I am thinking of getting the H5 and was wondering if it was a good camera for taking pictures of kids, I like the style I don't like little cameras.

I like the build of the H5 I do not like those small little cameras, I want something with fast shudder speed and also good quality.

The Canon S3IS is a worthy competitor of the Sony H5, and I think it is a better camera. For one thing, the LCD screen can be opened, tilted, reversed, etc. Plus the Canon uses SD cards (pretty standard in 2007) ---while the Sony uses the memory sticks, which cost more. I think 3 years from now, SD cards will still be in wide use (as they are now), so if you upgrade later, you probably could use any present-day SD cards in your future camera(s).

H5 is a good camera for the purpose you wish to buy it for. There is very little to choose between S3IS & H5. Both outscore each other in few features. Both cameras have a sure flaw of picture getting affected from all the corners in case you use a wide angle lens.

For kids pics shutter speed is an important factor as kids actions are very uncertain and can't be guided/controlled. if you miss the momemt, you lose it for ever ! So select your camera based on this if you know use of shutter speed. You have not mentioned in your query about how comfortable are you in using shutter speeds. S3IS has better shutter speeds - S3IS : 15 Sec - 1/3200 seconds Vs. 0.25 sec - 1/2000 seconds. However, I have been using H5 and beleive you in me 1/1000 is good enough for most applications for kids pics or even for moving cars.

Take your decision based on following factors also :

1) Out of Canon, Panasonic or Sony, which has a service centre near to you ?
2) Sony has a built-in memory of 32MB
3) Sony uses only 2 nos. batteries and Canon uses 4. Panasonic offers Lithium batteries. Sony has come out with Li-ion models also now with higher zooms of 15X & 18X