Compared to... Olympus SP-550UZ

Below you will find a studio comparison between the Canon PowerShot S5 IS and the Olympus SP-550UZ at ISO 400.

Studio scene comparison ( @ ISO 400)

  • Canon PowerShot S5 IS: Aperture Priority mode, ISO 400, Default Image Parameters,
    Manual white balance, +0.67 EV compensation
  • Olympus SP-550UZ: Aperture Priority mode (F5.0), ISO 400, Default Image Parameters, Manual (preset) white balance, +1.0 EV compensation
  • Lighting: Daylight simulation, >98% CRI
Canon PowerShot S5 IS
Olympus SP-550UZ
ISO 400, 1/202 sec, F5.0
ISO 400, 1/160 sec, F5.0
3,785 KB JPEG
3,833 KB JPEG

As usual once you get to ISO 400 the differences are less obvious; noise and noise reduction are the great levelers with small sensor cameras. Both cameras manage to simultaneously suffer from noise and the unpleasant detail-destroying effect of excessive noise reduction, and it's really down to personal preference which you would call the 'winner' here. I'd personally give it, just, to Canon simply because of the better color (it retains saturation in the reds a lot better), but you wouldn't want to use either for anything too demanding.