Canon S5-IS

How is the camera with shooting stills of kids' sports? I really want to shoot fast. I've been told the Sony's shoot faster. I was sold on the Canon S3 IS, but when I heard a new one was coming out, I waited. Then, the guy in the store wanted to sell me a Sony because I made a comment about not being able to shoot fast.
 
Hi Shirley,

You won't be sorry. The next purchase is an adapter and lens hood and a Telephoto lens. Makes a big difference in your photo opportunities. The adapter changes the geometry of the camera and improves handling - similar to a DSLR.
--
Jim Reid
 
Hi FS19,

The S5 will shoot reasonably fast. One suggestion though - turn the review mode off. I was shooting my 2 yr old grandaughter and daughter-in-law last week and if I hadn't had the review feature on I would have got a lot more good shots....shooting kids can be as fast as sports photography.
--
Jim Reid
 
The S3 can shoot 2.5 frames a second which is faster than the S5 at 1.5 frames a second. If speed is a big concern, I'd go for the S3 over the S5.

You get a smaller LCD screen and loose the hot-shoe.

Also, make sure you get a fast SD card or you will not get the full speed. The Sandisk Ultra II cards are fast enough and are easy to pick up in any electronics store.
 
Thanks, Iansmith. I do have that card on my list. If I can only narrow down which camera! So many user reviews contradict each other. So, now, I'm stuck on the Canons or the Sony H7/H9.
 
Jim, thanks for your comments. I already have a Lensmate adapter for my S2 and Olympus B300 telephoto lens. I might sell the adapter along with the S2 as it is silver and the s5 is black. However, I do need a lens hood. Lensmate was out of them for awhile but they are back in stock. Thanks again,
Shirley
--
4300 5400 TC-E2 TC-E15ED B-300 Canon S-2 Fujifilm F30
 
Also, make sure you get a fast SD card or you will not get the full
speed. The Sandisk Ultra II cards are fast enough and are easy to
pick up in any electronics store.
Is that really true? I've always just used the standard Kingston 2 GB SD cards in my SD700, previous S3 and now the S5. They seem to handle the large video files with no problem.

To the original poster, here's my little review of the S5 with some sample images. To put it simply, I love this camera.

http://paulstravelpictures.com/Canon-S5-IS-Digital-Camera-Review/index.html

The flash hot shoe was the biggest selling point for me.
 
I bought the S3 IS today. The bigger LCD didn't matter to me since I like to shoot with a viewfinder. I figured the regular flash was fine for the birthday cake blowing out. So, the S3 won out. I tried to set it up today and immediately got confused by the "low level" format question on the menu for the memory card. Since it's a new card, do I choose low level. I bought an Ultra II 2 GB. The search function on this site isn't working now so I can't search for set up tips for the camera. I may post this again under a new topic.
 
Nice shots!

What sort of sharpening do you use?

How would you compare the S5 and the G7 (I see you have both).

Thanks, Mike
 
Nice shots!
Thanks.
What sort of sharpening do you use?
I back down the in-cam sharpening to -1 and the contrast to -1. Then I do USM adjustment in PP and whatever other adjustments are needed. It seems to give better results than the camera can.
How would you compare the S5 and the G7 (I see you have both).
At ISO80/100 it's close but the G7 is slightly better in IQ at ISO200/400 - in prints the differences are not as marked and one would have a hard time telling adifference. I have some simple ISO comparisons here: http://www.pbase.com/photofreak777/s5_vs_g7
Thanks, Mike
 
I seem to specialize in taking shots late in the day and even after sunset. The S5 does very well for me in those situations and the ISO 200 shots with slow shutters often turn out to be passably good. I also use Safety Zoom at 2-megapixels and a 2.2X telextender, for a total equivalent of 1,900mm, for wildlife shots. You can see many of these on my Flickr album. I've had three other ultrazoom models in the past year and the S5 is my current choice, although my 7-year old Olympus C-2100UZ still stands in a position of honor.

Here's an example of those 1,900mm shots, done with a Raynox DCR-2020PRO telextender and using my shoulder-mount/stabilizer:
--
Steve McDonald
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22121562@N00/

 
The review says the flash recycle rate is slow - how slow?
VJT,

When you first pop up the flash and whenever you fully discharge the flash, it takes up to about 8 secs for the flash to be ready for another shot.

One thing about the S5, though, the hot shoe allows you to use an external flash which tend to have much, much faster recharge times (0.1-2 secs, for example, for the Canon 430EX using NiMH batteries).
 
When you first pop up the flash and whenever you fully discharge the
flash, it takes up to about 8 secs for the flash to be ready for
another shot.
Would battery type affect this? Because I know I can snap flash shots off way faster than 8 seconds apart!

On another note: I love my S5, but one thing I didn’t like as compared to ANY other camera I have had before, is the S5 doesn’t always lock on focus all the time. It will be in focus, but doesn’t lock so I can take the shot, I then have to press the shutter half way again, sometimes 2-3 tries. By then my shot is gone. I had this problem at first, then I didn’t and now I do again. So I am thinking you can aim in a way to prevent this, maybe? But when it doesn’t lock focus and allow you to take the shot, it sucks! I'm not knocking the camera itself, because I do like it, but Ive never had a camera so stubborn to lock on the shot and let you snap a darn picture!
 
Battery type does not seem to affect charging time too much. Maybe alkalines with their 1.5V vs. NiMH 1.2V might provide a slightly faster charge time but very few pictures per set of batteries.

Once the flash gets to charge the 1st time after lifting the flash, the recharge time can be quite quick if the flash does not fully discharge.

My solution is to use my external flash when I expect a lot of flash photography or when I expect varying distance to subject in a flash condition. The Canon 430EX has 0.1 to 2 sec recharge time.
 
the S5 doesn’t
always lock on focus all the time. It will be in focus, but doesn’t
lock so I can take the shot,
I've had this happen a few times but mostly when I do a very fast zoom in low light conditions. When I stop the zoom to take the photo, the S5 hunts a bit and I do need to either do a half-press or zoom out, allow the camera to focus, then zoom in. But mostly this happens in low light conditions.
 

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