  We present new BVI photometry for the halo globular cluster M5, and examine
the B- and I-band luminosity functions (LFs), based on over 20,000 stars. We do
not see evidence in the LF of a ``subgiant excess'' or of a discrepancy in the
relative numbers of stars on the red-giant branch and main sequence, both of
which have been claimed in more metal-poor clusters. Inclusion of alpha-element
enhancements improves the agreement between the observed and predicted
positions of the ``red-giant bump''. Using the \Delta V_{TO}^{HB} method, we
conclude that the clusters M5, Palomar 5, M4, NGC 288, NGC 362, NGC 1261, NGC
1851 and NGC 2808 are the same age at the level of about 1.5 Gyr, with the
possible exception of NGC 288 (older by 3.5\pm 1.5 if the reddest NGC 288 HB
stars are on the zero-age horizontal branch). Even with NGC 288 set aside, the
large range in HB morphology in the remaining clusters appears to eliminate age
as the sole second parameter determining HB morphology in the case of constant
mass loss between RGB and HB. We are unable to chose between the two competing
values for M5's (absolute) metallicity: [Fe/H] = -1.40 (Zinn & West 1984) and
-1.17 (Sneden et al. 1992). This level of discrepancy has a signifcant effect
on the derivation of the distance modulus and absolute age of M5. From
theoretical isochrones and luminosity functions, we find an absolute age for M5
of 13.5 \pm 1 Gyr (internal error, assuming perfect models and no [M/H] error)
for the Zinn & West abundance scale and 11 \pm 1 Gyr for the higher abundance
value.
