Canon PowerShot S5 IS review

Weaknesses
It's when you come to turn the camera on that you notice the first chink in the S5 IS' armour -- namely the fact that the unit is activated with an awkward twist of a dial that sits behind the shutter release button.

Turn this to the left for capture mode -- at which point the zoom lens slides forth from its housing to its maximum wide angle setting in just over a second -- or to the right for image playback. The off button rests in the centre of the dial, but the set up doesn't gel and comes across as unnecessarily fiddly.

Though pixel fringing is evident between areas of high contrast, the main problem with the S5 IS proves to be image noise -- visible at ISO 400 and progressively worse the higher up the ISO range you move. At ISO 1,600 it's as if you're viewing the shot through a frosted window.

Conclusion
The S5 IS is decently priced at around £230. The main advantage of it is that you get a huge zoom within a reasonably compact body that, at a push, you can shoot single-handedly. Not only that, but the vari-angle LCD proves useful for those otherwise tricky low or high angle shots, while the ability to use the zoom in video capture mode another plus.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Jon Squire