Camera Equipment - The Canon A80
My first dip into the world of digital cameras was December 1, 2003, when the Canon A80 arrived from B&H Photo & Video. Heather and I had purchased the camera for a couple of reasons.
First, we were both interested in what digital photography could offer. Having used digital cameras of friends, we were both familiar with the power of the immediate feedback and the live preview. Second, we were tired of scaring our families. As we both had become interested in photography in the past few years, we often brought our film SLR's to family events (birthdays, holiday parties, etc). However, faced with a full sized SLR, our families would often react very poorly: turning away, becoming shy or intimidated, or worse, becoming frustrated with our "constant" picture taking. One way we thought this could be avoided would be to bring a smaller camera. Heather has a small film Canon SureShot, but that wouldn't let us enjoy point three :) Lastly, we wanted a new toy. A digital camera seemed like the perfect solution to our cravings. It was our Christmas gift to ourselves.
To say that we enjoy this camera would be quite an understatement. As far as point and shoot digital cameras are concerned, we love it. The image quality is quite high, the manual features most welcome, and the battery life (coupled with a set of NiMH's) is beyond most any other digital camera out there. While others are scrambling for their $50 proprietary batteries, we're still shooting and shooting. With a set of 2200 MaH NiMH's, we get between 450 and 500 shots per charge. That's with the LCD on full time and 10-15% flash usage. Simply amazing. However, as technology moves forward, proprietary batteries are becoming better. The current crop of 7.1MP point and shoots put up some impressive battery life numbers.
The A80 was chosen for a few reasons (in no particular order):
- Flip-Out LCD
- AA-sized batteries as the power source
- MegaPixel count vs the rest of the A-series Canon's
- Positive reviews online
- Sensor size: 1/1.8" vs the smaller 1/2.5" sized sensor.
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