system's effects. However, if I wanted a camera that delivers the quality of a 5 mega-pixel camera I would've bought one. They are much cheaper.

Lens cap flimsy.
The lens cap is somewhat flimsy, falling off easily if you bump it, or even set it on a table too hard. This is obviously so you don't jam the motor by turning it on without removing the cap (which you're bound to do eventually). I'm used to the self-contained lens caps which retract automatically, but I understand this is tough on a camera with a lens this long. I had a camera once that when powered up would detect that the cap was still on and beep, letting you know to take the cap off. That's probably too much to ask these days.

Red-Eye.
The red-eye reduction is not great on this camera (it doesn't pre-fire the flash, it just illuminates an LED on the front), so I find myself using the red-eye removal tool that is in the camera. The results of this were only so-so for me. I've had mixed results. Sometimes it works wonders, others it did indeed detect and remove the red-eye, only to replace the red with an unnatural looking black (it's hard to explain, but think of what the photo touchup machine at Target would do). If you wanna see this, e-mail me. This is OK if you're just creating small prints, although if you look at it on your computer display at full-res you clearly see this effect. If your subject is looking directly at the camera, the detection can remove the red-eye from both eyes. However, if your subject is not directly at the camera, sometimes the red-eye removal only catches one of the eyes. This is somewhat of a minor issue due to the amount of aftermarket red-eye reduction software available (CS3 anyone?).

Chromatic Aberration/Blurry Corners
This seems to be a bit of a problem with this camera. Not more so than some other cameras in this range, but it is annoying. I don't know what exactly causes it, but I have taken shots in my backyard during daylight, and whenever light is reflecting off of something with anything dark in the background, I see this red/magenta outlines. Some cameras remove this in processing the JPEG image(e.g. Lumix), which is something that would be nice to have. I'm probably making a bigger deal out of it than it really is. I've seen much worse in some of the competition. Blurry corners seem to be a problem as well. If you take an outdoor scene shot, you'll notice that the four corners are a little blurry and distorted. Some people wouldn't see this being that much of a problem, but I love taking outdoor scenic shots where details like that are important.

Zoom Control.
This aspect is really annoying. The zoom control is somewhat cheap feeling and over-sensitive. It is one of those that changes zoom speed based on how hard you press the lever. It has a slow speed and a fast speed. However, the slow speed doesn't have enough hysteresis. It is difficult to get the zoom speed just right. I have a feeling the slow speed will wear out and only the fast will remain. I actually used a S3 with this worn out zoom controller and it was quite annoying, as you could only zoom fast.

If I weren't so picky I would LOVE this camera, however the less-than-outstanding image quality make it 4 stars instead of 5. As it is, it's not perfect for indoor nor outdoor shots. If anyone wants to see any examples of stuff I've talked about, please e-mail me and I'll get you some examples.


Read more Reviews, this review helped 622 of 631 people make their decision



Go to Amazon.com and take a look at this camera and see if it is for you...

Here are 3 reason why you should but it from Amazon

1. Buying the Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera new will cost you $299.99 which is $150 off the retail price. $449.99.

2. You can buy the Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera used and save about $10 which really isn't worth it

3. You buy this Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera from Amazon and you get free shipping...now that isn't going to save you a ton...but a penny saved is a penny earned.

Front View with Flash:  Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom(click to enlarge)

Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom



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