Canon PowerShot S · on sale summer 2007

The Canon PowerShot S5 IS: the 12x stabilised zoom with a flip-out screen and a hot shoe

One name everywhere: Canon's museum lists it as the PowerShot S5 IS for Japan, the Americas and Europe.¹

In 2007 Canon gave its long-zoom S series 8 megapixels, a sharper screen and a flash hot shoe, and left the lens alone. Reviewers praised the grip, the stabiliser and the stereo video, and argued about the noise.

Launched

June 2007

Launch price

$499 as given by Reviewed.com; not confirmed by Canon⁶

Sensor

8 MP CCD

Lens

36–432 mm, 12×

Card

SDHC, SD, MultiMediaCard

Battery

AA

Specs and sources

Meet the camera

It is a black, DSLR-shaped camera that runs on four AA batteries.⁵³¹ Canon lists 450 grams for the body alone;¹ Imaging Resource lists 574 grams with batteries and card.² Trusted Reviews called the body high-impact plastic over a metal chassis, very solidly put together,⁴ and Cameralabs compared the grip with the one on the Canon EOS 400D and called it excellent for a camera of this kind.³

Canon's museum lists it as marketed in June 2007 and as the successor to the S3 IS of April 2006.¹ The dates around it disagree: Cameralabs says it was announced in May 2007, Imaging Resource's table shows availability on 14 July 2007, and Reviewed.com gives both May and July 2007 for the announcement in the same review.³²⁶ Reviewed.com said it retailed for $499; that was also the S3 IS's introductory price. We found no Canon release with a price.⁶

Why this one was interesting

More pixels, a newer processor

Canon raised the sensor from 6 to 8 megapixels on the same 1/2.5-inch size and swapped the DIGIC II processor for DIGIC III.¹⁴ The top sensitivity went from ISO 800 to 1600, and Face Detection arrived.³ Imaging Resource added ISO Shift, which raises sensitivity on demand for a faster shutter.²

A screen you could read

The S3 IS had a 2-inch, 115,000-dot screen; the S5 IS has 2.5 inches and 207,000 dots, and Cameralabs called the difference dramatic.³ Imaging Resource found it easy to view in bright sunlight, while PhotographyBLOG said visibility suffered in sunshine and Reviewed.com thought the resolution still fell short of the 230,000 dots most $499 cameras had.²⁵⁶

A hot shoe

The other big addition was a flash hot shoe. Cameralabs said it accepts the Speedlite 220EX, 430EX and 580EX II with automatic exposure up to a 1/250 second sync speed, which made the S5 IS and the PowerShot G9 the only non-DSLRs in Canon's range to do so.³

What was lost

Imaging Resource said the S5 IS lost the S3 IS's high-speed continuous mode and shot more slowly than its predecessor, with no time-lapse mode either.² The memory card moved from its own hatch on the S3 IS into the battery compartment, which Trusted Reviews, PhotographyBLOG and Cameralabs criticised because the hatch cannot be opened while the camera is on a tripod, and Imaging Resource said the tripod mount severely limits access.⁴⁵³² Reviewed.com said the older S3 IS had lower noise and a better dynamic range, at under $300.⁶

The dark: its weak point

The reviewers agreed about the top of the range and fell out over the bottom. ISO 1600 was a last resort for all of them: Trusted Reviews called it effectively useless,⁴ Reviewed.com called ISO 800 and 1600 essentially unusable,⁶ and Cameralabs said it was only for very small prints or emergencies.³ Where noise began was the argument. Trusted Reviews found ISO 80 superb, with no noise;⁴ Cameralabs found noise visible throughout the range;³ Imaging Resource listed noise at ISO 200 and above among its dislikes,² and Reviewed.com measured it above 2 percent, which it calls readily apparent, at every setting over ISO 200;⁶ PhotographyBLOG saw it creep in from ISO 400 and told readers to stay below that for keepers.⁵ Imaging Resource's print advice was to keep below ISO 800 and not to expect enlargements above 11 by 14 inches: ISO 400 was soft but usable at 8 by 10, and ISO 800 better at 5 by 7. Its conclusion put the limit lower, at ISO 400 unless you print no larger than 4 by 6.²

Real photographs taken with this camera. The sensitivity shown is recorded in each file's own EXIF data.

They also disagreed about how hard the camera fought it. Cameralabs said Canon took a mild approach, leaving noise visible and detail intact, unlike Panasonic's smearing in the FZ18;³ Imaging Resource said noise suppression flattened subtle detail such as hair even at the lowest ISO.² On a tripod, Imaging Resource still got bright pictures at ISO 80 at the darkest level it tested, about 0.67 lux; one foot-candle (11 lux) is roughly city street lighting.²

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The little wins

The stabiliser

Cameralabs could handhold 1/30 second at 432 mm and counted three to four stops of help;³ Trusted Reviews also got shake-free handheld shots at full zoom at 1/30.⁴

The mode dial, shutter and power lever from above. · Alancrh · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

Controls you can find

Imaging Resource said the buttons were big and high enough to find by touch,² and Cameralabs liked dedicated ISO, drive and flash buttons, with almost everything else on the Function menu.³

A screen that moves

Cameralabs called the flip-out screen an undoubted highlight, for high and low angles;³ PhotographyBLOG called it a boon for awkward angles or shooting over crowds.⁵

Video with a button

A dedicated record button works in any mode, the optical zoom works while filming, and two microphones record stereo.³² Cameralabs noted the maximum clip had grown from the S3 IS's 1 GB to 4 GB,³ and Reviewed.com called its movie score the best of the year so far.⁶

Super macro

Canon lists focus from 0 to 10 centimetres at wide angle;¹ Cameralabs found it impressive, and Imaging Resource measured a minimum area of 27 by 20 millimetres, slightly soft.³²

Focus that kept up

Trusted Reviews shot over 120 frames of windsurfers at full zoom and said focus missed once.⁴ Imaging Resource called autofocus generally fast and accurate, even in low light.²

Colour

Reviewed.com measured a mean colour error of 5.87 and called it excellent.⁶ Imaging Resource found very good hue accuracy with slight oversaturation of reds and blues.²

How it drew the picture

The labs used different charts and disagreed. Imaging Resource saw strong detail to about 1,500 lines and extinction near 1,900.² Cameralabs measured 1,750 horizontal and 1,900 vertical lines per picture height, above the Fujifilm S8000fd and Olympus SP-550UZ and below the Panasonic FZ18.³ Reviewed.com measured 1,623 and 1,516 lines at best and called the resolution mediocre.⁶ Trusted Reviews found the centre very good for 8 megapixels but blurring and fringing at the edges, and PhotographyBLOG called files a little soft at default sharpening.⁴⁵

Photos taken with this camera, from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each picture.

Where it let you down

The lens did not go wide. Cameralabs set its 36 millimetres against the Panasonic FZ18's 28 and said Canon had to start offering a wider lens,³ and Imaging Resource missed it shooting street scenes.² Cameralabs, Imaging Resource, PhotographyBLOG and Trusted Reviews all said there is no raw mode.³²⁵⁴ Colour fringing split the reviewers: Imaging Resource called it unexpectedly high and Reviewed.com saw a lot, while PhotographyBLOG judged it reasonably well controlled.²⁶⁵

The handling complaints were smaller. Canon rates the burst at 1.5 frames a second and Cameralabs got 1.4, which it called too slow for action.¹³ The lens cap falls off easily, said Cameralabs and Imaging Resource.³² PhotographyBLOG found the combined power and mode lever fiddly.⁵ Autofocus drew mixed reports: Trusted Reviews rated it superb, Reviewed.com called it decent but sluggish.⁴⁶ Imaging Resource measured shutter lag at 0.40 second, or 0.074 prefocused.²

What the reviewers said

The timeline

• April 2006The S3 IS, the S5 IS's predecessor, launches, per Canon's museum.¹
• May 2007Announcement, per Cameralabs.³
• June 2007Marketed, per Canon's museum.¹
• 14 July 2007Availability date in Imaging Resource's table.²
• September 2007Reviewed.com (14th), PhotographyBLOG (19th) and Trusted Reviews (25th) publish.⁶⁵⁴
• 30 October 2007Imaging Resource publishes its review.²
• Early 2008Cameralabs tests it, after Canon's January 2008 announcements, by its own text.³
• 19 January 2026An owner's report appears on BestLightPhoto's blog.⁷

Should you buy one now?

Buy one if you want a long stabilised zoom on cheap AA batteries, a screen that turns, and video with stereo sound, and you will shoot mostly in good light at low ISO. Reviewed.com gave its price in 2007 as $499;⁶ what it sells for now is a question for the sold listings, not for us. Related: our AA battery guide, PowerShot A640 and G9 reviews. Before you bid, check these:

• The name. Search the PowerShot S5 IS, not the S3 IS, which has 6 megapixels.¹
• The batteries. Four AA cells; Canon rates about 170 shots on alkaline and 450 on NiMH.¹ Imaging Resource found that a few of its older NiMH cells lasted only seconds, while Eneloop cells worked;² fresh ones are on Amazon ↗.
• The clock battery. The 2026 blog author got a "check date/time battery" error on a used camera and fixed it by replacing a CR1220 cell found in a small tray between the AAs and the card; we have not checked this ourselves.⁷
• The card. SD, SDHC and MMC are listed;¹ Reviewed.com said up to 4 GB, while Imaging Resource suggested 2 GB as a first card and 4 to 8 GB SDHC for high-speed shooting and long clips.⁶² See our memory card guide.
• The screen and lens. Check that the screen swings, twists and folds back, that the zoom runs smoothly and quietly,³² and whether the lens cap is missing.

If you are wondering why cameras like this are being hunted down again, we tell that story once, in Pictures that never left the card.

See recent sold prices on eBay ↗Shop on eBay ↗AA rechargeables ↗

Sources

1. Canon Camera Museum: PowerShot S5 IS (specifications; marketed June 2007; names the S3 IS of April 2006 as predecessor)
2. Imaging Resource, Canon PowerShot S5 IS review by Theano Nikitas (review date 30 Oct 2007; Dave's Pick; spec table lists availability 14 Jul 2007)
3. Cameralabs, Canon PowerShot S5 IS review by Gordon Laing (the page carries a 26 May 2011 date stamp, but its text refers to Canon's 'recent January 2008 announcements', so it was written in early 2008)
4. Trusted Reviews, Canon PowerShot S5 IS review by Cliff Smith (25 Sep 2007)
5. PhotographyBLOG, Canon PowerShot S5 IS review by Gavin Stoker (19 Sep 2007; introduction, image quality, specifications and conclusion pages)
6. Reviewed.com, Canon PowerShot S5 IS Digital Camera Review (published 14 Sep 2007; lab tests with Imatest)
7. BestLightPhoto blog, Canon Powershot S5 IS Camera Review by Andrew and Dani Livelsberger (19 Jan 2026; an owner's report of a used camera written in the first person; the post's own spec list came from an AI request and is not used here)

Camera photos by Yug and Alancrh (CC BY-SA 3.0); other photographs are credited under each one, all via Wikimedia Commons. Links to eBay and Amazon are affiliate links.