The Canon Powershot S5 IS is a good ultra-zoom digital camera with some small improvements over its predecessor, the Powershot S3 IS. It is a very capable camera with full manual controls, a good super-macro mode and a truly superb movie mode. The biggest selling point of the S5 is its movie mode which records stereo sound and is equipped with a wind-filter, for clearer audio. Image quality is generally good but only at low ISO settings. At ISO 400 and beyond, the S5 produces images with very high noise levels. The Canon Powershot S5 IS is also one of the fastest prosumer cameras. Besides the above average image noise, there is very little to complain about the S5 IS.

Among ultra-zoom cameras, the S5 competes well but several models offer better image quality such as the excellent 9 megapixels Fuji Finepix S9000 and the 6 megapixels Fuji Finepix S6000fd. Both these models lack stabilization but sport usable high ISO sensitivities. These models offer more useful mechanical wide-angle 10.7X zooms but do not reach as far as the S5 at their telephoto end. Otherwise, the Panasonic FZ8 and FZ7 are quite comparable. Note that these Panasonic cameras also have optical stabilized lenses but their movie-mode is not as sophisticated. So, if movies with sound are important, the S5 is probably a great choice.