Canon Powershot G9 Digital Camera

The S5-IS is probably your better choice. See: and click on “Full Review” for each camera where you will read…

Canon S5-IS: “To conclude, the PowerShot S5 IS is probably, just, the pick of the super zoom bunch at this moment in time, because it offers reliable output, responsive performance and an impressive feature set in an attractive, easy to use package that makes photography fun; not because it offers better IQ.

It is crying out for a better sensor, wider lens and for Canon to move the SD card slot back out from the battery compartment, but I’d still rather take it out shooting than the Sony, Olympus or Fuji alternatives. The output (with fringing and noise issues) simply isn’t good enough to earn the S5 IS an unqualified ‘Highly Recommended’ rating, but it’s an easy ‘Recommended’.”

Sony DSC H7: “To put it another way, if you want a genuinely affordable big zoom camera for snapping the family that you can leave on ‘full auto’ all the time - and you rarely print your pictures bigger than 6×4 inches - the H7 is (at as little as $350 online) certainly worth a closer look.

But if you’ve got more exacting image quality standards, want to enlarge more or want to actually use all those advanced features I suspect that, like us, you’re going to find the H7 disappointing. At least the H9 has a great screen to take your mind off the fiddly controls and less-than-stellar results; the H7 is what it is - a budget model that, unfortunately, performs like one.”

Now…

If you buy a digital SLR, you will beat those image quality problems inherant in the small sensor used in these two cameras. Yes, you have to buy “expensive” lenses in addition to a comparitively expensive camera body, but you will have far superior images. The Canon EOS 400D is the top selling digital SLR in the USA right now. Personally, I prefer the Nikon D80, but you have mentioned Canon in your question.

See: