Canon PowerShot A80 Digital Camera [4MP 3xOptical]

 

 

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Once a very happy snapper with a 'shoot & go' APS film camera I decided it was time to enter the digital age of photography. The main driving factor being that I once sent my old films off to get developed on-line so I could share with friends, although this proved to be expensively eventually so in the short time I've owned the camera I believe I've paid it off with the saving in developing & film costs. It also made sense to go digital, upload and share myself, not to mention the numerous other benefits of having a digital camera to hand.

After plenty of research both press and on-line and having a close look and heard endless praise from a friend about his A70 I opted for the A80, slightly more expensive than it's little older brother but I felt worth for the tilt LCD and the extra resolution.

I'm not disappointed. This is a very safe purchase. As you would expect amazing quality and features to take you that 'extra step' from beginner to semi-professional. Typical Canon quality.

I've taken thousands of photos already. I'd recommend to anyone to get 8 x 2100mAH (or above) rechargable batteries (so you have two sets of four, a spare set should you get caught out) and a 1 to 2 hour fast-charger. Many come with car cigarette lighter adaptors which makes it handy for re-fueling the Canon on the move. I have to say that one set of four 2100 batteries lasted me an entire week including use of the LCD for shots and reviews and then some.

Another wise move is to get a decent size Compact Flash card. I got a 256MB (best value for money) and with several trips abroad I've managed not to exceed it's healthy potential with literally hundreds of quality (6.5x4.5) shots, with some larger on full detail (A4 size) and a few several minute videos.

Now the camera itself is very easy to use indeed. A nice dial to switch between modes plus more professional functions accessible through the intuitive LCD menu for more professional or unqiue shots. The ability to shoot at night has proven very impressive results. I'd recommend a tripod for the slower shutter shots though to eliminate camera shake which digital cameras are clearly more prone to. I was also surprised how little you need the flash both indoor and at night (saving more battery). You get more natural colour shots without it, even on its lowest setting it fills immediate object with tonnes of bright light. The auto-white-balance capability is a very useful function for getting true colours in a mixture of cloudy, sunny and indoor conditions.

Picture quality as you would expect is excellent.

I would say the most impressive feature of the A80 is it's tilt screen and the flexibility it provides. Two examples when it has been very useful to me are (i) taking photos above crowds of people and (ii) when taking a time-delay shot that has yours truly in the picture: You can set the camera up with the LCD facing forward so you can compose a better shot if you want to be in it.

I agree that the A80 is bigger, heavier and bulkier than the neat little ixus models but I think the extra functionality easily out-weighs that fact. Perhaps a little too big for the pocket, however for me personally, I find the size and feel of the camera and the controls almost perfect.

In the box, the manual is clear and good but only for reference rather than leisurely reading. The bundled software is fine, stitching software is extremely easy to use. I'd recommend a USB2 CF-card reader for your PC - far faster than uploading directly from the camera (although slow it is easy and quickly to get working using Windows XP -I've tried it). Canon also throw in 32MB card (get a bigger one!) and a handy video lead which means you can bore your friends with slide-shows almost instantly via phono-style video sockets now on most modern TVs and VCRs.

The only disappointing facts are you have to buy decent batteries (the ones that come with it don't last long at all) and it's a shame it doesn't come with a case but I bought the Canon one for it and I'd very much recommend it.

All-in-all in the few weeks I've had the camera I'm already producing shots better than I have ever done and I'm certainly no expert. I'm really very pleased with the camera and it's capability.

If you buy this model, you definitely won't be disappointed.

Let me start making something completely clear. I'm a very demanding guywhen it comes to photography. I'm such a control freak that I need to beable to control aperture, shutter, exposure (in 1/3 stop increments), usefill-in flash night *and* day, night pictures and all. Yes, that's me onan average day. That's why I have a professional level SLR camera. Itgives me the control I want, it takes excellent pictures, that's me sortedout.
No wonder then, that when I decided to buy a digital camera, although thistime I didn't want to spend £2000 or £3000 on a new body, I still wantedquality and control. And for this price you can't beat the A70/A75 andA80.
Here are the positive aspects of the A80:
1. Image quality is excellent, razor-sharp, in almost all conditions.
2. Menus are very intuitive and extremely easy to use - no need at all toread the manual.
3. It has many programs for all kinds of situations, including portrait,landscape, macro, etc.
4. You can stitch up several pics in one - for example to build a panoramapicture.
5. Like SLRs it's got manual, aperture-priority andshutter-priority programs, giving you plenty of choice and control.
6. At its widest the lens is equivalent to a 38mm in 35 mm cameras andmakes this one of the digital cameras with the widest lenses on themarket, at least for this price. This will matter a lot to you if, likeme, you like taking pictures of landscapes, buildings, etc.
7. 4 Megapixels is much more than enough for most of you out there. Infact, 3 MB is quite enough.
8. You can take video clips with sound -and, despite what other people may tell you, it's not limited to 3minutes.
9. You can customize the camera to give it your personal touch - meaningthat you can change the startup image, system sounds, etc.
10. The included software is extremely good.
11. The flash is very powerful; in fact I suspect the range is a lotlonger than the manual says.
12. Its TV output means you can show your pics on your TV, making thiscamera a lot more user friendly than most digital cameras, at least whenyou don't print the pictures. The cable is of course supplied.
13.After you take a picture you can inspect it by zooming into it. That wayyou can check the quality of the image and decide if another one isnecessary.
14. The memory support used by this camera is Compact Flash and is, byfar, the cheapest memory support on the market. And there is a lot tochoose from, unlike other - arhem - types that are proprietary.
15.Best value for money here doesn't mean it's a cheap camera and that youget what you pay for: here you pay little and get a lot of cameraback!
16. This has a bonus compared to A70 and A80 cameras: the LCD displaycomes out and can be rotated so you can take self portraits and reachthose hard angles without breaking your neck.
Of course there are a few nags too. Since if you're reading this it'slikely that you're interested in buying the camera I might as well tellyou the bad things too:
1. It's much heavier than most digital cameras,meaning that although it's good for avoiding camera shake it is a bituncomfortable on your hand. (Mind you, my other "real" camera is an SLRthat typically weighs more than 2Kgs and I still wear it around myneck!!!)
2. It is by far the ugliest digital camera on the market. Check out thepictures, you will see what I mean.
3. This camera uses 4 AA size batteries, making it even heavier andbulkier. You might as well order one and rechargeable AA batteries whenyou buy this camera. On the plus side because the batteries are standardso when they've given their last drop you can get them anywhere from theGreat Wall of China to Iraklion.
4. You only get a warning that thebarrery must be replaced at the very last moment.
5. It is a bit slow when taking pictures - from when you depress theshutter button for the first time, to when the picture is actually taken.Somehow this delay doesn't seem to happen all the time; I'm not sure, butI think it may have something to do with light levels.
This camera is a little wonder and I definitely recommend it. The onlyreason why I only don't give it five stars is because, as I said above,I'm a very demanding guy...

I bought the camera from a position of knowing IT inside-out and absolutely nothing about photography. So whereas getting the camera connected and working on the PC was very simple indeed, I anticipated a good week or so to get to know the camera in time for a holiday in the sun.

Well, it didn't take anywhere near that long. From the first flash of my kids smiling faces, I was amazed at how intuitive and simple the camera was to use. The internal camera settings can be changed with a few clicks on the appropriate buttons and you can see the results instantly.

Within an hour I knew how to take portrait pictures against a bright sky with flash infilling with quite stunning results. And with a 256M flash card (purchased separately) that's 225 pictures at high res, 1600 at low res... that's a lot of stunning results. I challenge anybody to use that up.

One great feature with this camera that is not mentioned very often is that the rear 1.5" screen flips out and you can take pictures in obscure places but still have a good view of what the camera sees. And when the camera is off... the screen points to the inside for protection.

This camera is 4Mpixels. A 5M camera can effectively take pictures at higher resolution, but genuinely to realise any of the benefit of a higher resoltion camera you'll have to print the photos on A3 paper! As the heavy glass optics on this Canon are so good... I'm not sure that there will be any difference between a 4M Canon shot and a 5M shot with a plastic lens.

The video camera setting is gimmicky, but good.. only really suitable for those occasions where you've left your camcorder at home.

I'd heard that cameras are quite heavy on battery use, so I took the precaution of buying a charger and two sets of rechargable batteries, but it wasn't anywhere near as draining on the batteries as I expected... a pleasant surprise.

It doesn't come with a case... so you'll have to budget for one... (or use a padded jiffy bag, your choice).

All-in-all, if you're looking for a digital camera at a fairly budget price with excellent optics, this is astounding.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Faulty
After doing a great deal of research and really liking this camera I was very excited to find one on Ebay for a very good price and only one other person bidding. Read more

Published 21 months ago by penedawn

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing picture qulaity for the money
This is a fantastic piece of equipment. The image quality is outstanding and there is enough latitude there in the function choices in Manual Mode to give the user more control if... Read more

Published on 24 Nov 2006 by J. Hall

2.0 out of 5 stars Out dated with bad shutter delay
If you were to buy this camera now to be fair it's out dated although more attractive in price than when I bought mine about 2 years ago now after various good reviews. Read more

Published on 18 May 2006 by duirsgrove

4.0 out of 5 stars High quality camera
I bought the Powershot A80 back in June 2004 and have found the best thing about it is the picture quality, especially the macro mode, light metering, focus and saturation. Read more

Published on 20 Oct 2005 by RA

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb camera in virtually every respect
I purchased the Canon A80 a while back but was on the verge of buying a Nikon Coolpix that was on special offer and therefore a similar specification on paper for a slightly... Read more

Published on 16 July 2005 by Dr. P. Porter

5.0 out of 5 stars High quality pictures
I bought this camera last year after reading a brilliant review in a top PC mag..... It is great value for money with extremely high quality pictures and very handy flip out &... Read more

Published on 6 Jun 2005 by T. Murphy

5.0 out of 5 stars cool
this was my first foray into the world of digital photography, and it has not disapponted me!!

Published on 24 May 2005 by John Plate

4.0 out of 5 stars debhruin
Initially I was very impressed. This is an excellent camera with all the versatility and quality one has come to expect from Canon. Read more

Published on 23 April 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
I bought this camera for a holiday - prior to this I'd always had disposable cameras.

The camera is extremely easy to use but not at the expense of quality. Read more

Published on 7 Aug 2004 by Rob

1.0 out of 5 stars Buyers Beware
I purchased a Canon Powershot A80 on this website in April 2004. The camera arrived no problem. However, I went on holidays in June 2004 and proudly brought my new camera. Read more

Published on 3 Aug 2004 by Yvonne Clarke

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