Canon PowerShot A80 Digital Camera

I have owned the Canon Powershot A80 Digital Camera for about eight months. During that time I have gotten the opportunity to take a variety of photographs with the camera. On the whole, I have been relatively happy with it but I think that technology has improved since that time to the point where I would shop around a little bit before purchasing it at this time.

Physical Characteristics
The Powershot A80 measures 4.1X 2.5 X 1.4 inches. It weighs 8.8 oz, which is a bit heavier than I would like. The weight is one of my biggest complaints with the camera. It can be carried in a purse, but you will probably notice it is there. It is too bulky to slip in a pocket. Sometimes this prevents me from taking this camera on day trips with a lot of walking, and I opt for a cheap disposable camera instead. I get very jealous of some of my friends with their teeny-tiny compact sized cameras. The camera has a wrist strap, which I wrap around my wrist when I take pictures to avoid dropping it. No camera case of any kind is included with this model.

Components on the Camera
The shutter button is located to the top right of the camera. The zoom dial surrounds the shutter button. The camera has an Optical Zoom feature which magnifies up to 3X and a digital zoom feature that goes up to 11X. Also on the top of the camera are the on/off button and the shooting mode dial. The dial allows selection of camera settings. Leaving it on 'Auto' lets the camera select setting automatically. The other choices include portrait, landscape, night scene, fast shutter speed, slow shutter speed, stitch assist, and movie. These are represented by tiny pictures, and you will definitely need to read the instruction manual to have any idea what the symbols mean. If you want to get really fancy, the dial also includes 'creative zone' selections to achieve special effects.

The back of the camera features the viewfinder as well as the mode switch, which allows the user to switch between taking and viewing photographs. There is also the toggle button. This button allows the user to choose between options on the menu screens and move around photos, and the up button doubles as the Flash Button. The function button is used to select various settings. Finally, the menu button can be used to access advanced settings. There are several other minor buttons, the use of which is detailed in the instruction manual.

The Screen
This camera features a LCD monitor which pops out of the back of the camera. You can allow the camera to swing out to the left side, face up, or swivel it around to fit back into the camera. It allows you to see the image you will be photographing or taking a movie of. The different angles are convenient for different types of photography. The monitor will automatically adjust so images are not shown upside down, and turns off when it is snapped back into the camera. Image quality is good on this monitor, but you have to get the right angle to be able to see it. For example, if you are off at an angle to the side you may see a darker image or none at all.

Software
The Camera comes with a CD-Rom which allows you to transfer your photos onto a computer. This is a fairly simple procedure which requires you to install the software and then connect the camera to the computer. From there, prompts will basically guide you through the rest of the process. You can then use the software to send email attachments, print a variety of layouts, or even operate the camera shutter from your computer. It is easy to manipulate the images in a variety of ways. I especially enjoy turning color photos to black and white.

There are a variety of ways to print out your pictures. If you have a photo printer, obviously you can print them out directly. Otherwise, I think these days the easiest way is to upload them to a store's website and order them online. Many stores have this capability, I usually use Walmart. All in all, the software is very user friendly and the number of photos you can store is limited only by the space available on your computer. You can also post photos online to share with friends. I recommend www.webshots.com as a free service that doesn't require your friends to have a password to view the photos.

What other stuff do I need?
The camera takes AA Alkaline Batteries, and it comes with four of them. This is one of the good features of this camera, as many types take more expensive camera batteries. Pictures are stored on Compact Flash Cards. The card the camera comes with is 32 MB. The number of pictures stored depends on which setting the camera is on. Generally, I was able to store about 16 pictures with this original card. Because of this, a larger CF Card is a good purchase when you buy a camera. I paid about $80.00 for a card which holds 256 MB. However, this was almost a year ago and I think costs are lower now for these cards.

Photo Quality
The photo quality gets about a B from me. The outside photographs on this camera are great. They are clear and crisp, whether taken at regular distance or on a zoom. We were very pleased with our outdoor honeymoon photos taken with this camera, and impressed at how close we could get to things with the zoom. Inside pictures, however, are a little bit less consistent. The more you zoom in, the lower quality the photos are. I never use digital zoom inside, and rarely optical zoom. In fact, even without zoom, sometimes it is difficult for me to get the lighting right. If you can choose the correct setting, the picture will probably turn out great. However, the 'Auto' setting does not always do the job indoors, and sometimes it is impossible to figure out the right setting in time to capture the moment. Additionally, people tend to have red eye in a lot of the indoor pictures, but this can be fixed through the software. The indoor pictures are still ok, just not as consistently high quality as I would like.

Overall…
The Canon Powershot A80 is a good quality camera that takes good, and sometimes great, pictures. For a casual photographer and scrapbooker such as myself, this is a big improvement over the disposable cameras I have used (and sometimes still use) far too often. However, there are a few issues that keep me from giving it a perfect score. The camera's bulkiness and its inconsistent indoor pictures are minor problems, but hopefully the next camera I purchase will be superior in these areas. With technology changing so quickly, I'm sure the perfect camera will be right down the road.

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