Rating: 
Summary: go with the g2
Review: I am a g2 owner and the g5 just didnt measure up to the g2.
I got the g5 thinking that I was upgrading but the joke was on me. I did a side by side shootout with the g2 and g5 and the g2 beat it every time.the g5 has a lot of noise and seems to have slower shutter speed leading to lots of blured pictures.I used the same settings on both cameras when testing. If you try to use the g5 with a higher iso then 50 all you get is noise. I have been a long time canon fan and still am but I am sending this one back. All the g5 did was make me love my g2 even more.
Rating: 
Summary: Save Money & Get a G3 or G2 Instead
Review: I currently own a G2 and thought an upgrade was due. Unfortunately, my G5 arrived today with a dead pixel on the LCD. Dead pixels are a fairly common problem to digicams, so it wasn't a huge deal. Because of this, I knew I would be exchanging the G5 immediately but decided to take a few test photos first. Photos from the G5 had more of a grainy appearance and the purple fringing was way out of hand. I read this in reviews of the camera on dpreview.com and other places, but thought that the G5 still had to be an upgrade to the G5. It's simply not the case. Although the camera felt nicer in my hands and physically looks better (I'm partial to the black exterior) it was simply not worth the extra cash. I think most new users would be better off spending less on one of the earlier G series models than spending top dollar on a camera that doesn't live up to its expectations. I am so disappointed that I have no choice but to return my G5 to Amazon.
Rating: 
Summary: The G3 is better, but most won't believe it
Review: Many people will find it hard to believe that they're better off with the nearly identical 4 megapixel G3. Reviews by dedicated digital photo sites conclude that the G5 introduces significant noise into images causing the effect of extra resolution to be cancelled out by the degradation in image quality. Canon had to produce this camera because of our obsession with pixel count and in spite of the fact that all of the reviews of the G3 conclude that its combination of a clean sensor and excellent optics give it an edge over most 5 MP camers.
Furthermore, very few people actually need 4 megapixels, much less 5. I had a hard time accepting this myself, until I printed out a couple 8x10s from my G3. 5 megapixels will simply mean that your memory card gets filled sooner, and each image will take longer to write to the compact flash card. Unfortunately, people look at pixel count much the same way as they do processor speed in computers. This is why we see folks buying P4 machines with 15" monitors and 128MB of RAM.
The G3, with its less noisy sensor and lower price is the sensible choice. It's a better camera for less, but most won't see it that way.
Rating: 
Summary: Canon keeps the lead
Review: The G5 is an incremental improvement over the G3 model rather than the revolutionary jump some Canon users were expecting. G2 and G3 users (other than the gear-obsessed) probably won't be lining up to trade in their cameras, but new users, or those upgrading from 2Mpixel cameras will find the G5 to be an excellent choice. It's still not quite the ideal compact for my purposes. The zoom range, equivalent to a 35mm-140mm lens on a 35mm camera, just isn't wide enough for what I want to do. I'd rather sacrifice the 140mm end and get something with a perspective equal to a 24mm-100mm lens, which would give you a long enough focal length for decent portraits and provide a good wide angle for indoor shots and landscapes. That aside, this is still an excellent camera for someone coming over from film. Resolution is sufficent to produce really excellent 8x10s with a little Photoshop fine-tuning. The manual controls are all you'd ask for. The fast f/2 lens allows shooting at high resolution in dim light. And the ability to link to the various Canon TTL flashes proides for exceptional control over lighting. So while I'm not quite ready to trade in my G2, the G5 would certainly be my first choice if I was moving over from film or a lower resoltuion camera.
Rating: 
Summary: Aesthetic upgrade, except for faster response times
Review: It is simple. Nikon makes the best SLRs. Canon makes the best digital cameras. This is particularly true in the prosumer range, where Canon's Powershot Gx series beats them all with its ease of use (both hardware and software), in looks and holding comfort (which is a subjective opinion, and this is mine), in the sheer realism of the pictures etc etc. I own both the G2 and the G3, the latter being a upgrade more for the purposes of competitive response than anything else -- different bodyline, somewhat higher pixel ratio etc. Now, G5 may come across as the same with little to show for, except its black paintjob and the insiginficantly higher pixel ratio. A tad disappointing for us Canon aficianados who were expecting a bit more from the next in the series. WHAT'S NEW: (1) Black body. Personally, I have gotten used to the silver finish, which appeals to me. I hope Canon doesn't standardize on black and makes the next cam available in both colors. (2) More "megapixels" (of course). Which doesn't really mean squat unless you wish to print your photographs on 20 x 30 photopaper. (3) Video recording with sound for 3 minutes (actually G3 can manage about the same). (4) This could be an important factor to some of you who believe digicams haven't yet reached their prime given how pathetic their focus speeds are -- G5 rocks in terms of instant clicking. G2 was painfully slow and effectively useless for sports photography for instance, G3 was a remarkable improvement, and G5 now is almost as good as EOS in its response time. Summary: what can I say. Great camera from Canon, but falls short of being spectacular as an upgrade. If you already own G2 or G3, wait for the next in the series by when let's hope the clicking response times should match EOS and other digital SLRs. But if you are in the market for a new digicam, this is easily the best on offer in the semipro category (as are G2, G3 etc if Canon does not make them obsolete).
Rating:
Summary: Switch to digital
Review: For a long time film/slide shooter like me, this has been a great discovery and addition. Extremely compact, fast shooting with high quality pictures. Couldn't ask for anything more.
Rating:
Summary: NEVER BUY AT AMAZON's PARTNER SITE - CIRCUITCITY.COM !
Review: We recently bought a G5 powershot thorugh Amazon. We know it is a wonderful camera and quite a few of our friends own this camera. Simply superb quality pictures!! Having said that about the camera - a little bit or should I say huge frustration with Circuitcity.com.:-( We bought the camera online(I guess circuitcity is amazon's partner site) and offered to pick it up at a store. When we went to pick the camera up, the package was so badly damaged and they said that was the only piece that they had. I took it as it was an anniversary gift for my wife. When we came home and opened the package, it was missing the USB and AV cables. We went back to the store in an hour's time and they WERE SOOOOOOOOOOOOO RUDE. They wanted us to talk to Canon about the missing parts or go to another circuitcity store to return/exchange the product as they did not have another piece. They would neither get it for us from another store nor would they accept a return without charging a 15% re-stocking fee. All this - for no fault of ours! I am VERY VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THIS BUY.
Rating:
Summary: After a year, no regrets.
Review: The lens seen through the view finder I knew about before purchase so I cant complain about that. The Selector icons (auto, portrait etc.,)wore off after only a couple of months!! Cannon did replace the selector gratis, and I have now protected the icons on the top of the selector with a two part slow setting resin (72 hrs), this looks good and works perfectly. Apart from the above this is a great Camera and I have been very happy with it and have taken thousands of great pictures in the year I have had it. My friends wish they had my Camera and when they pull out their fancy Samsungs, HP's etc., there faces soon drop when they see what mine can do.
Rating:
Summary: Worked for me
Review: The camera has worked ok for me. I have been using it in my plastic surgery practice and it hasn't let me down so far. However there are a few short comings. First, it didnt come with a bag and i still havent found a suitable bag for it. Pretty mean of Canon ppl. Secondly the auto focus is sometimes frustratingly slow and sometimes just doesnt work. Third the flash is not good enough for indoors. It leaves the corners of the pictures dark.
Having said that....overall its a good camera and does give good pictures
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this if you have active children
Review: This camera does a little of everything, video with sound as well as images. The pictures it takes can be fantastic. Unfortunately the subject has to be pretty still or in very good lighting to get a good shot. I took this camera to a soccer practice of a bunch of 10-year-olds in the daytime with heavy cloud cover and not a single photograph turned out. That included the few I used the built-in flash on (it couldn't focus). I also tried shooting some pictures at an indoor game that were disastrous because of the quick subjects (10-year-olds again) and low lighting.
Even during several outdoor games in bright sunlight it just couldn't hack it. I took several hundred photographs to get 30 or 40 worth keeping. Most of the time I was struggling with the camera trying to get it to focus and snap before the children ran away and out of focus.
I also took this camera to Hawaii for a vacation. It did much better when the subject stood still and smiled, but none of the evening sunset-shots turned out.
The camera also has a flaw in that the lens blocks out part of the viewfinder. This isn't much of an issue once you get used to using the LED to line up your shots.
On the plus side, this camera has a very long battery life and can use the Ultra II compact flash cards. The software was also very easy to use (be sure to read the instructions BEFORE loading it onto your computer, not during).
Overall, my recommendation is to spend a little extra for an SLR camera and leave this one alone.
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