The crops are taken from the original images, saved as High Quality JPEGs in Photoshop CS2 and presented here at 100%. Each number represents 100 lines per picture height (lpph), so a figure of 20 means a resolution of 2000 lpph.

In terms of resolving power, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS delivers 1750 and 1900 lpph of horizontal and vertical resolution respectively. This places it higher than the Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd and the Olympus SP-550UZ, but comfortably below that of arch-rival, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 in this particular test.

As its biggest rival, we’ve also used the FZ18 for our outdoor resolution and real-life noise tests, so for the complete picture on their respective performance, be sure to see all three of our results pages.

So in terms of short-range resolving power under studio conditions, it’s a disappointing result from the S5 IS, but now let’s look at how it handles different sensitivities in our PowerShot S5 IS noise results.