Canon PowerShot S80

Reviewed January 2006

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

Increasing the flash exposure compensation of the S80 to +2/3 EV produces a brighter image than the default settings. Still, some light falloff is detectable in the corners of the frame with 28mm (equivalent) wide angle shots.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

At the full magnification of the zoom, the image remains quite soft, even when the sharpness is increased in the Function menu, and details such as the textures are not as sharp as we would have expected.

As with the wide angle shot, flash exposure compensation is used to increase the brightness of the image, but in this case + 1/3 EV is sufficient.

MACRO PHOTO

The macro mode of the S80 is engaged by pressing the left arrow of the Multi-control Dial. The dial is a bit finicky and even with some experience in the use of the dial, shooting macros with the S80 can often entail accidentally changing the ISO setting, or activating the Manual focus mode.

With the lens set to the wide angle, the S80 is able to focus on a subject 4cm (1.6 in.) from the front element of the lens, capturing a field of view measuring approximately 6.5 cm (2.53 in.) horizontally.

While when the zoom is set to the maximum telephoto, the S80 can focus on a subject that is between 28 and 30 cm from the front element, capturing a horizontal field of view measuring approximately 10 cm (3.9 in.).

With the zoom at the wide angle end, the S80's macro images easily reveal barrel distortion as soon as some straight element in the subject is positioned near the long edges of the frame; unlike images captured at the telephoto end, which are effectively distortion-free.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

A few minutes of sunshine light the building, punctuating what was otherwise consistently rainy weather while the S80 was being tested.

Winter light and cloudy skies are the least conducive to photography, but in the case of a camera test has the advantage of showing what a camera can do under these conditions.

Even under these difficult conditions, the S80 manages quite well, producing an image that is well exposed from foreground to background.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

Here at the maximum optical magnification, the S80's lens shows no trace of any distortion. The exposure is very good and even the directly reflecting sunlight on the metal over the windows on the right side of the image is well-handled by the camera. Likewise, there is no overexposure of the foreground.

Worth noting, the relatively small aperture of the zoom at the maximum telephoto setting requires a fair bit of light to avoid camera shake.

NIGHT PHOTO

As this camera is capable of a long exposure, a photo taken at night is included.

The PowerShot S80 can capture exposures lasting up to 15 seconds when set to either Manual mode, or Shutter Priority mode (Tv). A 15 second exposure, in conjunction with the maximum aperture of f2.8 available at the wide angle end and a 100 or 200 ISO setting, allows the camera to capture subjects that are quite dark.

With this subject however, an aperture of f4 — obtained by moving the zoom slightly past the widest angle — and a 50 ISO setting allow for a reasonably bright image with a bit more sharpness.

The PowerShot S80, as with most other Canon compact digital cameras, automatically processes images to reduce noise when the shutter speed is longer than 1.3 seconds. As usual the process doubles the amount of time to capture the image, but successfully eliminates the noise that would otherwise dominate the image. The downside of the process however, is that the image sharpness is lower than can be had with daylight shots.