Picture Quality / Size Options (7.5)
‘Options’ is the key word here. There are many on the Canon PowerShot S80. For still shots, the following sizes are available in SuperFine, Fine, or Normal JPEG compression: 3264 x 2448, 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200 and 640 x 480. The older S70 had RAW shooting, but the new S80 only offers JPEG files. The camera’s movie mode has almost as many size options: 1024 x 768 at 15 fps, 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 at 30 or 15 fps, and 160 x 120 at 15 fps for 3 minutes. The Canon S80 comes with a 32MB SD card, which is much too small for 8 megapixel pictures and video. For a camera that flaunts its hybrid abilities, it should include a larger card. The included memory card can hold only 8 images.
Picture Effects Mode (8.0)
The S80 excels in picture effects. It has all sorts of bells and whistles. There is a My Colors mode on the mode dial that accesses all sorts of interesting features. Users can play with the following modes: Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Color Accent, Color Swap, and Custom Color. The color accent mode is pretty cool. It makes most things in frame look rather bland and dreary, then accents the bright colors. Unfortunately, users cannot pick what items are accented. That’s why there are vivid blue, red, and green modes to enhance only certain colors.
The color swap option is very interesting too. Using the arrows and tiny boxes on the LCD screen, users can change the color of, say, their subjects’ shirts, if desired. The custom color option lets users enhance red, green and blue colors on a sliding scale, as well as skin tones. This can make subjects much more tan in vacation shots, without the cancerous effect. (The illusion might be spoiled, though, when your friends notice your current pallor in comparison to last week’s vacation photos.)
When the camera is not in the My Colors mode, it does have a few picture effects available: Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, Sepia, Black & White and Custom. The sepia looks a little too orange and unnatural, but the rest of the modes look decent. The custom effects include contrast, sharpness, and saturation with +, - and 0 choices. All of these picture effects can be found in the Func./Set menu.
