Great camera all around

This camera has so many different things to talk about, I don’t know where to begin!

I’m 21 years old, and in the seven years of my life so far that I have been a digital user, I have owned several cameras. My first was a $400 Sony Mavica FD-75 and it wrote right to 2.5” floppy disks. (I remember being so impressed!) It was 0.33 megapixels and it served me for over 2 years and over 12,000 photos. After that was the Casio QV-R40, a slim 4-megapixel model I also loved. After an unfortunate dropping accident with that one, it was the Nikon Coolpix 4100, and after the neighbor’s dog ate it (no joke) it was the Canon Powershot A520, which served me well for a long time before it was so well-used that the quality and efficiency began to diminish. After that was the A640, which took one fall too many this past autumn. So it was time for a new camera yet again, and next up was, of course, the S5 IS. As soon as I started reading about it, I knew it was “the (new) one.”

Again – there is so much to talk about, I don’t know where to start.

Overall, this camera is astounding. They call it the “bridge between” camera, and it really is just that. This camera fills the gap between point-and-shoot and DSLR, and while I am hoping to upgrade to a DSLR soon, I really do adore this camera.

Handling and Usability
The S5 not only looks like a DSLR, it handles like one. Many people have the need for small, thin, light cameras, but I prefer a sturdy grip and weight that feels grounded. I am, however, also the type of person who will take my camera where I want to, never considering its bulk. I’m not sure how much the S5 weighs with its batteries, but it has that secure feel about it, and its sleek blackness is classic. I encourage my friends and family to pick up the camera if we’re at a gathering/party, etc. and while this camera seemed to intimidate them a little at first, they now freely pick it up or take it from me and enjoy doing so; it’s very user-friendly and intuitive. The buttons are in good places and though the setup was a little bit new to me, it all becomes second nature quickly, especially for previous Canon users like myself.

This is the first camera I’ve ever owned that had a neck strap instead of just a wrist strap. Because of the size and durability of the camera, there is no other option besides a neck strap, really. It makes carrying convenient and picking it up easier. It’s a fairly comfortable strap as well.

As everyone says all over the Internet in reviews and comments, the lens cap is very loose-fitting. I understand (and appreciate) that it’s to save the lens motor, since you’re likely to sometimes forget to take it off when you’re turning the camera on, but it does make it difficult to keep in a bag other than its case. Sometimes I just want to throw my camera into my purse instead of taking its separate bag, and I fear for the lens with this camera, as the lens cap pops off easily. And since it is a larger camera, my camera bag, while not huge, is large enough that it’s its own entity.

Batteries, Photo Quality/Size and Memory

One of my top three look-fors with new cameras is the battery type. I prefer AA batteries, and it’s what I preach to other camera searchers the most. I just don’t like proprietary batteries. I have a zillion rechargeable AA batteries and they hold a good charge and are convenient and cheap. I’d rather have to deal with AAs and have several sets on hand than worry about losing battery power or paying a lot for a backup. So that was major selling point for me with the S5. It works on 4 AAs, which is great for flash recharge time and operation speed. And it’s convenient, at least for me. I do, however, recommend rechargeables or you’re going to pay an arm and a leg in alkalines. My recharged batteries can work for me all day, even if I’m steadily shooting. The battery life is amazing on this camera, though I have noticed that batteries deplete a little faster in temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Another complaint you see everywhere for the S5: the batteries and SD card are in the same compartment. I have learned to live with this, but it is troublesome sometimes. You just have to get used to it. Another thing you have to get used to is the way the battery compartment closes. It almost feels like you’re forcing/breaking it, but you aren’t. It’s not something that would stop me from getting/loving the camera, but it’s something to think/know about.

Photo quality is excellent, and I haven’t had any of the purple fringing I hear people talk about, though you will get grainier the higher the ISO. I always keep my quality setting at the very highest, but it is nice to have the other choices as well. On a 2GB card I get over 540 photos at the highest setting. I have about 4.5GB available to me through all of my SD cards, and I’ve never run out at one particular event or outing. I do recommend a card 1GB or higher, though. The 32GB card the camera with is pretty much useless, and I tossed it right away; I didn’t have need for it and it would have just been clutter.

Modes and Scenes
Modes on the dial
Auto is obviously what a lot of people are going to use automatically a lot of the time. I rarely have my camera in Auto; I prefer P, which, to me, is almost the same as Auto, but I have the control over the flash being automatic or forced. All of the modes are handy, though, and I’m glad Canon provides so many different controls.

Av controls aperture value and compensates automatically for exposure. Tv controls shutter speed and compensates for aperture. I tend to use Tv more than Av personally, but both modes are useful and nice to have. M is full Manual – you control exposure time and aperture. This is great to have, as it gives you complete control over your photos. C is “Custom” mode and you can keep custom settings that you’d like to reuse. It’s a nice tough. So far my Custom setting is just my preferred timer settings (which I will talk more about below).

Movie mode is amazing, and a big seller for me was the “instant movie” button. It’s the red one on the back of the camera, and it allows you to take movies at the press of a button (you set the settings in Movie Mode on the dial and then it uses those for all movie-taking). I always struggled with getting the dial to movie mode easily and quickly to catch something, but now it’s just a press of a button to turn it on and off! I got used to the switch pretty quickly. The display also accommodates this new feature by telling you how many minutes and seconds you have left of video at the current settings alongside the number of exposures left. You can also take full-quality stills (without flash) during the movie making. The LP mode is nice, as it reduces quality only slightly and gives you more movie time.

There are other creative/helpful modes as well – Portrait, Landscape, Night Snapshot, Sports, SCN (Scene) mode and Panorama Assist. Portrait and Landscape are for just the situations they sound like they’d be fore – portraits and landscapes. Night Snapshot helps you take good photos of people against night backgrounds by reducing blur. Sports mode is nice for continuous action shooting, and has given me some good turnout for fast-moving subjects such as children and pets. Panorama Assist is one of those controls that I forget I have, but plan on learning more about in the spring months to come. It helps you take panoramic photos and the supplied software helps you stitch them together. I’ve had some good results so far.

SCN (Scene) Mode Choices
Night Scene – Again, this helps with people against night scenes. It directs the flash at the person and holds the shutter open longer for a good exposure of the lights, etc. I’ve yet to try this one.
Indoor – This helps keep light and color natural-looking and reduces blur. This helps a lot! It takes away a lot of yellowish tinge.
Foliage – This enhances natural colors for outdoor scenes. I’ve tried this, and it’s subtle but helps.
Snow/Beach – These helps with harsh light and natural color looks. I’ve tried Snow – it really does help alleviate bluish tones from snow.
Fireworks – This helps steadiness and exposure for good pictures of fireworks, though a tripod is recommended for this sort of photography. I’ve yet to try this setting.
Aquarium – This helps you take photos of fish and other sea creatures in indoor aquariums. I haven’t tried this yet either.
Color Swap – I LOVE this scene mode. You assign a value to be switched with another value. You choose the values right out of the frame you’re looking at. It’s hard to explain but really very cool. Sometimes it works seamlessly, though other times it’s a little more imprecise. Still, it is an amazing feature and really fun to play with using skin- and hair tones. This is also available in Movie Mode.
Color Accent – This is my favorite scene mode. It makes the almost the whole photo black and white, all except the value you designate. I love the effect and it works amazingly well. This is also available in Movie Mode.

Misc. Features and such
LCD/display/viewfinder – The LCD screen swivels, and I think that a 2.5” screen is more than adequate. The swiveling is useful, smooth and just plain cool. The screen is also very clear and has a great resolution. The viewfinder is not optical, which might bother some, but not me; I use the LCD 99.5% of the time anyway. The viewfinder is, however, 100% coverage and totally digital. It’s essentially a miniature version of the LCD display inside the eye piece. It’s kind of cool and cute, though I don’t use it too often. There is a manual focus adjuster on the viewfinder so you can adjust it for your vision preferences.

Flash – The flash took a little bit of getting use to for me, since I’m not used to a manual flash, but it’s second nature now. You lift the flash up for auto or forced flash (you can specific that mode with the flash button top of the camera) and you push it down for forced off flash. It’s pretty simple and you can catch on quickly. As for the flash itself, it’s adequate, though I would eventually like an external flash.

Shutter Lag/Shot-to-Shot Speeds – The shutter lag is pretty good! Without flash, shot-to-shot is almost nil, and with flash it’s probably about a half a second or a tiny bit more. It’s very satisfactory in that area. Shutter lag (the time between pressing the shutter button and taking the photo) is great for the most part, and only slows down a little with flash in a dark area; it’s hard to focus.

Zoom – The zoom is amazing! This is advertised as a super zoom, and not only is it super zoom in technical ways, it’s really quite super! I rarely use digital zoom, as that is essentially just cropping, but the optical really is amazing, and I really enjoy that the zoom is so high. This was a major plus for me when considering it. The zoom toggle switch is pretty good, and it has enough steps/intervals for me.

Image Stabilizer (IS) – The Image Stabilizer is pretty good, and it’s very nice that it’s lens-shift, rather than digital. I don’t seem to notice it much, but I’m sure it helps in ways I don’t recognize, as I’m used to the camera by now. You can set it for Shooting Only, which adjusts when the shutter is pressed. You can also set it for Continuous adjusting which adjusts your preview/movement images as well. Continuous eats a little bit more battery, but not drastically as some reports might seem. It can also be turned off.

Continuous Shooting/Timer – I LOVE that the S5 IS has a dedicated button for this shooting mode. You can choose Single Frame, Continuous, Continuous with Focus Lock, 10 second Timer, 2 second Timer and Custom Timer. It’s so nice that this is a button now, rather than a menu item. Custom Timer saves your last-used custom settings; you can choose 1-10 seconds for the wait and 1-10 photos taken after that wait. (I always keep mine at 10 and 10! It’s fun.) Continuous shooting itself is pretty speedy, and I’m happy with it. Focus Lock for continuous is nice too; it depends on your subject.

White Balance - I never much knew or cared about white balance until very recently, but now that I’ve learned about it, I love that the S5 is flexible with it. The white balance mode is a FUNC menu mode and there’s Auto White Balance, which I have it on most of the time. There’s Cloudy, Fluorescent, and other choices that change the tone and color of your shots. Custom white balance measures the white balance for a particular setup/shot. The flexibility is very nice.

Shortcut Button - There is a shortcut button on the back of the camera, towards the upper left corner, and you can set it for one of seven different functions: White Balance, Custom White Balance (what I have mine set to), Light Metering, Display Off, AE Lock (which deals with locking exposure and focus), AF Lock (which deals with auto focus and locking it), and Digital Teleconverter. It’s handy, but I wish you could set it to be any feature on the camera. I might soon change it to AE Lock.

Time Zones - When you turn on the camera for the first time it asks you for time zone and time/date settings. From this, you can travel around the world and choose what time zone you are in and it will all be automatically set for you. I have no need for this right now, really, but it’s handy and nice.

Time/Date – If you hold the camera horizontally and hold down the Timer button for more than five seconds, you get a view of the current time! I actually use this a lot! If you press the Timer button again while it’s showing, it changes the background color. If you hold/move the camera vertically and press the button, it shows the date as well. I love this.

My Colors - My Colors is a wonderful feature. Included in the category: Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black and White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin, Darker Skin, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Vivid Blue and Custom (which allows you to adjust saturation, contrast, sharpness, reds, greens, blues and skin tones). I usually have mine on Vivid or Custom all the time. I love this feature. What’s amazingly cool is that you can apply these settings to photos after you take them, and it saves the settings as a new image. All of the My Colors work well, though Lighter and Darker Skin take a little practice.

My Categories - I don’t use this feature, but it could be useful to some people. You can categorize photos after they are taken into folders of your choice: Events, People, Scenery, To Do and 1, 2 or 3.

Sound Recorder and Voice Memos - I have my own independent digital voice recorder, but this camera can act as one as well, and record just audio. I believe it is a WAV file when you upload it, though I am not sure. This is a menu kind of option. You can also record memos for photos (not movies) if you’d like; this comes in handy for me every so often.

Focus/Macro/Super Macro - There are a lot of different ways to focus and lock focus on this camera. Manual Focus takes a little getting used to but is good. The MF and Macro/Super Macro buttons are located on the lens housing, which I like. Macro is useful as Canon’s Macro always is, and Super Macro is amazing. It really does get the focus VERY close for small objects. Super Macro has come in handy for me when doing eye photo shoots and photographing intricate hobby detail, as well as other things. Canon also has their new Face Detect technology included on the S5, and if you have it on, it finds/tracks the faces in the frame and locks focus on them for the photo. It works well and is very cool and nice to have.

Playback/Recording Mode/Off Toggle - This camera has a toggle switch (like most zooms are toggle switches now) to get between Playback and Recording Modes. You can turn the camera on by toggling the switch to either side (and they are clearly labeled) and the small off button is located on top of the switch itself. I love this configuration. It’s fast, convenient and smooth.

Playback Mode
Playback mode is smooth and very fast, and I really like some of the small little features that make playback easier. While in the mode, you can view one image at a time, four at a time, nine at a time, or nine at a time with the ability to flip through “pages” quickly. When you stop on a particular photo in the four at a time or nine at a time views, the thumbnail becomes a little bigger. Something else I find useful – you can go back to Record mode without toggling the switch: pressing the shutter button halfway gets you back to Record mode for those must-catch moments that happen while you’re looking at other shots.

Deleting - Deleting is smooth – there is a button for it, and the commands are simple. You can delete images while you are still reviewing them too, if you have that feature on. My review time is 2 seconds, but it can range from 0 to 10, and during that time you can erase the photo right away without even going into Play mode.

Image Searches/Jumps - You can jump to sets of images using the search/jump button in playback, and specify one of six searches: Date, My Category, Folder, Movies, Jump by 10, Jump by 100. I’ve used this to find movies; it’s a nice add-on.

Auto Rotate - You can turn on the “Auto Rotate” feature, and your photos will be appropriately rotated in playback mode. The orientation changes with the physical orientation of the camera, too – horizontally or vertically. Everyone seems to like that a lot for reviewing.

Focus Review - If you have Review on (like I said, mine is 2 seconds), you can press the DISP button while the review of the shot you just took is showing and it will go into Focus Review, which shows you where exactly the camera focused. I use this all the time and it’s a very neat little feature!

Miscellany
Uploading - I don’t bother with the cords that are included with cameras, or the programs that come with them. I take the card out and use a card reader to get the images to my computer; it’s really very simple and it’s the way I recommend to everyone, so I can’t vouch much for the cords/software.

Remote Access - There is no remote access for this camera, which would have been nice. I would have liked to have been able to use a shutter release remote.

Tripods, Monopods, etc. - I have a tripod and will soon have a monopod; I recommend these to enthusiasts. The S5 has a hole for them on the bottom and it’s an easy camera to use with these accessories.

AV Hookup/Slideshow Mode - The camera comes with red/yellow/white AV cords so you can plug the camera right into your TV. It’s so simple and cool! You can take photos live with the camera, using the TV as your viewing screen. You can also play the photos back on the TV. The camera comes with a slideshow mode, and you can set transitions (there are 2 or 3 choices) and timing intervals, and then just let it play hands-free. I’ve used it a couple of times; it’s very nicely put together.

Manual - You can get the manual in PDF form at the Canon website, and the camera comes with a paper version. The manual is well-written and easy to understand. I mainly refer to my PDF copy, but I also have the manual in my camera case.


The S5 IS, overall, is a fantastic camera. I recommend it fully and completely, and look forward to many, many more photos taken with it.