There are 18 shooting modes and colour effects including portrait, colour swap and night snapshot. Panorama and widescreen shooting are also offered. There are also various playback functions including, red eye correction, trimming and resizing images. The Ixus 80 IS will also record movies in VGA or QVGA resolution at 30f/s. All of this is packed into a compact body measuring 86.8 x 54.8 x 22mm and weighing 125 grams without battery or card.
So as you can see, it’s pretty much par for the course for a camera at this price point – indeed some might suggest that it’s just a smidgeon light on features, such as a wide angle lens, more manual control and more pixels on the CCD.
Par for the course for a camera at this price point
Switch on is swift and the Ixus 80 IS is ready to shoot in a couple of seconds. Shutter response is also fast. We found the three-way slider a bit fiddly and it was easy to go from camera mode to playback mode when you simply wanted to shoot some movie footage. The Function Set system was easy to navigate, however, and simply involved scrolling along an L-shaped menu of icons (the Ixus 80 IS also tells you in text what each icon stands for).
Depending on the setting, the vertical part of the L-shaped menu will let you alter various parameters. In the laughably described manual mode, you can, for example, adjust the exposure compensation setting and set the white balance for cloudy, light and various types of artificial lighting.
Performance-wise, the Ixus 80 IS more than delivers the goods. Colour reproduction was accurate, detail was sharp and the finished image is impressive, whether you’re viewing it on a PC monitor or a hard copy print.
COMMENTS
my comment?
And where did my earlier comment go then?
A bit of critisism about reviewing a camera at least one generation old and ignoring the plethora of isus models releases since and it gets removed?
Full frame (wars)
Interesting article above, on '6mp is the optimum for compact cameras'.
I spent some time around the middle of last year looking at CC's and ended up getting the Ixus 70. From this review, and a quick comparison on Canon's site against this model, I really can't see any compelling reasons to spend the extra $A100 for the 80 over the 70.
As to full frame (35mm) sensors - there's pros and cons with this. I used to think the same way, but Four-thirds (wikipedia it) looks like a much better option to me now. I'm not invested with either Canon or Nikon high-end gear, so a new standard is a more attractive option than siding with either of those two company's lock-in approach anyway.
Fascinating article about four-thirds ("Full Frame Wars") over at : http://www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/FullFrameWars.html - he writes especially coherently, doing an excellent history of 35mm and then some analysis of full frame sensors as well as looking at four-thirds.
Agreed (somewhat)
I sort of agree with you.
More pixels in such a tiny area is pointless. I think we hit the highest resolution for a 'digital camera' a year or two ago.
I want my digital cameras to have BIGGER sensors. Yup, I want a 35mm sensor with the correct number of pixels in it (personally, I do not know how many that would be). ideally, a nice Mamiya with 35mm digital back along with a medium format digital back... oh wait.. dont' they have those already...?
Anyway, bring on the not-making-lense-ratios-more-complex digital cameras :o)
we don't want more pixels on small sensors
"indeed some might suggest that it’s just a smidgeon light on features, such as ... and more pixels on the CCD"
see here:
http://6mpixel.org/en/
