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Alan Chan | profile | all galleries >> Canon PowerShot A80 Samples tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Canon PowerShot A80 Samples

This gallery is created in order to show what this little camera is capable of. The original pictures are posted here, straight from the camera without enhancement. Tripod was used only for those marked "(Tripod)", that means other pictures were taken handheld and might not be as sharp as they should be, though they are still pretty sharp nonetheless (or I would not put them up). Hope any potential A80 buyers will find these pictures useful. More pictures might be added in the future. Any comments are welcome. Enjoy!
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Cherry Blossom
Cherry Blossom		 Cherry Blossom 2
Cherry Blossom 2		 Cat (ISO50, Tripod)
Cat (ISO50, Tripod)		 Spider (Pentax FA43/1.9 reverse, ISO50, Tripod)
Spider (Pentax FA43/1.9 reverse, ISO50, Tripod)
Got nothing better to photograph... (ISO50, Tripod)
Got nothing better to photograph... (ISO50, Tripod)		 Hasegawa 1/72 Mitsubishi Zero (ISO50, Tripod)
Hasegawa 1/72 Mitsubishi Zero (ISO50, Tripod)		 Cactus (ISO50, Tripod)
Cactus (ISO50, Tripod)		 Tulips
Tulips
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post a comment
Alan Chan 07-Apr-2005 05:42
Any 50mm lens will do, MF or AF. 50mm is best choice because it covers well. The reversed lens must have shorter focal length than the lens on camera in order to provide the macro effect. However, if the focal length is too short, vignetting will occur.
Tiago 06-Apr-2005 23:12
So basically any 50mm (does it have to be 50mm, or others can do the trick?) lens will do, right? AF or Manual, old or new?

Thanks for the tip! :)
Alan Chan 06-Apr-2005 20:43
I am not sure, but if the image circle of the zoom covers well, it should do, although the image quality at the edges may suffer. If not, you can always pick up the cheapest used 50mm lens for the job. Some are as cheap as 20 bucks only. :-)
Tiago 06-Apr-2005 19:46
wonderful photos!! :)
I recently bought a Canon A95, and I would like to try the super macro. I've already found the adapter for A95. But I've a question. I have an old Nikon F50, with Nikkor lenses (AF 35-80mm f/4-5.6D). Can I make the super macro with this lens?

Thanks in advance!:)
Alan Chan 16-Jan-2005 06:29
Hi Dave,
The reason for 49mm diameter is that it is a common filter size for most Pentax 50mm lenses. However, any 50mm will do the job fine (including your FD50/1.8). You just need to find the right size coupling ring to fit your lens. Here is an excellent site that you might find useful. Hope this help.
http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/articles.htm
Dave 16-Jan-2005 03:36
Greatly enjoyed reading about your A80 super macro setup with the reversed lens. As a new Canon owner without much 35mm experience, I'd be greatful for a little more detail. You say you use "[a] 49mm-52mm male-to-male macro coupling adaptor . . . to reverse-mount the Pentax FA43/1.9 lens on the Canon LA-DC52D adaptor" and that "any 50mm lens could be used to achieve the same result." The Canon adapter, I take it, has a 52mm diameter with which the 52mm side of the coupler would mate. Why would the 49mm side mate with "any 50mm lens?" Are the dimensions of different things? Do you think a Canon FD 50mm 1: 1.8 would make a good lens for this setup? Many thanks for the great gallery & forum!
Dave


Andy 29-Oct-2004 22:05
Some nice photographs with the A80. Just on the subject of macro photography, I purchased a fixed +16d macro lens off ebay and have been amazed at the results. Just look for the description '+16d Macro Lens - Canon A60/A70/A75/A80/85/A95,S45/S50'
It cost me £12 and is worth every penny. I can zoom in to almost insane detail. As an example a photograph I took of my fingerprint shows the sweat glands in my skin.
Seem a very cheap alternative to the reversed lens.
Angela 15-Sep-2004 09:40
Your pictures are so nice! I've bought Canon Powershot A80 six months ago and I am very satisfied with its performance. And now I'm using Canon EOS 300D (black)...heehee
Christian 26-Jul-2004 00:53
Hi Alan, I'm going to buy the A80 but there still are some issues that I haven't got in touch with, like the night shots and red eye problems. Could you up-load a fiew photo samples to view how much a problem could it be?. Anyway, great shots....it's a great forum and a nice way to help new users too, thanks!!!. Bye!
Alan Chan 19-Jul-2004 19:12
Hi littleboy,

You might click on "Properties" to view the EXIF data when using ZoomBrowser EX. Any softwares which support EXIF data, should be able to see them as well, such as ACDSee 6.
littleboy 19-Jul-2004 11:23
Hi Alan,

Thanks for the reply. I am curious on how you could get information such as Focal Length, Exposure Time and Aperture size of each photo? As far as i am concern, i didn't see any of these information in the given Canon software. I thought only camera that support RAW mode provide these informations.
Alan Chan 19-Jul-2004 09:55
Hi littleboy,

The reason it was marked as (wide) is that 2 shots were taken at the exact same location, but one with wide setting, the other at the long end, no attachment was used. If you would like to get a decent wide adaptor for your A80, you may consider the Raynox 6600PRO. However, I have no direct experience with this converter so I do not know how well it matches the A80. I tried the Canon recommended converter WC-DC52 which I do not recommend.

http://www.raynox.co.jp/english/dcr/dcr6600pro/indexdcr6600eg.htm
littleboy 19-Jul-2004 08:52
Hi Alan,

For those pictures that you indicate as "wide", do you use wide angle lens? If yes, tell me what kind of wide angle lens you use. I own an A80 too, and currently looking for lens expansion. What other kind of lens that you recommend on the A80( tele, macro, wide)?
Alan Chan 18-Jul-2004 21:11
Hi Edgar,

I have updated the picture titles to indicate which were taken with tripod. Those w/o
"(tripod)" in the title were taken handheld. My A80 was from the very early production run so it was Made in Japan. However, their origin should not make much practical difference except the resale value.
edgar balisalisa 18-Jul-2004 14:52
Hi Alan,

Just received my A80 yesterday from the US and I'm still testing it. As I'm Asian, I wasn't that surprised to find out later that what I got was "Made in China." However, I'm a little concerned about this 'coz I hear discouraging complaints from other users who have the same China make. What I want to do is make an intelligent approach on this by not drawing up a hurried conclusion unless I myself see the images taken from it or experience the same problems others had and then comment later. Hope you can shed some light on this.

My dilemma would be returning the A80 later in case there are problems 'coz I just let a friend in the US buy it for me. I'm really hoping my testing would turn out well. I'm what you may call a hobbyist in photography or a little on the advanced side in using digicams (I also currently own an Olympus C-740UZ and had a few film SLRs before). I still believe the "make" thing is not so much an issue 'coz I had a friend before who had a "Made in Malaysia" Canon film point-and-shoot model and it was taking great images. Canon I believe also maintains strict quality control on their products irregardless whether it's made in Africa or Antartica.

I wish you could state in your galleries if your shots were taken using a tripod or not, handheld or self-bracing (special mention goes to your WELCOME and INT'L DEPARTURE GATES images). I'm sure other users in this forum would like to know. For hobbyists like me and in places where sometimes it's forbidden to shoot mostly in security-conscious countries, it's quite tough to bring a tripod and use it publicly.

Thanks for your time reading this. Oh, by the way...great shots!
Alan Chan 27-Feb-2004 23:13
You might try the "neutral" colour setting on A80 and see if you like it, although I don't think it will solve the colour fringing issue.
Baptiste 27-Feb-2004 11:03
Thank you for your answer Alan !
You're right : after a few checks here and there, my camera is not worse than the others. In fact, I realized that, globally, the pictures are slightly oversaturated, and this accentuates the fringes : as soon as I remove some saturation with an editor, the shots become more realistic, yet a bit less flaterring :)
If I had to switch for another DC, I would opt for the Nikon 4500, but I find it doesn't perform really really better in term of (over)saturation and fringes.
I haven't tested the different iso and white balance settings : maybe they can help in getting the desired saturation level...
Alan Chan 25-Feb-2004 08:29
Hi Baptiste,

It is normal for A80. They will appear wherever there is overexposed areas (white) against dark edges. If you checked the reviews at dpreview.com, you will notice almost all DCs suffered from this problem to varies degree. It could be caused by chromatic aberration or blooming, or both. The reason chromatic aberration was not such an issue with film cameras is that most people did not enlarge their pictures large enough to make them visible to naked eyes. That means even though the colour fringing is so obvious on our computer monitors, they might not be visible on 4x6" prints. Before you returned the A80, I recommend you check the reviews of other DCs at dpreview.com to get an idea on colour fringing. You can read more on this at:

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Optical/Chromatic_Aberrations_01.htm
Alan Chan 25-Feb-2004 08:19
Hi Helen,

As Baptiste has said, the idea is to use large aperture (f2.8 at the wide end, or f4.5 at the long end) to achieve shallow DOF (depth-of-field). However, as the film format (CCD size in this case) is getting smaller, it is more difficult to achieve shallow DOF. This is the reason you may not be able to achieve the same blurred background as you did with 135 format (35mm) equipments. The best you can do, is to decrease the camera-subject distance, and increase the subject-background distance.
Baptiste 23-Feb-2004 20:48
Oh, the forum broke my link ! Correct URL is : drosophile.chez.tiscali.fr?url=galerie/studio and add the ".jpg" extension to "studio"
Sorry for my spamming !
Baptiste 23-Feb-2004 20:42
Hi Alan,
First, you make great pictures ! Congratulations !
I'm so sorry, it looks like an assault of questions rushing down to you... but you seem to be such an expert about the A80 ! :)
I baught that camera last week, and the blue fringes are so obvious that I wonder whether I should take it back to the shop (the blue shock me more than the purples).
Could you have a look at?
and tell me if the aberrations on the teapot and the CDs look normal to you ?
I've noticed the same on some of your pictures yet, those inside the computer shop for ex... but your doll (with tripod) doesn't have the problem at all - although one could expect sharp fringes with such a contrast !
Thanks a lot for your help !
Baptiste

PS : An answer to Helen : if portrait mode doesn't work well for u, select Av mode and choose a small value for the aperture - f2,8 or f3,2. That should do exactly the same than portrait mode.
Helen Lau 23-Feb-2004 17:33
Hi Alan

I have read through the manual and still couldn't get the effect of clear subject and blur background look using the portrait mode.. any idea?

Thanks!
Alan Chan 13-Feb-2004 22:18
Not al all. You can use any AA NiMH of any brands. In fact, Canon do not manufactured their own AA NiMH which were made by Panasonic, so to many other Japanese brands. In Japan, Sanyo makes the best quality rechargables, and Panasonic is not bad either.
Helen Lau 13-Feb-2004 15:26
Hi Alan

I recently purchased a Canon A80. I'm thinking about getting the rechargable NiMh batteries. Do I HAVE to purchase the one by Canon? Which one do you suggest?

Thanks
Helen
Alan Chan 28-Jan-2004 00:03
Hi Peter,

Since I have not tried any TC with A80, I do not know how it performs. However, all TCs tax the image quality. Higher power TC will likely to produce lower image quality, although the quality of the TC itself plays an important part too.
Peter 27-Jan-2004 16:53
Alan,
I have a question about the lens for A80. I want to choose a tele converter for A80, but I think the lens TC-DC52A is not powerful enough.Do you think so? Do you think i should buy a converter from other companies rather than Canon? If so, which companies should i choose??
Thanks a lot!
Alan Chan 23-Jan-2004 23:49
Hi Frank,

I have checked the Canon website and they recommend TC-DC52A & WC-DC52 for A80. I believe you were refering to TC-DC52A (tele converter) while my samples were taken with WC-DC52 (wide converter).
Frank 23-Jan-2004 13:28
Alan,

Can you explain your setup for using the WC-DC52? I thought the A80 was only compatible with the WC-DC52A, which is 1.75x vs the DC52's 2.4x. I tried both combinations at the store, and the WC-DC52's glass surface came awfully close to the A80's lens (after adding the LA-DC52D adapter), creating occasional focusing problems and somewhat blurry details in images. The WC-DC52A's glass surface is farther out, somewhat "tucked in" to the lens converter, which is more suitable for the A80, I guess. How have your results been?

Thanks!
Alan Chan 19-Jan-2004 22:40
Hi Praveen,

You might select the print style according to the manual on p.145. However, I do not know if the date will be printed the "traditional way" because I have never printed any of my A80 pictures. :-)
Praveen 19-Jan-2004 17:24
Hi Alan,

Really very nice A80 Collection.
I have recently bought A80 and trying to get the photo like yours :))

I have a question realted to Canon A80:
Can I get the date printed on pictures(softcopy) like in some other cameras?
as I am not able to find out that feature in the camera.

I will be thankful if you can help.

Cheers,
Praveen
Alan Chan 02-Dec-2003 05:02
I have never thought I would take any shot like this (Infra-red), but since you asked. :-)
Damon 02-Dec-2003 03:28
I am about to buy the A80 but was wondering if you've tried any near infrared shots. It would be really cool if you could post a picture of a TV remote (with a button pressed) at the A80. If it has a white light where the infrared light is on the remote then it will probably take pretty good photos with a filter.

Thanks again for the cools shots especially the macros
pierre thomas 26-Nov-2003 22:39
Thanks for the answer and comments.

As for the tree branches, you are the one who knows how the sky really was like that day. I was personnally thinking of it rather blue, probably overexposed, except through the tree branches where less light would be diffused, thus in line with the whole shot exposure. I am saying that because of one similar shot in Isabel Cutler's A80 sample gallery, which I bet you know, and there is a white sky, with some spots of blue sky amid bluish tree branches, and then down the picture a blue sky again reflecting on the surface of the foreground river !

Regards.

PYT
Alan Chan 26-Nov-2003 21:36
So far the most annoying issue is tree branches against cloudy sky turned blue. However, I am uncertain if it was caused by purple fringing because I have not done enough similar shooting to confirm the problem. For everything else, the purple fringing does not seem to cause any practical impact. The most obvious one is probably the "wheelchair" picture which shows purple fringing on the neck of the subject. Also shown in many shots, the edges of the ceiling lamps have noticeable purple fringing but I do not find them annoying. I just leave them there. As for the night shots, even those overexposed 1EV shots (I didn't posted them) do not have purple fringing around neon lights so I am not too concern on the purple fringing issue. I do not believe there is anything can be done to avoid it when it happens. The most you can do is to underexpose the shot a little to cut down the amount/chance of purple fringing and then correct it in Photoshop. However, since the prints are a lot smaller than viewing jpeg on monitors, most purple fringing might disappear once printed.
pierre thomas 26-Nov-2003 14:27
Hi Alan,

Many thanks for your great a80 sample gallery. Extremeley valuable for all potential A80 buyers.

One comment on the A80 : it seems that this camera neither likes strong highlights (which it tends to burn) nor strong contrasts, which generate noticeable purple fringing (apparently above average). It even seems that these two issues are linked. Have you found a way to get around these (EV adjustment or whatever), or should a user learn to live with this couple of issues, or is this purple fringing just not so much a problem in daily shooting ?

Many thanks for the attention.

PYT
Alan Chan 22-Nov-2003 10:07
Actually the purple fringing can be seen in shots with overexposed highlights (lights on the ceiling etc). The "Trees" shot also appear to have the blue cast on the branches but I am not sure if it was purple fringing.
About the S400, I only checked out the samples on the web and they appear pretty much the same as A80 as far as sharpness is concerned, perhaps slightly sharper for distant subjects but I am not certain. I have found that distance subjects are the best way to test the picture quality of DC compacts.
Olivier Chapron 22-Nov-2003 09:13
Hi, Alan, great job for us ... helping to choose a digital camera.
A suggestion : would it be possible to see the purple fringe every-body mentioned with this camera by adding some photos in this section ?
A question : did you made a comparison between A80 and S400 before choosing A80 ?
Regards - Olivier
Alan Chan 09-Nov-2003 08:45
Sad to hear you have problem with the loudspeaker on your A80, but it should be an easy fix for Canon. I didn't try the TC-DC52A because I feel that the A80 is pretty slow at the tele-end already. Adding a TC might not be that practical without tripod, unfortunately. :-(
AthlonFX64 09-Nov-2003 08:25
WOW!! Great macro photos!!
I own an A80 too. But it has something wrong with the loudspeaker and now repairing in canon !!
Did you try out some tele lens?
Jason 09-Nov-2003 06:38
Thanks for the shots and replying to my post on DPReview. I've decided to go with the A80.

JB
Joe Movich 06-Nov-2003 16:59
Amazing performance at ISO 400. Great shots Alan!
Alan Chan 05-Nov-2003 05:38
Thx! I just used P mode with flash off and focus on the light bulb, the camera did the rest.
Guest 05-Nov-2003 01:42
Great pictures. What settings did you use on the desk lamp photo?
RC CHEN 01-Nov-2003 14:38
Thanks Alan.
Alan Chan 01-Nov-2003 01:56
A few pictures have been added according to your request. I have not used flash enough to comment on the red-eye issue. Purple fringe is noticeable near bright white edges (see Wheelchair & Maple Leaves). In macro mode, it is not as close as some other digital cameras, but sharpness is high. There is an optional close-up filter from Canon however.
RC CHEN 31-Oct-2003 14:01
Can you post more photos by the Canon A80, because I want to see its performance in greater detail. Somebody said A80 has blue fringing and red eye problems, have you come across them? Also how does it perform in macro?
click on thumbnails for full image