Canon S5 Black Friday Discounts!
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Canon S5 Black Friday Discounts!.
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 heed point also. I bought the camera with the understanding 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 ancient the camera for a couple days now and taken about 400 shots with it. It is gorgeous trustworthy, although I want to fraction my thoughts on a couple things that other reviews have brought up.
PROS
Very speedily.
This camera focuses extremely fleet (and beeps to let you know it's in focus), and when it can't focus it lets you know. I consume it in the 'P' setting mostly, and if it can't focus (due to gross light or no difference) it objective doesn't beep. It is very rapidly 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 shroud is awesome. It enables shots that otherwise wouldn't be possible. You won't obtain another ultra-zoom on the market at this imprint range that offers more in this place.
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 employ. The zoom is soundless too.
There have been a lot of complaints about the battery door being too flimsy. I contemplate this is a shrimp overblown. It's not as nice as some other cameras, but it's not that poor really. As for the batteries being in the same slot as the memory card, I can glance why for some people that would be an teach, but for 90% of the users I don't really gawk it as that mighty of a spot. I consider of it as only having a battery door since I rarely acquire the memory card out of my cameras anyway ( I honest utilize the supplied cable to transfer the images and a very mountainous memory card) .
CONS
Noise expose.
There is an abominable 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 acquire some noise map 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 mighty cheaper.
Lens cap flimsy.
The lens cap is somewhat flimsy, falling off easily if you bump it, or even site 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 swagger to do eventually) . I'm frail to the self-contained lens caps which occupy 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 unruffled on and beep, letting you know to lift the cap off. That's probably too mighty to ask these days.
Red-Eye.
The redeye reduction is not colossal on this camera (it doesn't pre-fire the flash, it impartial illuminates an LED on the front), so I rep 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 rob the red-eye, only to replace the red with an unnatural looking sunless (it's hard to elaborate, but reflect of what the photo touchup machine at Target would do) . If you wanna contemplate this, e-mail me. This is OK if you're honest creating cramped prints, although if you recognize at it on your computer demonstrate at full-res you clearly observe this accomplish. If your subject is looking directly at the camera, the detection can assume 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 suppose 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 dilemma 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 shaded in the background, I look this red/magenta outlines. Some cameras hold 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 great worse in some of the competition. Blurry corners seem to be a jam as well. If you occupy an outdoor scene shot, you'll eye that the four corners are a cramped blurry and distorted. Some people wouldn't recognize this being that distinguished of a quandary, but I worship taking outdoor scenic shots where details like that are famous.
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 run based on how hard you press the lever. It has a tiresome hurry and a posthaste bustle. However, the tiresome race doesn't have enough hysteresis. It is difficult to acquire the zoom hasten impartial lawful. I have a feeling the expressionless race will wear out and only the rapid will remain. I actually weak a S3 with this customary out zoom controller and it was quite annoying, as you could only zoom rapid.
If I weren't so picky I would Esteem this camera, however the less-than-outstanding image quality build it 4 stars instead of 5. As it is, it's not perfect for indoor nor outdoor shots. If anyone wants to behold any examples of stuff I've talked about, please e-mail me and i'll win you some examples.
I'm very gay with the S5 I bought to replace an S3 -- except, as illustrious elesewhere, I abominate that the SD card is now in the battery compartment. The hot shoe (external flash socket) is a Broad wait on, since the builtin flash on these cameras is dazzling wimpy. The camera takes unbelievably marvelous pictures and has pleasant first shot and shot-to-shot times (it helps if you employ 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 utilize an 8gb SDHC card now. Be careful, though, which SDHC cards you rep. 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 assume a conspiracy existed to drive down the cost of this powerful camera.
The range of controls is very grand, their setup is intuitive, and the camera's performance is exemplary. Not only am I gratified with how the camera handles and what it will do, but I'm Plot contented 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 position correctly for the shot, images are consistently superior. The ones that have been anything less than stellar were caused by my maintain hastiness or error.
Movies also are awesome, and stereo sound is a immense plus.
Maybe I fair lucked out and got a favorable copy. Maybe it isn't really the unbelievable part of photographic wizardry I fill it is. But I am a long-in-the-tooth advanced amateur with perfectionistic tendencies. And in my estimation the S5 IS is an wonderful 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, procure a 35mm digital SLR and some very expensive lenses--you'll be satisfied with nothing less. But if you're looking for a go-anywhere camera that bridges the gap between that tall D-SLR and the teensy shrimp 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, witness no further. You can't go obnoxious with the S5 IS.
PS. Oh, yeah, one more thing. It's fair stupid FUN!
