Canon S5 announced

Canon S5 announced

Hi All,

Canon has announced the S5 8 MP camera:
* w w w .dimagemaker . com /article.php?articleID=971

Cheers,

Wayne

--
Wayne J. Cosshall
Publisher, The Digital ImageMaker, * w w w .dimagemaker . com /
Blog * w w w .digitalimagemakerworld . com /
Publisher, Experimental Digital Photography
* w w w .experimentaldigitalphotography . com
Personal art site * w w w .cosshall . com /

Re: Canon S5 announced

Wayne J. Cosshall wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Canon has announced the S5 8 MP camera:
> * w w w .dimagemaker . com /article.php?articleID=971
>
> Cheers,
>
> Wayne

Thanks for that Wayne. It's on DP Review as well:

* w w w .dpreview . com /news/0705/07050703canons5is.asp

I wonder what happened to the S4? Perhaps "4" is an unlucky number in
some country? It seems to offer little new over the S3 - no wider-angle
coverage and even the EVF is stuck at a relatively poor "115,000 pixels".

To me this camera, and the current Panasonic Lunix cameras, both suggest
that Canon S5 IS and Panasonic FZ8 are now relatively mature and
successful camera lines.

Cheers,
David

Re: Canon S5 announced

4 I believe is an unlucky number in China, sounding similar to the word
for death (I think).

Cheers,

Wayne

Wayne J. Cosshall
Publisher, The Digital ImageMaker, * w w w .dimagemaker . com /
Blog * w w w .digitalimagemakerworld . com /
Publisher, Experimental Digital Photography
* w w w .experimentaldigitalphotography . com
Personal art site * w w w .cosshall . com /



David J Taylor wrote:
> Wayne J. Cosshall wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Canon has announced the S5 8 MP camera:
>> * w w w .dimagemaker . com /article.php?articleID=971
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Wayne
>
> Thanks for that Wayne. It's on DP Review as well:
>
> * w w w .dpreview . com /news/0705/07050703canons5is.asp
>
> I wonder what happened to the S4? Perhaps "4" is an unlucky number in
> some country? It seems to offer little new over the S3 - no wider-angle
> coverage and even the EVF is stuck at a relatively poor "115,000 pixels".
>
> To me this camera, and the current Panasonic Lunix cameras, both suggest
> that Canon S5 IS and Panasonic FZ8 are now relatively mature and
> successful camera lines.
>
> Cheers,
> David
>
>
>

Re: Canon S5 announced

On Mon, 07 May 2007 07:30:11 GMT, David J Taylor <david-taylor@blueyonder.not-this-bit.nor-this-part.co.uk> wrote:
> Wayne J. Cosshall wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Canon has announced the S5 8 MP camera:
>> * w w w .dimagemaker . com /article.php?articleID=971
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Wayne
>
> Thanks for that Wayne. It's on DP Review as well:
>
> * w w w .dpreview . com /news/0705/07050703canons5is.asp
>
> I wonder what happened to the S4? Perhaps "4" is an unlucky number in
> some country? It seems to offer little new over the S3 - no wider-angle
> coverage and even the EVF is stuck at a relatively poor "115,000 pixels".

It adds a flash hot-shoe, or at least I think that's a new feature.

Other than that, no real big new features. Just the extra pixel count.

-dms

Re: Canon S5 announced

Daniel Silevitch wrote:
[]
> It adds a flash hot-shoe, or at least I think that's a new feature.
>
> Other than that, no real big new features. Just the extra pixel count.
>
> -dms

Yes, Daniel, DP Review picked up on that one - I missed it as I no longer
use external flash.

Cheers,
David

Re: Canon S5 announced

Daniel Silevitch wrote:
> On Mon, 07 May 2007 07:30:11 GMT, David J Taylor <david-taylor@blueyonder.not-this-bit.nor-this-part.co.uk> wrote:
>> Wayne J. Cosshall wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> Canon has announced the S5 8 MP camera:
>>> * w w w .dimagemaker . com /article.php?articleID=971
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Wayne
>> Thanks for that Wayne. It's on DP Review as well:
>>
>> * w w w .dpreview . com /news/0705/07050703canons5is.asp
>>
>> I wonder what happened to the S4? Perhaps "4" is an unlucky number in
>> some country? It seems to offer little new over the S3 - no wider-angle
>> coverage and even the EVF is stuck at a relatively poor "115,000 pixels".
>
> It adds a flash hot-shoe, or at least I think that's a new feature.
>
> Other than that, no real big new features. Just the extra pixel count.
>
> -dms
An a larger LCD--2.5" vs 2".
Allen

Re: Canon S5 announced

Allen wrote:
[]
> An a larger LCD--2.5" vs 2".
> Allen

Wouldn't more pixels in the EVF have been far more useful?

David

Re: Canon S5 announced

On Mon, 07 May 2007 16:31:32 +1000, Wayne J. Cosshall wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Canon has announced the S5 8 MP camera:
> * w w w .dimagemaker . com /article.php?articleID=971
>
> Cheers,
>
> Wayne

Does it still have the same crappy undersampled electronic viewfinder?

Re: Canon S5 announced

ray wrote:

> Does it still have the same crappy undersampled electronic viewfinder?

According to dpreview's list of specs, yes, it does.

As someone who recently bought the S3 at a low price, I've been waiting to
see what might be improved in the S5, and I've noticed a few things:

- They've added ISO1600. I hope that means they've improved 200, 400 and 800

- Apparently there are 'additional shooting modes'. According to dpreview's
spec list, the shooting modes appear to be exactly the same as on the S3.

- Presumably the 'extended video recording' means no more 1 GB or 1 hr
maximum. But is there a new maximum, or will it just fill the card? And I
wonder if it can use SD-HC cards. Come to that, I wonder if my S3 can use
them...

- The S3 has two continuous shooting modes: 2.3 fps with preview, and 1.5
fps without. The S5 only appears to have 1.5 fps. I wonder it that's with
live preview, recorded preview, or what.

- They've moved the shortcut/print button up to the left-hand side of the
EVF, and the Func and ISO buttons down slightly. On the S3 you can make
adjustments with the Func button and then shoot one-handed, which works
more often than not thanks to the IS. Now the Func button's lower, that
won't be quite so easy. And it will be impossible to reach the shortcut
button with the right hand. I like wandering around taking one-handed
shots, adjusting the Ev and ISO as necessary, then leaving the camera
turned on ready for the next shot but switching the display off using the
shortcut button. The new layout would take some getting used to.

All things considered, I can only echo what many S2 owners said when the S3
came out: there's not enough improvements to make me want to upgrade.

--
Garry Knight
garryknight@gmx . net

Re: Canon S5 announced

On Tue, 08 May 2007 00:31:31 +0100, Garry Knight <garryknight@gmx . net >
wrote:

>ray wrote:
>
>> Does it still have the same crappy undersampled electronic viewfinder?
>
>According to dpreview's list of specs, yes, it does.
>
>As someone who recently bought the S3 at a low price, I've been waiting to
>see what might be improved in the S5, and I've noticed a few things:
>
>- They've added ISO1600. I hope that means they've improved 200, 400 and 800
>
>- Apparently there are 'additional shooting modes'. According to dpreview's
>spec list, the shooting modes appear to be exactly the same as on the S3.
>
>- Presumably the 'extended video recording' means no more 1 GB or 1 hr
>maximum. But is there a new maximum, or will it just fill the card? And I
>wonder if it can use SD-HC cards. Come to that, I wonder if my S3 can use
>them...
>
>- The S3 has two continuous shooting modes: 2.3 fps with preview, and 1.5
>fps without. The S5 only appears to have 1.5 fps. I wonder it that's with
>live preview, recorded preview, or what.
>
>- They've moved the shortcut/print button up to the left-hand side of the
>EVF, and the Func and ISO buttons down slightly. On the S3 you can make
>adjustments with the Func button and then shoot one-handed, which works
>more often than not thanks to the IS. Now the Func button's lower, that
>won't be quite so easy. And it will be impossible to reach the shortcut
>button with the right hand. I like wandering around taking one-handed
>shots, adjusting the Ev and ISO as necessary, then leaving the camera
>turned on ready for the next shot but switching the display off using the
>shortcut button. The new layout would take some getting used to.
>
>All things considered, I can only echo what many S2 owners said when the S3
>came out: there's not enough improvements to make me want to upgrade.
Rather like the moaning about the H9 on the Sony Groups forums.

Re: Canon S5 announced

measekite wrote:

> If the S5 has better image quality I will have to forgo the features
> I like on the FZ8 and they are a much better EVF, the grid option
> for the EVF

You can switch the grid on for the EVF in basic view as well as information
view on the S3. I doubt that they'd remove this function from the S5.

--
Garry Knight
garryknight@gmx . net

Re: Canon S5 announced

> measekite wrote:
>
>> If the S5 has better image quality I will have to forgo the features
>> I like on the FZ8 and they are a much better EVF, the grid option
>> for the EVF


What evidence is there that Canon have significantly changed the lens
since the S3? The Leica lenses on the Panasonics have been clearly better
in the past....

Cheers,
David

Re: Canon S5 announced



David J Taylor wrote:
>> measekite wrote:
>>
>>
>>> If the S5 has better image quality I will have to forgo the features
>>> I like on the FZ8 and they are a much better EVF, the grid option
>>> for the EVF
>>>
>
>
> What evidence is there that Canon have significantly changed the lens
> since the S3? The Leica lenses on the Panasonics have been clearly better
> in the past....
>
> Cheers,
> David
>

I have always believed that the Leica lenses are better. It is just
that all of the reviewers claim that the S3 had better image quality and
that noise is an issue on the FZ8. And since I want to do heavy
cropping and print letter size that issue looms larger for me. I really
like the speed, menu system, and now the EVF of the FZ8.

It remains to be seen if the facial recognition and other new features
of the S5 would be valuable for me. But image quality is the uppermost
criteria.
>
>

Re: Canon S5 announced

measekite wrote:
[]
> I have always believed that the Leica lenses are better. It is just
> that all of the reviewers claim that the S3 had better image quality
> and that noise is an issue on the FZ8. And since I want to do heavy
> cropping and print letter size that issue looms larger for me. I
> really like the speed, menu system, and now the EVF of the FZ8.
>
> It remains to be seen if the facial recognition and other new features
> of the S5 would be valuable for me. But image quality is the
> uppermost criteria.

If you need to do heavy cropping, I would suggest that either:

- you get nearer the subject

- you extend the zoom range

- you get a 10MP DSLR with a high-quality telephoto lens

If image quality is paramount, perhaps only a DSLR will do?

As far as I can gather, the basic image quality is very similar for any of
these small sensors (given similar area and pixel density), but some
cameras by default do more noise reduction or different noise reduction,
resulting in the reported differences in perceived quality. The
differences are subjective, depending on whether you prefer sharper
pictures with slightly more noise, or slightly less sharp pictures, with
slightly less noise! Different subjects will be a better or worse match
to different processing techniques.

Cheers,
David

Re: Canon S5 announced

measekite wrote:

> The Pan FZ8 has an improved EVF while the S5 is the same as your
> camera, the S3. How bad is it?

I don't know. I'm used to using it. It's the first camera I've owned that
has an EVF. At 115,000 pixels, it's the same resolution as the LCD, but
looks smaller. At that resolution, it's sometimes difficult to tell if the
subject is in focus. If I'm in any doubt, I'll take the shot and then zoom
right in while reviewing it. Or I'll focus at infinity if that's
appropriate.

> Do you notice at longer zoom that the camera focuses slow or hesitates?

It depends on the light conditions. When there's not much contrast, it tends
to hunt a bit. And sometimes, when I half-press the shutter release, it
takes a while then focuses, then goes out of focus and stays out of focus.
But this usually happens under conditions when I could just focus at
infinity. I don't know if the S3's AF is any worse than any other camera's
under low-contrast or low-light conditions. The only other camera I can
compare it to is my Casio EX-Z700 which seems about the same.

--
Garry Knight
garryknight@gmx . net