Very confused new Canon S5 IS owner...

[restockton]

I just purchased a new PowerShot S5 IS for my wife who is really a shutterbug and wants to get into a better camera for her scrapbooking hobby. We've been using an older Kodak DX6340 for the past 3 years and it has done pretty well, but was starting to show signs of age and failure, so I figured it was time to get a newer, better, nicer camera. I did some research and found the S5 to be very highly rated for its class and my budget and purchased it.

Since I am my wife's owners manual and since I didn't really understand much of the terminology I was reading, I decided to check out a couple digital photography tutorials on the net to increase my knowledge about the subject. This is where things went wrong...sort of.

The explanation of image sensor size came up in the tutorial and got me curious about how the image sensor in my new S5 compared to my old Kodak. After looking up the specs for both cameras, I was astonished to read that the one in my old Kodak (1/1.7 in ) was actually bigger than the one in my new S5 (1/2.5 ")! Now according to what I've been reading, when it comes to image sensors, size matters, and bigger is definately better, so now I'm confused. Why would my 8MP S5 which I thought to be several classses above my old Kodak have a smaller CCD sensor? Is there something I'm missing?:confused:

Any wisdom you can impart to this newbie would be greatly appreciated so I can feel better about my purchase.

[NOsquid]

There is more to it than the size of the sensor, and the S5 is most probably a far better camera. The basics of it is that a small sensor size allows you to use smaller lenses for the same framing. Your S5 is a compact camera, but it has a zoom equivalent of 435mm. Go check out a 400mm telephoto at the local camera shop :) That's what a full frame camera needs for the same zoom.

So far as feeling good about your purchase, the only relevant question is how do the photos look? Better?

[JeffreyG]

The S series cameras use smaller sensor formats in order to allow them to have such a large range in the zoom lens. The smaller sensor is less demanding of the lens design, which in turn allows a huge zoom range on a lens that is reasonably small and reasonably fast.

As an example, a little as 10 years ago all the camera makers were churning out P&S cameras that used 35mm film for imaging. These usually had 35-80mm f/5.6-11 zoom lenses. Notice the smallish 2.5X zoom range and the extremely slow lens. This is what it takes to make a purse sized zoom lens that will image something as large as 35mm film.

There are compromises going on here of course. The smaller sensor of the S series mean that you are fundamentally enlarging the image more and degrading resolution. Also the smaller sensor will increase noise levels over a same technology / larger format sensor.

All this explains why the G series cameras have a larger sensor coupled with a smaller zoom range. And both the G and S series have much, much smaller sensors than the entry level dSLRs.

[jack55]

There is more to it than the size of the sensor, and the S5 is most probably a far better camera. The basics of it is that a small sensor size allows you to use smaller lenses for the same framing. Your S5 is a compact camera, but it has a zoom equivalent of 435mm. Go check out a 400mm telephoto at the local camera shop :) That's what a full frame camera needs for the same zoom.

So far as feeling good about your purchase, the only relevant question is how do the photos look? Better?
Also you'll find that the SLR's 400 range zoom lense is extremely large compared to the S5is! You would need a tri-pod & backpack to use it. NOT FOR ME... give me the S5is anytime. You can't tell any difference between the two up to 8x10's, only if you go beyond 8x10's will the SLR prevail.