Why did I buy the Canon S5IS digital camera?

Well let’s start out with why I did NOT want to buy Canon S5 IS. It’s big. Not like the EOS Digital SLR, but it is much bigger than the Powershot G9 or G7. Those tiny cigarette-box-cameras are so small and convenient. They fit right in your pocket and they are just so easy to tote around. That’s a huge advantage in my book. So why did I sacrifice super portability?

Picture Quality
Since I had owned one of these small Cannon digital cameras already, Powershot S410 Digital ELPH (like the SD400), I was familiar with their shortcomings. The problem is picture quality. Not so much with outdoor shots. Indoor shots usually looked pretty poor. I am by no means a camera expert. I don’t want to spend time learning the ins and outs of focal lengths and apertures. I just want better pictures. And I want it to be easy. This lead me to the S5.

Great Features
The S5 has lot and lots of great features, but there were a handful that really sold me on the camera. So what were they?

12x Optical Zoom: The G9 and others don’t compare. When you take a good look at it, you see the s5 has a bigger lens. A good rule of thumb is that lenses that look bigger are better. The optical zoom on this thing is great. Don’t bother with digital zoom, optical zoom is the important thing.

Video: The Canon S5IS takes great video and you can optically zoom while shooting video. That’s like a real video camera. I've always been sold on Cannon cameras but this the first one I've had that takes such great video. Not only that you can take still photos while shooting video!

Flash: The flash on the Canon powershot S5 IS pops up and is centered over the lens, and when I bought the camera, my hunch was this flash would produce better photos. Well it does. I’m not sure exactly why, but flash photos with this camera look way better that my old Powershot.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Fast: When you press the button to take a picture, it takes a picture right away. No more missing shots like I did with my old Powershot. The response time seemed faster with the S5 IS than with Powershot G9 or SD850 as well.

Price
Not only does it have all the cool features above (and lots more), the S5 IS was cheaper than the G9 and about the same as other Canon SDs. Price is sure part of the reason I usually buy Canon.


SciFi and steampunk fans need to read about Grandville by Bryan Talbot