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Rating:  - Deployed camera man
The camera seems good, I am currently deployed in Kosovo. I feel that the video imaging lacks some clarity. I can get blurred images unless I put it on the sport shots. The zoom is great on the standard zoom, once you get to the digital zoom it startd to pixelate. I can zoom quite well with the regular zoom to distances of a mile or more and use it for reports to higher ups.
I feel that the camera once the extras are purchased is well worth the price paid. I strongly recommend the larger SD card for the camera. Pay for the better card as the pictures that the camera is capable of will merit the larger images for future use.
For being a larger camera, it still does alot of stuff that you would expect in a much more expensive unit.
SSG Marc Johannes,
Kosovo 2008-2009
Rating:  - Great easy to use point and shoot camera
This is great camera if you want a top of line point and shoot thing. It's not a professional SLR so don't expect that. I like it cause I can give to other family members and they can take good pictures. Flimsy lens cap that gets lost easy. Nice small size.
Rating: - A great choice for an upgrade
If you are like me, you have had a point and shoot digital, have become comfortable with how to download, store, back-up etc..., but still are not entirely satisfied with the picture quality. You want something that takes better photos, but don't want to go to an SLR because of the size and you might be a little intimidated by all of the manual settings. You are going to every website, trying to find out which camera is the best one to buy, and are now obsessed with trying to decide. If this is you, then you can't go wrong with this camera. I was there, and pulled the trigger on this one, and wouldn't go back. DO NOT BE SCARED BY THE PIXEL concerns that are on various websites...I can't see it on my pictures...you must need a magnifying glass to see it.
I've been using this camera for 4 months now. I use it mainly to take pictures of my kids...in sports, first day of school, birthday etc...this camera takes great pictures. If you are taking these types of shots, I would recommend investing in the external flash for indoor shots. this camera has an ok built in flash, the external flash attached to the hot-shoe takes the photos to the next level.
I manly view photos online, but have had a few hundred sent to Target to be developed. The quality is amazing. People that look at my shots are impressed with the quality. I'm not even using the best camera setting (I typically use the middle of the road setting M2 "fine" setting).
If you are going from a smaller P&S to this camera, I would recommend doing some basic research and learning about exposure, aperture, shutter speed, and so on. You'll get a lot more out of the camera, and improve the quality of your pictures. The manual tells you how to use the camera...but it doesn't tell you how to take a quality photo.
Is this SLR quality? No, because the sensor isn't the same as what you get on those cameras. You need a little more light to hit the sensor to take the same shot you could with the SLR, but in an outdoor situation, this camera holds it's own.
I love it and so will you.
Rating: - Great camera for the price
Before this camera I had a Powershot A620 that I dropped and screwed up the LCD screen. I didn't think I'd be able to tell much difference in the pictures since the S5 is only a few steps up, but the difference is huge! My pictures are so much clearer and the colors are so much more vivid. If you are considering a powershot, but not sure which one, I'd definitely recommend getting the S5 over any of the A series.
As a side story... something interesting that happened to me with this camera the first week I had it...
Well, I'm studying abroad in Japan. I got the camera like the day before I went on a 10 day Japan-wide vacation with my husband and in-laws. On the last day of my vacation, we were in Hiroshima and wanted to go to the Island of Miyajima to see the shrine lit up at night. Well, we took a taxi to the station, then took a tram but decided that was going to take too long, so we got off at a random station and took a taxi from there to the Ferry to go to Miyajima. While we were waiting for the ferry to Miyajima, I realized I didn't have my camera anymore. I started FREAKING out, not only because the camera, camera bag and memory cards totalled over $400 dollars, but also because all my pictures from my whole vacation were gone with it, all those memories... I cried and tried to use my Japanese at a police box to explain what happened. It was really difficult explaining that it could be in two taxis or on a tram. They filed a report, but I never thought I'd see it again. I told my Japanese friend what happened and asked if she could call some of the main taxi companies in Hiroshima, since there are thousands of them. She looked it up online and there is a website where most of the main companies are affiliated with and you can report lost items, so she sent a message about mine. The next day she got a phone call saying they found it and asking for an address. I gave them my address and received it in the mail the next day. Cost me 12 bucks for the COD. Japanese people are so honest!! In America, that would be the taxi driver's lucky day!
There is another funny part to this story as well. While I was at the police box making the report, I told my mother-in-law to go on to Miyajima so she could take pictures of it for me. I didn't want the expensive taxi ride to be for nothing! There were two ferries over, one at 10, and one at 10:24. She took the one at 10, and got off, ran to take pictures, and came back to the port in Miyajima. She assumed that since the ferry at 10pm went back to the main island, that the one at 10:24 would also go to Miyajima and then back. But it didn't, it just stayed in Miyajima. So, my mother-in-law would not leave the port and kept crying, saying her family was on the other side. Poor woman, doesn't know a lick of Japanese. Meanwhile, me, my husband and his dad are on the otherside waiting for her to come back. Suddenly the lights turn off at our port. What the heck? We go to look to see if the ferry is coming in, and we see nothing. Everything is dark. So, we forget about the camera and everyone starts freaking out. I start asking a taxi driver about how we can get over there, and he says there are no more ferries, but he might be able to get his friend to take us across for 20000 yen (200 bucks, 300 both ways). We have to do it, because we know she is freaking out and scared and alone and probably no one understands her. (Not as many people in Japan speak English as they lead you to believe.) But the taxi driver can't get ahold of the guy, he's sleeping. THEN the police from the police box come, saying that our mom is at a hotel and will take the first ferry back in the morning. Apparently, the police from there called the police on the main island. They took us back to the station to talk to her, and we saw her again at 7am the next morning. As soon as she got back, we headed straight for the airport, making our flight just in time. What a way to end a trip, right?
Everytime I look at my camera I think of this story!!!
Rating: - love it
I purchased this camera a year ago and I use it almost daily for work. I love it!! It takes great pictures. The pictures are vivid and crisp. I'm not fond of the batteries but aside that, I'm very happy with it.
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