Canon Powershot A80 (Review)

Next to your gun or your bow, the next most important piece of hunting equipment to take along has to be a camera of some shape or form. After all you just got to take a picture of that world's record buck or just take a snapshot of a buddy and you having a great hunt.

Any camera will do. I have used 35mm, throw-aways and of course now I use a digital camera. In fact I use a Canon A80 Powershot digital camera. This camera has many, many good features for the amateur or professional photographer. A digital camera is a must as it has many advantages over other types of cameras.

The greatest advantage a digital camera display over other types is you can see the picture you just took in the LCD screen and can easily see if the picture is good or not so you can take others if needed until you get the perfect shot.

The A80 is an extremely simple camera to use and the results can be exceptional. I have my camera set to the highest resolution and on superfine. That gives a high quality picture that when resized down for a web page or used to make an 8"x10" photograph.

Below is an example of a picture from this camera taken while out squirrel hunting with my hunting buddy. This proves the point and shoot capability and ease of operation of the camera. My buddy after a 5 second lesson took the picture (image 1). I then worked on the picture using Picasa2 to enrich the colors and add some effects and the result was excellent (image 2). In fact I took the finished image on the compact flash card to Walmart and had an 8" x 10" made, and the photogragh quality was even better than the digital image.

IMAGE 1
Original Image (click for full size)

IMAGE 2
Finished Image (click for full size)

The PowerShot A80 has everything you need. Inside the box, you'll find:

The 4.0 (effective) Megapixel Canon PowerShot A80 camera
32MB CompactFlash card
Four AA alkaline batteries
Wrist strap
USB cable
A/V cable
CD-ROMs featuring Canon Digital Camera Solutions and ArcSoft Camera Suite
215 page camera manual
Software manual

It is worth noting that using the camera connected to the PC with the supplied USB data cable can really drain the batteries. I would recommend buying a USB card reader (under $10 online) for your PC. This will increase battery life and is a heck-of -a-lot more convenient also.

A couple of accessories I bought in addition to the camera are:

A soft case (has a compartment for extra batteries and an extra compact flash card)
A 1Gb and 256Mb compact flash cards.
Aluminum tripod

Specifications listed below are quite good for a mid-range priced digital camera:

Camera

Compact digital still camera with built-in flash and 3x Optical / 3.6x Digital /11x Combined Zoom

Digital Sensor

1/1.8 inch Charge-Coupled Device (7.18 x 5.32 mm)

Effective Pixels

3.9 million (2272 x 1704)

Focal Length

7.8– 23.4mm, f/2.8– 4.9 zoom Lens
(35mm film equivalent: 38– 114mm)

Digital Zoom

3.6x

Optical Viewfinder

Real-image optical zoom viewfinder

LCD Monitor

1.5 in. amorphous sillicon TFT color LCD With variable-angle function.

LCD Pixels

Approx. 67,000 pixels (Picture coverage approx. 100%)

LCD Coverage

100%

Maximum Aperture

f/2.8/ 8.0 (W), f/4.9/ 8.0 (T)

Shutter Speed

15 – 1/2,000 sec.
Slow shutter of 1.3 sec. and more operates with noise reduction

Sensitivity

AUTO/ ISO 50/ 100/ 200/ 400 (Equivalent to ISO)

Light Metering Method

Evaluative/ Center-weighted average/ Spot

Exposure Control Method

Program AE/Aperture or Shutter-priority AE/Manual

White Balance Control

Auto, Pre-set (Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent or Fluorescent H) or Custom

Built-in Flash

Operation Modes: Auto, Red-eye Reduction On/ Off, Slow-Sync

Flash Range

WIDE: 1.5 ft. – 14 ft. (45cm – 4.4m)
TELE: 1.5 ft.– 8.2 ft. (45cm – 2.5m)
Macro: 9.8 in. – 1.5 ft./25cm – 45cm
(When sensitivity is set to ISO 100 equivalent)

Recycling Time

Approx. 10 sec. or shorter

Shooting Modes

Auto, Creative (P, Av, Tv, M, Custom 1, Custom 2), Programmed Image Control Zone, Image (Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Stitch Assist, Movie)

Self-Timer

Operates with approx. 2 sec. or approx 10 sec. count-down

Wireless Control

Not Available

Movie Clips

Yes, 320 x 240, 15 fps, max 3 mins

Continuous Shooting

Approx. 2.4 shots/ sec for 5 frames (Large/ Fine Mode and LCD monitor is Off)

Photo Effects

Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, Sepia and Black & White

Storage Media

CompactFlash (CF) Card Type I

Print Order Format

Digital Print Order Format (DPOF) Version 1.1

Image Recording Format

Still Image: JPEG (Exif 2.2 compliant)

JPEG Compression Mode

SuperFine, Fine or Normal

Number of Recording Pixels

Still image: Large: 2,272 x 1,704, Medium 1: 1,600 x 1,200, Medium 2: 1,024 x 768, Small: 640 x 480
Movie: 320 x 240 or 160 x 120

Playback Modes File

Single, Index (9 thumbnail images), Magnification (approx. 2.0x to 10x), Slide Show or Movie

Erase Modes

Still images: Single Image, All Images
Movie: Part of movie, All of movie

Computer Interface

Universal Serial Bus (USB) (mini-B jack)

Video Out

NTSC or PAL

Audio Out

Monaural

Power Source

1. AA-size Batteries (Alkaline, Rechargeable NiMH)(x4)
2. Compact Power Adapter (CA-PS500)

Shooting Capacity

	Number of Shots
	LCD ON	LCD OFF
AA ALKALINE	Approx. 250	Approx. 800
AA NIMH	Approx. 350	Approx. 1000

Playback Time

Approx. 280 minutes (under Canon's standard conditions with full-charged battery)

Operating Temperature

32 – 104°F (0 – 40°C)

Operating Humidity

10 – 90%

Dimensions (W x H x D)

4.1 x 2.5 x 1.4 in./103.1 x 64.4 x 34.7mm (Excluding protrusions)

Weight

Approx. 8.8 oz./250g (camera body only)

Windows

Computer Model: IBM PC/AT compatible
OS: Microsoft Windows 98 (including Second Edition)/ Me/ 2000/ XP.
CPU: Pentium 150MHz or higher processor (Windows 98/ Me/ 2000),
Pentium 300MHz or higher processor (Windows XP).
Interface: USB (Windows 98/ Me/ 2000/ XP pre-install model only).

Macintosh

Computer Model: Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMac, eMac or iBook
OS: OS 9.0 – 9.2 or OSX 10.1 – 10.2.
CPU: PowerPC.
Interface: USB (Models with Apple genuine USB interface only).