You don't need those high megapixels (Canon Powershot A80)

Member Name: davomrmac

Product:	Canon Powershot A80
Date:	14/09/08 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great build quality, good lens, great performance

Disadvantages: Zoom is a little short

This is my second review of an older piece of kit and for a good reason. We have had this camera for about three years now and it hasn't let us down once. Also, if you check out ebay, you can pick these up for around the £30-£35 mark, often with a memory card too. If you compare this price with the rubbish that £30 or even £40 buys you in the digital camera market, you get a lot more for your money with the likes of the Canon.

When this was new it was our main digital camera. Things have moved on in technology, so we now have a higher resolution camera. The Canon A80 always gets used for ebay pictures though and quick snaps, due to its ease of use. With the A80 you can pick it up, switch it on very quickly and snap your photo. Even with just two button presses, you can turn off the flash and switch on macro. It seems to handle this setting very well and for ebay pictures the resulting photo always seems well lit. If you are photographing something shiny, then turning of the flash is essential to stop the bounceback.

It does have a tiny screen, but this is supplemented by an optical viewfinder. So you can take pictures either way. The zoom lens is quite short, only 3x but this is optical zoom. The lens is also very good, compared to these cheap 8 megapixel cameras with their awful plastic lenses and CMOS sensors (glorified webcams) you will get a lot better picture with the Canon.

If you do want to print the photos, they are still very good. We have printed regular 6x4 and 7x5 prints, right up to the occasional A4 and the results are brilliant. So in normal use, you really don't need more than the 4 megapixels that the A80 offers. You also get a really solid camera, well made and from a brand you can trust. It uses compact flash for memory, which is nice and cheap. Batteries are normal AA, so you can use rechargeables, but if you do get caught away without any charge, most shops will sell standard AA's that solves the problem.

Summary: A great camera for ebay or family photos

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