Canon has today announced the S5IS. This camera has features including a 8.0 Megapixel, 1/2.5-inch CCD, DIGIC III Image Processor, 12x optical zoom lens with a shift-type optical Image Stabilizer (IS) system and 2.5-inch vari-angle LCD monitor with wide viewing angle.

A bit sad they didn’t make it wider though, it’s still stuck at 36mm rather than the nice 28mm equiv most other manufacturers are going for. The extra wide is better than the extra zoom.

It uses four AA batteries to shoot up to approx. 170 images (based on the CIPA standard when the LCD monitor is on), and SD memory cards, SDHC memory cards and MultiMediaCards for the recording media. Images are utilized with a direct print compatible printer, computer and TV via USB 2.0 Hi-Speed.

Notice how they jumped from S3 to S5 to avoid the ‘unlucky’ number 4. It looks virtually the same as the S3 IS though. Perhaps a little cleaner images due to Digic III and 8 megapixels.

The dimensions (excluding protrusions) of the main body are 117.0 x 80.0 x 77.7 mm (4.6 x 3.2 x 3.1 in.) and the weight is approximately 450 g (15.9 oz.).

Specifications

Camera Effective Pixels - Approx. 8.0 Megapixels

Image Sensor - 1/2.5-inch type CCD (Total number of pixels: Approx. 8.3 megapixels)

Imaging Processor - DIGIC III

Viewfinder - Color LCD viewfinder (Picture coverage rate 100%) with Dioptric Adjustment - 5.5 to +1.5 m-1 (dpt.)

Lens - 12x Optical Zoom Lens with the Lens Shift Type Image Stabilization 6.0 (W)–72.0 (T) mm (35mm equiv. : 36 (W)–432 (T) mm) f/2.7 (W)–f/3.5 (T)

Digital Zoom - Approx. 4.0x (Up to approx. 48x in combination with the optical zoom)

Digital Tele-converter (35mm equiv.) - 1.6x: 57.6 (W)–691.2 (T) mm 2.0x: 72 (W)–864 (T) mm

LCD Monitor - Wide Viewing Angle2.5-inch type, low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT (vari-angle) color LCD, Approx. 207,000 pixels (Picture coverage 100%)

I hope they’ve improved the flash so you can actually use it for macro, it doesn’t look like it though with minimum focus distance of 10cm but minimum flash range of 30cm.

Quite useless design.

Flash Range for Macro: 30–50 cm (12 in.–1.6 ft.) (W) (ISO speed : Auto)

Sensibly they have attached a flash hotshoe though, which was lacking on the S3 IS.

More information can be found here at the Canon site here:

Canon S5 IS