Canon PowerShot A80 Digital Camera [4MP 3xOptical]

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.

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.