| Likes |
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- XGA movie mode
- Interesting My Colors mode
- 22 language choices, the most we can recall seeing on any camera
- Great playback mode
- Lots of live views
- Software is easy to use
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| Dislikes |
- Loud lens with excessive barrel distortion
- Inaccurate viewfinder
- Poor LCD resolution
- Clustered layout - too many buttons surrounded by way too many icons
- Split menu system appears disorganized
- No optical zoom in movie mode
- Limited battery life |
Conclusion
The Canon PowerShot S80 is a hybrid digital camera with 8 megapixels for shooting still images, and several modes and resolutions for recording movie clips. The S80 is the first camera to have a movie mode that can shoot in 1024 x 768 pixels. While this is great resolution, it only captures 15 frames per second so the high resolution isn’t complemented by a smooth frame rate. The S80 has other movie modes as well that are more typical of an average compact camera’s offerings. VGA and QVGA sizes are available in a video mail option. Unfortunately, the S80 lacks some features that would make it a good camcorder. The Canon S80 cannot use its 3.6x optical zoom lens while recording movies and there is no image stabilization to keep telephoto movie shots from looking like they were filmed during an earthquake.
As far as still images go, the S80 scores a little better. It has manual, priority, auto and scene modes – a nice range for many users. There are plenty of manual and automatic functions as well as some cool features like the My Colors mode. Photographers can bypass basic editing software by swapping colors, increasing the contrast, and enhancing certain colors. The in-camera editing is necessary too because the included software is quite paltry. The Canon PowerShot S80’s menu system isn’t very intuitive, but using the unusual rotary dial to navigate through stacks of pictures is fun.
Overall, the S80 is an okay digital camera, but not a very good camcorder. It has a basic burst mode that shoots 1.8 fps. Its zoom lens makes a loud motor noise and its 2.5-inch LCD screen has poor resolution. The Canon S80 is marketed as a great hybrid device, but it lacks optical zoom functionality in movie mode and even more basic features like sufficient memory, battery power, and decent software. The Canon PowerShot S80 retails for $549, but isn’t worth quite that much.
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