Canon S5 IS or Sony DSC H9

I am lloking to buy an extended zoom camera. I am confused on whether to buy Canon S5 IS or Sony DSC H9.Can somebody please help me take this decision ?

Suyog,

The Sony H9 looks to be the way to go. While both cameras seem to have the same features, the H9 has more optical zoom at 15x. The ISO 3200 will perform much better in low light settings (although add some graininess to the photos), and the camera has a highly touted "Night Shot" mode which is supposed to take photos in almost complete darkness. I hope this helps. Good luck and happy shooting.

Andrew

Recommend you try the "Resources" button located near the bottom right hand corner of this page to find and read good reviews of these two cameras. The Digital Photography Review by Phil Askey includes a side-by-side review of specifications so you can compare each data point available.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=canon_s5is%2Csony_dsch9&show=all

This URL will compare these two cameras' specifications.

Also be sure to view the sample photos for each camera and judge quality for yourself.
Lastly, be sure to go to a camera store and hold each camera in your hands to determine fit and feel which can be a major factor in your purchase.
Enjoy, Larry

Hi , Thank you very much for the information on S5 and H9.
I was going through some of the comparisions on some sites and I found that features I am looking for Can be found in S5 IS.
But there is one thing I found out, and that is about the LCD Display. I read that LCD Display is not all that good as compared to H9 ?

I also found in the DPReview site (link above) that H9 is SLR Like Digital Camera while S5 is rated as Compact.

Can somebody please clarify my doubts on this ?

Thanks !!

Although DPReview rated S5 IS as compact, and Canon themselves also group this camera into the compact group, it is actually more SLR-like than the H9, IMHO, that is. YOu can find all the function of a SLR on the S5. Just the photo performance on it won't match a SLR, usually this will be apparent in low light shooting.

I own a S5, and I find that the LCD is quite sufficient, even in bright outdoor situations. There even a setting to brighted up the LCD a notch if required. I haven't use the H9 before so I couldn't comment on the LCD, most probably it could be better, but for me, in the end, it's what the camera offered that was important.

Since you say the S5's features matches you more, go have a look and test out the feel of the camera and the LCD at a shop to see whether it fits your needs!

They are both SLR like cameras despite what Canon and dpreview say. All you have to do is look at pictures of the cameras and see for yourself. These databases have errors in them that cause a lot of confusion, unfortunately.

The LCD's are similar, but the S5is has a more versatile Flip and Twist arrangement.
The S5is LCD is 2.5 inches with 207,000 pixels while the H9 LCD is 3 inches with 230,000 pixels which is not a significant difference. Check them out in person at the camera store.
The S5is LCD is easier to see in bright light than the H9's.
If the features of the Canon S5is suit you better AND it feels comfortable in your hands (fit and feel) and easy to operate controls, then you have a winner.

Hi Tigervyh, can you please clarify the following points for us?
You mention that with the Canon S5 you get "silent and smooth zooming in movie mode", does this mean you can zoom in and out while taking the movie? I couldn't find a reference to this feature for S5 in dpreview or in the Canon user manual, although it is mentioned for the Sony DSC H9...
I'm also a little confused with shot-to-shot times and flash recycling time, since I have found some tests showing that the Canon is actually faster (http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/H9/H9A6.HTM versus http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/S5IS/S5ISA6.HTM).
We're trying to decide between the H9 and S5 and have come to the conclusion that Canon offers somewhat better quality (less blur, distortion, purple fringing) but Sony has some more impressive features (15x zoom, nightshot, remote control, 3" display). So any help will be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!!

Nicholas

Nicholas, yes, you get to zoom in and out when taking a movie. Canon enable this function for this model specifically because they put in the USM (ultrasonic motor) zoom lens for this camera model. What USM gives is ultra low zooming sound (almost inaudible), hence they enable the zoom while taking movie functionality. This function is not available in other model due to the audible sound while zooming (which Canon and most manufacturers decided was a major issue of deterioration of the movie).

I'm not really sure about the H9 shot-to-shot time, the S5 typically gives about 1.2 fps at the highest resolution (without continuous focusing) and about 0.8fps with continuous focusing. This is typically ok for me, but could have been better, I guess, but this is not an SLR, so can't complain. Flash recycling time, again I'm not sure about H9, for the S5, the flash recycling time is stated to be around 4 to 5 seconds, which coincided with my experience of it. And everytime I want to shoot with flash, I'll have to wait for a few second before I can shoot! On flash recycling time, it would probably be safe to assume that the H9 will be faster, since it uses a Li-Ion propriety battery.

One thing on the S5, I found that the Noise at higher ISO to be very high! If you plan to shoot with ranges of ISO, then S5 might be a tad disappointing. On this note, I read that panasonic's 18x superzoom performs extremely well throughout its ISO range due to its better in camera noise reduction software processing. I just found a website www .popphoto. com that gives very statistical reviews on camera, maybe you can have a read there!

Everything about the S5 is extremely good, touch, feel, hold, built quality, lens, AA batteries, SDHC card. All apart from having stellar image quality (on higher ISO, ie. anything above ISO 200)! have a read at the review site.

Here is the list of Digital P&S Cameras which zoom optically during video:

Canon PowerShot S5is
Kodak EasyShare Z712is
Casio Exilim EX-V7
Fuji Finepix S700

If anyone can add to this list please do and I will share with everyone. Thanks, Larry

Thanks a lot, Tigervyh! I'm aware of the noise issues with S5, however I consider the Sony H9 worse in this respect, since it uses noise-reduction filters even in low ISO which results in blurring of fine details. Fixing noise in a few high-ISO pictures can be done on a PC, but fixing the blurring in all my low-ISO pictures is impossible!

Larry, the Sony DSC-H9 and H5 also zoom optically during video (see http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonyh9/page8.asp). Apparently video quality is not very good on the Sony H9 though, because of MPEG-1 compression. The Canon S5 produces larger files, but you can always buy more memory...

Nicholas

Thanks Nicholas for the addition to my list of "zoom during video" cameras.
And, yes, memory is getting cheaper, faster and bigger all the time. I just bought a Panasonic SDHC 8MB Class 6 card!

You must also take into account that Sony uses proprietary memory cards and batteries. The S5 does not.

Nicholas, again, on the image noise, if you are really ok with trying to reduce it on pc (which I find is really not an easy task to accomplish to get acceptable result since S5 does NOT capture RAW) for the high ISO pics, then S5 will not be a problem. Just don't shoot the low lights shot on high ISO!

Here's the link to the panasonic FZ-18: http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/4837/panasonic-lumix-dmc-fz18-test-results.html

If image quality is top of your list, this is probably the better choice, on the other hand, if taking video is priority, then S5 is still the best choice. Again, looks, feel and built quality, S5 is top of the line, so to me it was a shame that picture quality was not there to match, maybe they should have included RAW in the package... as RAW enable superb high ISO+ high resolution shots for Canon G9!

Another thing on the S5, I've confirmed with Canon and they informed me that 4GB SDHC card is the maximum for this camera, anything higher will cause the operation to be very slow (in their own words), so limit yourself to 4GB SDHC, class 6 is the best!

THE SONY DSC-H9 HAS GOT MORE IMPRESSIVE MANUAL CONTROL SINCE U CAN SET THE MANUAL PRIORITY (AND THE SHUTTER PRIORITY) AT A MAXIMUM OF 30 SECS VS. CANON'S S5IS 15 SECS. THE H9 IS ALSO A FASTER A FASTER CAMERA WHICH CAN CAPTURE ACTIONS AT 1/4000 OF A SECOND VS. THE S5IS 1/ 3200. IF UR AN AMATEUR SHUTTERBUG THE EVF (ELECTRONIC VIEWFINDER) ON THE SONY H9 IS SOO MUCH BETTER AT 201, 000 PIXELS VS. THAT OF THE S5IS AT 115, 000. INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY IS ALSO WORTH MENTIONNING ON THE H9. THE KIT ALSO COMES WITH A LENS HOOD AND AN ADOPTER SO U NEED NOT BUY 1 (THIS IS EXTREMELY CRUCIAL BECAUSE THE LENS IS NOT AS TOUGH AS THAT OF A DSLR) PLUS A REMOTE CONTROL. WHAT MORE CAN U ASK FOR? AND THE H9 IS MORE STURDY THAN THAT OF THE S5. GO TO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW FOR MORE DETAILS.

I will mention that you should not expect ordinary looking photos with the Sony infrared system which basically generates green monochrome images (as opposed to color or even black and white).

I will back Larry up on this. The infra-red mode will give the "night-vision" look to the photographs.

Andrew

Tigervyh: thanks a lot for the hint on the 4GB limit!!
"Vanity Fairy": The dpreview site actually gives a better review for the Canon S5 (8,1 average total score) than the Sony H9 (7,7) and the S5 beats H9 in "Image Quality", "Optics", "Build & Quality", "Ergonomics & Handling". The H9 doesn't beat the S5 in any category. See http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons5is/page20.asp and http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonyh9/page19.asp. Also check the sample movies from the S5 and H9 in the same site: the H9's movie quality is much worse because of the MPEG-1 compression it uses.
The infrared & remote control are nice to have, but how often do you actually use them? Having AA batteries, SD card and good movie quality (plus taking photos during a movie!) is much more important to me...

yep, infrared is useless unless you need to take photos of things in the dark which is "why would I do that" - it's not photography, at least not proper photography. Proper photography is all about shooting with the available lighting source! SO unless you call darkness as a type of lighting source, then I'll shut up! haha!

Remote control are useful, but not essential, we could just make do with the "delay" shooting - i.e. shoot with the timer, which is easily set on the S5 and most other cameras where there's a dedicated timer button, and on S5, you can easily set different time for the timer...

S5 will top the list of movie quality for a digital camera. Only thing is the capacity of the cards! 4GB cards will only give about 32 minutes of video at the highest capacity, so to make use of the 60minutes limit, you'll have to shoot at a lower quality setting, either the LP 640x480 or the 30fps 320x240, either way, it will still be of higher quality than H9 MPEG-1 compression!

So again, if video is the deciding factor for your purchase, then get S5. If image quality is the deciding factor get Canon G9! If zoom is the deciding factor, get Panasonic FZ-18. If useless gimmicks are the order of the day, then by all means, get H9! haha!

IM THE VANITY FAIRY, BABY!, Actually, you sort of get the idea of the value of the camera from the package sold by the manufacturer! I.e. why did they throw in all the extras in! Because they know it's the common sense thing to do to entice consumers to buy their camera against competitors who produces a higher quality camera, if you get what I mean! -ditto- with Canon, if they think that say H9 is on par with its' S5, they would do the same and throw in the same extras in their package...

What are the shutter lag times on the S5 is and the Sony H9? I shoot "action shots" a lot of the time and found shutter lag to be so frustrating. I'm almost at the point of buying an dSLR for this reason but would prefer to stay point & shoot with extended zoom. I read that the Fuji Pinepix 9600 had a remarkable .01 shutter lag but for some reason the camera has been discontinued. Fuji wouldn't tell my why.

Judy,

That may have been due to some quality issues. I had similar issues with my old extended zoom and switched over to dSLR and will never go back. I know its a bit more expensive, but they are so much more versatile and responsive. Good luck in your search.

Andrew

Hi Judy,
If you read the reviews on these cameras at dpreview.com you will find actual measured values for the shutter lag. However, some definitions are in order since they break the timings down into first part and second part. The first is time to focus (shutter button half-way down) and set exposure, detect faces etc., and the second is the actual "shutter" time (from half pressed to full pressed). Usually they also give a combined full press time. BUT don't expect your camera to focus if you skip the half-pressed position. These P&S cameras all take some time to focus. If you just press the button all the way down all at once, it will take a picture immediately without focusing properly. So prefocusing at the halfway position is critical to reducing shutter lag into the .1 and less range. Some P&S digital cameras also allow you to focus lock so the camera can then take pictures without having to refocus, and this will reduce the "shutter lag" also. Continuous shooting modes typically make use of this option to speed the shot to shot time by only focusing on the first picture.
Bottom line, Andrew has it right -- if you want to virtually eliminate shutter lag you have to go to dSLR, but if you practice some shooting techniques with P&S cameras you can reduce the lag into the 0.01-0.10 range which may be acceptable.

After little consideration regarding the specs, the critics reviews, and the supposed expert comments, I disregarded all that techno junk and let my own eyes and hands make the decision on Canon S5 or Sony H9. After using both in the store and outside, I took pictures that compared each, making the same shot and then hard copy processed using the same in-store output equipment. Flash was used on each with different subjects (people, things, and general surroundings) inside the camera shop using standard auto settings, regular pictures and macro shots. Then both cameras were taken outside to make similar shots. I brought my old standby 35mm Minolta SLR 7000i (still in pristine operating condition using the Minolta 50mm macro lens and the Minolta 28-85mm zoom using 100 speed film. So, there you go...two digital cameras pitted against a no-so-shabby old timey film (what's film?) camera. Prints of size 5x7 were made as the comparison standard for all three. So here's what I found...

1. The Sony felt better in my hands than the Canon. I had a better grip and the camera was better balanced. Both handled equally well in all other respects.
2. Both cameras seemed to display little difference in composing and taking a full auto picture. I do believe the Sony was a bit more responsive in "dependable" focusing and speed of focus.
3. As for macro photography, I believe the Sony rendered a slightly better picture in that the color balance and contrast were more pleasing to my eye. There was no distinguishable difference in clarity and sharpness between the Sony or Canon
4. For portraits, the Sony won hands down. The flesh tones rendered were significantly better with the Sony. As for clarity, the overall appeal was slightly in favor of Sony primarily due to the fantastic flesh tones and the general smoothness of color throughout the picture. Not to say the Canon wasn't good, it was great...just that the Sony had an edge on color quality.
5. Landscape shots were found equally good. I focussed in on several shots of birds and there was an edge given to Canon on sharpness but the Sony won out due to the across the board smoothness of color and the overall pleasing visual quality of the print.
6. Flash photos were both equally good without a clear winner but that color thing, that you're sick of hearing me talk about, was again the winner for me. The scales tilted in favor of the H9 for me.
8. Both cameras put the Minolta 35mm to shame in color rendition. There are, as you know, many variables with film, developing chemistry, and so on. Yet, as far as sharpness, the Minolta held its own with both the digitals though not necessarily better than either the S5 or H9.

So, what did I buy...I bought Sony, not because of specifications and other peoples opinions but on a side-by-side comparison with the way I take pictures, what I take pictures of, the process I have them developed and judged what my eyes told me about the two different cameras. Both cameras are great, I just preferred the Sony.

Hope this has helped.

Tom,

I would say that a side by side comparison is definitely the best way to pick between two items, not just cameras. Thanks for your insight on this (from one "supposed expert" to another).

Andrew

Lord, my head feels like an over-inflated soccer ball. I'm trying a Lumix Z18 at the moment. I still may go dSLR if I can't cope with the shutter lag. The Z18 has a higher score but Sony H9 (now I see there is an H10) has faster shutter lag. Does anyone own an Olympus E-510? The dSLR with live view interests me. I have several Nikkor lenses for my film SLR Nikon 801 that I could use if I purchase a Nikon dSLR above the D70. I am open to all suggestions. PLEASE help me make up my mind. I take action shots of soccer & animals, photos of kids & friends, some photo-journalism. I want to be able to "capture the moment" and that's why the lag is infuriating. Anyone??? Andrew, I know you said you experienced frustration with the extended zooms and then purchased a dSLR. What did you buy?

Judy, If you could afford a dSLR, then you'll be set for the shots you intend! Of course getting a mid-range dSLR for your lens will be a major investment! Too bad Nikon did not make the entry level d40x (or now the new d60) to take all existing lenses, if it did, then you could go for the d40x without deliberating much!

Well, if it is high resolution, and fast photo you need, then it's best to get a dSLR, since you have several lenses, it's probably best to go with a Nikon that takes them... pricey though!

Judy,

I've hear the Nikon D80 will accept more lenses than the newer cameras. You might give that a try if you want to make the investment.

Andrew

I was a military photographer for 30 years and we had 9 Nikons in the shop, plus I used to look after our airport control tower's Canon F1s. In my lifetime, I have operated everything from a Minox camera to a Burke & James 5x7 monorail. I have owned 4 Canon F1s and was looking to go into the Canon EOS system.

Instead, I bought a Canon S5IS as a stopgap to Canon eventually putting a decent adapter for their older FD lenses. I do own some very serious glass and it's all lost.

So far, in about a year, I've taken well over 3000 photos and the camera stands up well. Yhe big dilemma I have when taking some action is whether or not to shoot in the "continuous" mode or the S5 "movie" mode. Unfortunately, it's impossible to print anything in the movie mode (AVI file). This mode however yields some invaluable history and the operator can shoot as long as the card will hold.

One of the big factors that influenced my choice is the fact that the camera accepts AA batteries. While the operator could go for the ordinary AAs, they have virtualy no power and will probably last about a half-hour under normal shooting contitions. They'll surely drain very quickly in the "movie" mode!! I opted instead tof the NiMH batteries; the higher the milliamperage, the better.

Ihe shutter is noiseless but it has a nice selection of sounds in the menu and I like a nice loud "click", just like in the old days. In the movie mode, it's noiseless. The movie button is a bit dinky but I've operated it with gloves in the winter (at 10 below), shooting railroad at trackside. One warning with the movie mode is that you have to know when to start and stop the camera, as there is a very small delay (.2 sec or so) before the movie mode starts. Also, you have to leave a bit of room at the end. It's esay to zoom while shooting but it may not be as smooth as desired, if the camera is not tripod-mounted.

There are lots and lots of bells and whistles on the S5IS it's an excellent choice for the well-versed amateur. With an optical zoom of a bit over 400mm equivalent to a 35mm, it's worth its weight in gold to acquire far detail if needed. Mind you, getting closer is much better but sometimes, there isn't the choice.

For its price, the Canon S5IS is a worthy alternative to any EOS, without getting soaked to death by the price, giving of course that it's not as robust and perhaps lacking certain features, such as RAW.

Before I buy an EOS, I will certainly be looking for the successor to the S5IS but so far, my S5 is a real gem.

I forgot to add that, following my retirement as Manager of Photo Services at a large Canadian Airforce Base, I was employed as a photographer in a large museum and, when chemicals interfered with my health, worked for some years selling cameras. I am now completely retired but photography is still in my blood and I use the S5IS about every second day to take anything from 5 pics to 100 or more.

Massey Jones,
Thanks for the excellent write-up on the S5is. I really appreciate your effort to share the information. With your experience I bet you could write a book!

I too thank Massy Jones for his thoughts on the S5IS. Wonderful to see a retired photographer wading in giving free advice on any kind of photography issue!

Well done.

Thank u Massey Jones for your thoughts on the S5 IS... incidentally one of the reasons i choose the S5 IS is because of the AA batteries !!
Please keep us enlightened in any manner that you can think of !!