The Canon Ixus 80 IS has a rather elegant and classy aesthetic appearance, due to its subtle colour contrast. It is quite slim and small, which makes it lightweight. Therefore, unlike other heavier models you would not strain your hand if you use the camera excessively for a long period of time. The lens has a 38mm to 114 mm zoom range which is not amazing in general, but it is acceptable for a camera in the compact market.

However, if you regularly take photos of large groups of people or objects you might find that they would need move rather close to each other. Its 8 megapixel resolution, means that it would have no trouble if you do decide to print some photos in large formats/sizes. The camera also allows you to select from a range of ISO settings from 80 to 1600. Which can be useful depending on the lighting and the type of photo that you want to take.

The default white balance setting is not optimum for every shot, but it is the standard settings. In the event that you wish to change this due to photos looking awful, using the manual settings will help to improve the photo.

When using the camera, there is a very short start up delay which is quite good compared to others. The delay of the shuttle is also reasonable, however there is a small delay in processing time in between shots and during burst shots. The start up delay has been measured at about 1.4 seconds which is quite good. But overall, you should not miss an photo opportunity with this camera. When using the camera in Macro mode, the detail and sharpness of the image is indeed quite impressive. Its built in flash is also quite powerful which helps a lot when shooting in low light conditions.

All these features can be used for quite a long time, because the battery stamina of the camera is also quite good. The display screen is good and clear, even in bright conditions. But the viewfinders is not very accurate, however it could either be a big or small problem dependent on the individual. Because some prefer using the viewfinder primarily and some prefer using the display screen and only depending on the viewfinder when battery is low in an effort to conserve battery.

Although there is not build in memory, it is supplied with a 32 megabyte memory card as standard. In total there are eleven different exposure settings that can be utilised.