Canon S5 Christmas Deals!
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Canon S5 Christmas Deals!.
Product: Canon S5 Amazon Price: Too low to display Availability: In Stock |
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 tag point also. I bought the camera with the plan 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 worn the camera for a couple days now and taken about 400 shots with it. It is shapely pleasant, although I want to fragment my thoughts on a couple things that other reviews have brought up.
PROS
Very rapid.
This camera focuses extremely lickety-split (and beeps to let you know it's in focus), and when it can't focus it lets you know. I spend it in the 'P' setting mostly, and if it can't focus (due to rude light or no dissimilarity) it unprejudiced doesn't beep. It is very swiftly 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 cloak is awesome. It enables shots that otherwise wouldn't be possible. You won't collect another ultra-zoom on the market at this tag range that offers more in this spot.
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 exhaust. The zoom is mute too.
There have been a lot of complaints about the battery door being too flimsy. I assume this is a itsy-bitsy overblown. It's not as nice as some other cameras, but it's not that unpleasant really. As for the batteries being in the same slot as the memory card, I can ogle why for some people that would be an mutter, but for 90% of the users I don't really view it as that remarkable of a pickle. I judge of it as only having a battery door since I rarely remove the memory card out of my cameras anyway ( I objective exercise the supplied cable to transfer the images and a very gigantic memory card) .
CONS
Noise demonstrate.
There is an bad 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 conception, however, the noise reduction is not so aggressive.
This being said, I rob some noise blueprint more than an aggressive noise-reduction system's effects. However, if I wanted a camera that delivers the quality of a 5 megapixel camera I would've bought one. They are remarkable cheaper.
Lens cap flimsy.
The lens cap is somewhat flimsy, falling off easily if you bump it, or even place it on a table too hard. This is obviously so you don't plight the motor by turning it on without removing the cap (which you're scoot to do eventually) . I'm passe to the self-contained lens caps which select 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 smooth on and beep, letting you know to lift the cap off. That's probably too great to ask these days.
Red-Eye.
The redeye reduction is not mammoth on this camera (it doesn't pre-fire the flash, it honest illuminates an LED on the front), so I procure 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 assume the red-eye, only to replace the red with an unnatural looking dusky (it's hard to justify, but believe of what the photo touchup machine at Target would do) . If you wanna eye this, e-mail me. This is OK if you're fair creating itsy-bitsy prints, although if you watch at it on your computer explain at full-res you clearly gawk this accomplish. If your subject is looking directly at the camera, the detection can capture 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 express due to the amount of aftermarket red-eye reduction software available (CS3 anyone? ) .
Chromatic Abberation/Blurry Corners
This seems to be a bit of a plight 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 murky in the background, I gawk this red/magenta outlines. Some cameras win 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 remarkable worse in some of the competition. Blurry corners seem to be a spot as well. If you win an outdoor scene shot, you'll contemplate that the four corners are a cramped blurry and distorted. Some people wouldn't contemplate this being that great of a scrape, but I worship taking outdoor scenic shots where details like that are principal.
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 accelerate based on how hard you press the lever. It has a insensible rush and a hasty race. However, the insensible race doesn't have enough hysteresis. It is difficult to acquire the zoom accelerate fair factual. I have a feeling the plain hasten will wear out and only the lickety-split will remain. I actually passe a S3 with this feeble out zoom controller and it was quite annoying, as you could only zoom fleet.
If I weren't so picky I would Savor this camera, however the less-than-outstanding image quality fabricate it 4 stars instead of 5. As it is, it's not perfect for indoor nor outdoor shots. If anyone wants to search for any examples of stuff I've talked about, please e-mail me and i'll earn you some examples.
I'm very gratified with the S5 I bought to replace an S3 -- except, as famous elesewhere, I disfavor that the SD card is now in the battery compartment. The hot shoe (external flash socket) is a Spacious relieve, since the builtin flash on these cameras is fair wimpy. The camera takes unbelievably wonderful pictures and has obliging first shot and shot-to-shot times (it helps if you exercise the Energizer e2 Lithium Batteries) . Although the S5 weighs about 4 oz more than the S3 (About 20 oz vs 16 oz inclding batteries), its construction "feels more rugged."
BTW, I don't know that you need to wait for larger cards for bigger movies, etc. I expend an 8gb SDHC card now. Be careful, though, which SDHC cards you acquire. Even with Sandisk's attempt to standardize the speeds, I found that an A-Data "class 6" SDHC card was about 25-35% of the rush of my Transcend class 6 card. Also, remember that you need an SDHC card reader (I got mine from meritline for $5) .
Is anyone else as flummoxed by the negative consumer and expert reviews of this camera as I am? If I were paranoid, I'd judge a conspiracy existed to drive down the cost of this noteworthy camera.
The range of controls is very sizable, their setup is intuitive, and the camera's performance is exemplary. Not only am I joyful with how the camera handles and what it will do, but I'm Design jubilant with the images it produces. I've had my camera for a week now; I've played with all the shooting modes and have taken pictures in all sorts of lighting. As long as the camera is situation correctly for the shot, images are consistently proper. The ones that have been anything less than stellar were caused by my hold hastiness or error.
Movies also are awesome, and stereo sound is a broad plus.
Maybe I impartial lucked out and got a helpful copy. Maybe it isn't really the unbelievable share of photographic wizardry I have it is. But I am a long-in-the-tooth advanced amateur with perfectionistic tendencies. And in my estimation the S5 IS is an extraordinary tool.
Minor issues inherent in a camera of this sensor size and lens zoom range do exist. According to the many expert camera reviews, there presently is not a mega-zoom on the market that is completely free of chromatic aberration and some noise at higher ISOs. If you're planning to print poster-sized images, bag a 35mm digital SLR and some very expensive lenses--you'll be gay with nothing less. But if you're looking for a go-anywhere camera that bridges the gap between that large D-SLR and the teensy minute super-compact in your photo bag, if most of your prints are average size, and you do the majority of your viewing on a computer, stare no further. You can't go cross with the S5 IS.
PS. Oh, yeah, one more thing. It's impartial dead FUN!
