How to change your Camera settings to RAW

Not all cameras will allow shooting RAW. It's treated as an output option along the assorted JPG sizes. In general, only SLRs, mirrorless, and "high end" point and shoot cameras support RAW.

The Canon S5IS does not support RAW format, sorry.

 

There's an alternate firmware for Canon point-n-shoots that can allow them to shoot in RAW. It's called CHDK - http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

You can probably use that to shoot RAW with your camera.

 

Also be aware that when shooting in the RAW format that you'll get a file that will need to be converted before viewing/editing and that different manufacturers have different RAW extensions for their files as well as for their cameras. For instance I just bought a Sony NEX-5R and the version of Photoshop that I bought last year (version 5) does not support converting RAW files for my new camera and Adobe basically wants me to upgrade to version 6 to get that functionality. They do offer software that converts RAW to a DNG file which can be read by Photoshop. So I'm using that. So there is some added overhead to working with RAW files. Then you take all that extra quality that the RAW files gives and shrink the file small enough to view on the web since RAW files are much larger than jpegs. The benefit is that you get to edit the file and then save compressed so you have more control over the final output.

 

If you buy a camera that natively supports RAW, the manufacturer will provide their own RAW converter for it, so I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you are buying used.

As for Adobe products, it's really the Adobe Camera RAW plugin you would need. Converting to Adobe's DNG format is a "timeless" option/workaround. The main advantages to using a 3rd party converter is workflow speed and the ability to mix and match different brands of camera.