Is the LCD on the a80 bad?

[bbig119]

I'm currently shopping for a camera for my father this Christmas. I personally own an A40 which has and continues to serve my needs well.

Based on my own experiences, reviews, and what I feel my dad will value in a camera, I am leaning strongly towards the a80.

I haven't been able to test this for myself yet, but I've read that the LCD has a low pixel count for the size and this makes it difficult to accurately evaluate your shots after you take them. This true? Is the A70 LCD any better?

I just checked the specs on my A40 and its supposed to have 120K pixels while the a80 has a mere 64k. Both have 1.5" LCDs.

Opinions appreciated.

[asiafish]

It really is that bad.

[trailbear]

Originally Posted by bbig119

I'm currently shopping for a camera for my father this Christmas. I personally own an A40 which has and continues to serve my needs well.

Based on my own experiences, reviews, and what I feel my dad will value in a camera, I am leaning strongly towards the a80.

I haven't been able to test this for myself yet, but I've read that the LCD has a low pixel count for the size and this makes it difficult to accurately evaluate your shots after you take them. This true? Is the A70 LCD any better?

I just checked the specs on my A40 and its supposed to have 120K pixels while the a80 has a mere 64k. Both have 1.5" LCDs.

Opinions appreciated.

The A80 LCD is certainly okay to make a tentitive decision whether the image is okay or absolute garbage. The same can be said of any digital camera LCD I ever saw. Final decisions are best made in the computer with software that can display the image full-screen. If in doubt, bracket for exposure and try various F stops for depth of field concerns.

If you want to make the decision based on a LCD display alone, look for a camera with a 19 inch diagonal screen and prepare to replace batteries after a few images.

The LCD is much better than a simple optical viewfinder for aiming the camera in the right direction, learning some important facts about the current options selected and viewing automated settings. To expect more is unreasonable. The same computer that gives you a good look at the image supports software that can correct virtually every sort of blunder that the user might make, save forgetting to remove the lens cap ops: Short version: buy your dad the A80.

One last thought: if your dad hasn't got a lot better eyes than mine, you might consider recommending a little magnification for critical situations. I use one of these:

http://www.carson-optical.com/magnislide.html

which you can buy for a song at:

http://www.maps4u.com/cgi-bin/search...Category=Optic

I've been doing photography since the early 1950s and looking at digicams for over a year. I went with the A80 because it produced great images and had the features I need at a price I was willing to pay. So far I have no regrets. tb