Canon A80

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The Canon PowerShot A80 is a compact digital camera with a swiveling LCD monitor that allows you to frame the picture "live" from many different angles - making possible shots that are very difficult if not impossible with a digital SLR.  It runs on 4 AA batteries - available virtually anyplace - takes compact flash cards (a 1GB card will hold over 850 images at the full 4megapixel resolution), accepts accessory telephoto and wide angle lenses to complement the 3x zoom of its built-in lens, and can easily be housed in an underwater housing. 

 

Why would one want such a camera when excellent Digital SLR's are available?  The simple word is portability.  This camera can slip into your pocket and you can take it places you'd be afraid to take a larger, more expensive camera.  In the summer of 2004 I hiked up into a rainforest in British Columbia (actually we hiked all the way into the US).  It was a typical northwestern day, with a light drizzle and a constant dripping.  I dragged my EOS 10D, a 400mm lens, a macro lens and ringflash, and a 19-35mm lens all the way.  They never came out of their cases; all my shots were taken with the A80, housed in a waterproof housing, and conveniently stowed inside the flap of my jacket.  I used it for everything from wide-angle habitat shots to macro shots to underwater shots.  

It did a creditable job on all of them; perhaps not as good as I might have gotten with the EOS 10D, but then I didn't have an underwater housing for the latter, and there was no way I could have taken the picture looking up into a flower with that camera.

For me, one of the attractions of the A80 was its similarity (in terms of controls and menus) to the EOS system I already had (although the only interchangeable parts are the batteries (between A80 and various EOS flash units) and the compact flash cards.  The advantage of having similar controls is evident in fast-changing situations.  I would recommend that anyone looking at a small digital camera look closely at cameras made by the same manufacturer as their digital SLR.  For instance, our department's Nikon Coolpix 4500 is a wonderful camera, but it operates differently than the Canons and it takes me a long time to figure it out.  

 


Greenland

 

 This past winter when I had a chance to travel to Paris and Brussels I did the unthinkable - I left all my SLR's at home and traveled only with the A80.  I missed a few shots (I would have loved to have the 100-400mm zoom while at Notre Dame and at the Eiffel Tower), but overall it worked great!

 

The A80 compared to a 77mm lens cap.

Digital cameras have become almost a commodity and their introduction and spread has been chronicled in real-time on the web.  One of the best places to get information on most digital cameras is the site DPREVIEWS.COM.  This site gets the latest cameras (often before they are released), reviews them thoroughly, shows you all the controls and features, gives you example images, and compares the camera to its closest competitors.  I highly recommend viewing it.  Also, the camera manufacturers routinely place product manuals online. 

DPreviews.COM - Canon PowerShot A80

 Canon USA - Canon PowerShot A80 manual