Compared to... Sony Cyber-shot H9

Below you will find a studio comparison between the Canon PowerShot S5 IS and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 at ISO 800.

Studio scene comparison (@ ISO 800)

• Canon PowerShot S5 IS: Aperture Priority mode, ISO 800, Default Image Parameters,
  Manual white balance, +0.67 EV compensation

• Sony DSC-H5 : Aperture Priority mode, ISO 800, Default Image Parameters,
  Manual white balance, +0.7 EV compensation

• Lighting: Daylight simulation, >98% CRI

Canon PowerShot S5 IS	Sony DSC-H9
ISO 800, 1/403 sec, F5.0	ISO 800, 1/640 sec, F5.0
3,728 KB JPEG	1,986 KB JPEG

The story is pretty much the same at ISO 800; there's not a lot in it but I prefer Canon's more hands-off approach to noise reduction (and image processing in general).