Canon PowerShot S5 IS

Review summary: The Canon PowerShot S5 IS ($499) is the follow-up to the incredibly popular PowerShot S3, which was introduced in February of last year. The S5 takes an already excellent camera and improves up on it, adding these new features:

Pros: Very good photo quality ; 12X optical zoom lens ; ultrasonic motor means fast, nearly silent focusing ; Optical image stabilization ; Large and sharp 2.5" LCD can flip-out and rotate ; screen is easily visible in low light ; AF-assist lamp, great low ...

Cons: Redeye a big problem (but at least you can remove it) ; Some purple fringing and corner blurriness ; noisy images at higher ISOs ; Electronic viewfinder has low resolution, so-so outdoor visibility ; Overly sensitive zoom controller ; Lousy lens cap ; ...

Verdict: As you can see, the S5's battery life is a good 20% lower than on the S3. I'm guessing that the larger LCD has a lot to do with this. Despite that, the S5's numbers are still well above the group average

Review summary: With the market for compact digital cameras getting forever more competitive, the Macworld team take a look at eight of the best.

Review summary: Canon Powershot S5IS is a digital camera presented by Canon. Among its features, it has a higher resolution sensor, hot shoe flash connector, higher top ISO sensitivity, and reduced continuous shooting speed. The camera also has numerous scene modes ...

Pros: Images from the S5's leggy 12x lens need to be seen to be believed: they're packed with exceptional levels of detail and contrast. The large electronic viewfinder is sharp and colourful, and even the handy folding LCD delivers some mean pixels. Using ...

Cons: Someone at Canon doesn't like the S5 – it's been hit with an ugly stick more times than a Welsh prop forward, the wideangle setting is a disappointing 36mm and low light shooting has been sabotaged to deliver grungy mush when the sun goes down

Verdict: Ignore the battleship styling of this well-built SLR-alike and concentrate on its karmic inner beauty to snap up an impressive high-zoom bargain.

Review summary: An articulable LCD, great image stabilization, and top-quality photos add up to a great megazoom.