Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Camera
Comment: Personally, I own the A80, and I like it so much that I got the A85 for my father-in-law. He is an avid picture-taker and loves the ease of the Canon. There are many picture taking options with this camera, and even a rookie can take good, quality pictures. I remember some advice I got when I got my first camera--stick to the companies who make cameras their business. You won't be disappointed with Canon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great camera, the perfect point-and-shoot
Comment: This canon is a decent point-and-shoot digital camera. Its size is great you can pretty easily, stuff it in a pocket. The one thing, this doesn't have is the flip out screen that the A80 had.
The camera has all the extras that make a little more powerful than your standard point-and-shoot. It is aperture priority and shutter priority selection, which is great. If you're new to cameras, shutter speed allows you to control how long the shutter stays open. So the picture you took his dark too dark to use. Just drop your shutter speed from 1/250 of a second to 1/125 of a second this will let in more light. And maybe salvage the picture.
That's what makes these cannons so powerful and great if you want to go beyond the basics of point-and-shoot, but it still will be a great point-and-shoot camera. And the price in these cameras just can't be beat. It's a deal at less than $250.
you can't go wrong, one last bonus to note is that this uses four AA batteries and not a battery pack, which is totally important. If you're on the go and out of juice. No matter what camera you got your not taken pictures. You can buy AA batteries anywhere bonus!
It has awesome case for only $5.95. Search for Amazon item number: B00009U0XI
Have fun and get it done!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Incredible Camera, easy to use with advanced features
Comment: Absolutely amazing camera.
First a little backhistory. I owned Canon products for the most of my life. My first digital camera was an HP however.
After my HP broke about 2 years after purchase (hardware failure, nonspecific, 150 bucks to fix at HP) i went with this camera. The difference is amazing.
Canon products have always been a favorite choice of mine due to ease of use. Its settings dial makes it fast and simple to change from mode to mode for various uses.
Say for example your filming your son at the soccer field. you want a nice portrait of him with the field faded in the background. use the portrait mode. Then you can use the same camera to get a fast shutter shot of him playing on the field simply by turning the dial.
you can even shoot a 3 minute movie of him playing on the field using the same camera! All it takes is the turn of the dial.
In addition to the different settings modes, there are 'creative' modes that you can enjoy by changing the shutter speed and the amount of light the lens lets through (arpeture? value)
this can be used to create some amazing effects of sparkling and flowing streams and waterfalls, or of glowing fountains or fireworks... or even "Light trail" photos.
The creative zones are great when you've got plenty of time to play around, and the preset modes are top notch.
Its hard to take a bad picture with this camera.
The "auto" mode is so powerful that you can literally open the box and start taking photos immediately. After a quick read through the manual you'll know how to take photos like a pro, and with just a little bit of learning and experimenting you'll be taking some real artsy shots too ;)
The battery life is amazing, especially with the optional canon NIMH batteries. The batters that came with it are not rechargable, but i was able to shoot over 100 shots + film 5 or 6 highest resolution movies (30 seconds a shot) before the batteries were dead. My NIMH batteries fully charged have taken over 100 shots and are still hot.
Now, about memory. Flash memory is some of the least expensive and better quality memory for digital cameras. The fact that they've gone with flash memory cards here is ideal. It ships with a 32 meg memory card (retail of about ten dollars as of this writing) and getting 256 meg and up is generally under 50 dollars.
Finally we talk about printing features. The canon camera has easy printing and easy sharing with any canon printer with a camera dock. This is largely most Canon printers. You absolutely will love any canon printer you buy, i believe them to be the best printers you can purchase. Canon has entry level printers for well under 100 bucks, some under 50 bucks in some cases (as of this writing, the IP1500 sits on my desktop) and they're the best in their price range, across all price ranges.
I honestly think it would be difficult to make a mistake purchasing this camera.
My only suggestion is to consider the Canon a95 camera, which is 1 megapixel higher, and has a swivel LCD screen. I had no use for the swivel screen and the larger picture depth wasnt worth the extra cash at the time of my purchase, but its something to consider if you're reading this review.
Customer Rating:
Summary: not as good as I thought
Comment: I had a Canon S100 over 3 years and took thousands of photos. it was great. now its charger is broken, so I bought A85. the print color is somehow wrong. it is cold and whitened. the plastic body feels cheap. my S100 is better than A85 in print quality.
now i switched to sony P100. it is very good. I want to stick with Cannon but A85 is really disappointing. The only good thing about A85 is that it uses cheap battery and memory card. But the prints are bad.
my advise is that do not buy A85. buy Sony or Cannon's S series.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great product !
Comment: have given the A85 4 stars although I would have given it 4.5 stars if possible and A80 5 stars. There are 2 basic reasons why I like A80 more than A85, but you may decide otherwise:
1)Bigger CCD Sensor - 1/1.8" on A80 vs. 1/2.7" on A85 - which means 5 million pixels compared to 4 million leading to better image quality.
2)Flip out LCD screen (1.5" on A80 vs 1.8" fixed LCD on A85)- The flip out screen is very useful when taking certain shots. I typically used the flip out screen most when taking
-shots of crowds down the center and of tall buildings by holding the camera above my head,
-in tight spot situations on hikes/treks where I could not shift much by twisting the screen sideways,
-of children/smaller objects on the ground without having to kneel on a sidewalk etc.
Summary: Great Camera
Comment: Personally, I own the A80, and I like it so much that I got the A85 for my father-in-law. He is an avid picture-taker and loves the ease of the Canon. There are many picture taking options with this camera, and even a rookie can take good, quality pictures. I remember some advice I got when I got my first camera--stick to the companies who make cameras their business. You won't be disappointed with Canon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great camera, the perfect point-and-shoot
Comment: This canon is a decent point-and-shoot digital camera. Its size is great you can pretty easily, stuff it in a pocket. The one thing, this doesn't have is the flip out screen that the A80 had.
The camera has all the extras that make a little more powerful than your standard point-and-shoot. It is aperture priority and shutter priority selection, which is great. If you're new to cameras, shutter speed allows you to control how long the shutter stays open. So the picture you took his dark too dark to use. Just drop your shutter speed from 1/250 of a second to 1/125 of a second this will let in more light. And maybe salvage the picture.
That's what makes these cannons so powerful and great if you want to go beyond the basics of point-and-shoot, but it still will be a great point-and-shoot camera. And the price in these cameras just can't be beat. It's a deal at less than $250.
you can't go wrong, one last bonus to note is that this uses four AA batteries and not a battery pack, which is totally important. If you're on the go and out of juice. No matter what camera you got your not taken pictures. You can buy AA batteries anywhere bonus!
It has awesome case for only $5.95. Search for Amazon item number: B00009U0XI
Have fun and get it done!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Incredible Camera, easy to use with advanced features
Comment: Absolutely amazing camera.
First a little backhistory. I owned Canon products for the most of my life. My first digital camera was an HP however.
After my HP broke about 2 years after purchase (hardware failure, nonspecific, 150 bucks to fix at HP) i went with this camera. The difference is amazing.
Canon products have always been a favorite choice of mine due to ease of use. Its settings dial makes it fast and simple to change from mode to mode for various uses.
Say for example your filming your son at the soccer field. you want a nice portrait of him with the field faded in the background. use the portrait mode. Then you can use the same camera to get a fast shutter shot of him playing on the field simply by turning the dial.
you can even shoot a 3 minute movie of him playing on the field using the same camera! All it takes is the turn of the dial.
In addition to the different settings modes, there are 'creative' modes that you can enjoy by changing the shutter speed and the amount of light the lens lets through (arpeture? value)
this can be used to create some amazing effects of sparkling and flowing streams and waterfalls, or of glowing fountains or fireworks... or even "Light trail" photos.
The creative zones are great when you've got plenty of time to play around, and the preset modes are top notch.
Its hard to take a bad picture with this camera.
The "auto" mode is so powerful that you can literally open the box and start taking photos immediately. After a quick read through the manual you'll know how to take photos like a pro, and with just a little bit of learning and experimenting you'll be taking some real artsy shots too ;)
The battery life is amazing, especially with the optional canon NIMH batteries. The batters that came with it are not rechargable, but i was able to shoot over 100 shots + film 5 or 6 highest resolution movies (30 seconds a shot) before the batteries were dead. My NIMH batteries fully charged have taken over 100 shots and are still hot.
Now, about memory. Flash memory is some of the least expensive and better quality memory for digital cameras. The fact that they've gone with flash memory cards here is ideal. It ships with a 32 meg memory card (retail of about ten dollars as of this writing) and getting 256 meg and up is generally under 50 dollars.
Finally we talk about printing features. The canon camera has easy printing and easy sharing with any canon printer with a camera dock. This is largely most Canon printers. You absolutely will love any canon printer you buy, i believe them to be the best printers you can purchase. Canon has entry level printers for well under 100 bucks, some under 50 bucks in some cases (as of this writing, the IP1500 sits on my desktop) and they're the best in their price range, across all price ranges.
I honestly think it would be difficult to make a mistake purchasing this camera.
My only suggestion is to consider the Canon a95 camera, which is 1 megapixel higher, and has a swivel LCD screen. I had no use for the swivel screen and the larger picture depth wasnt worth the extra cash at the time of my purchase, but its something to consider if you're reading this review.
Customer Rating:
Summary: not as good as I thought
Comment: I had a Canon S100 over 3 years and took thousands of photos. it was great. now its charger is broken, so I bought A85. the print color is somehow wrong. it is cold and whitened. the plastic body feels cheap. my S100 is better than A85 in print quality.
now i switched to sony P100. it is very good. I want to stick with Cannon but A85 is really disappointing. The only good thing about A85 is that it uses cheap battery and memory card. But the prints are bad.
my advise is that do not buy A85. buy Sony or Cannon's S series.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great product !
Comment: have given the A85 4 stars although I would have given it 4.5 stars if possible and A80 5 stars. There are 2 basic reasons why I like A80 more than A85, but you may decide otherwise:
1)Bigger CCD Sensor - 1/1.8" on A80 vs. 1/2.7" on A85 - which means 5 million pixels compared to 4 million leading to better image quality.
2)Flip out LCD screen (1.5" on A80 vs 1.8" fixed LCD on A85)- The flip out screen is very useful when taking certain shots. I typically used the flip out screen most when taking
-shots of crowds down the center and of tall buildings by holding the camera above my head,
-in tight spot situations on hikes/treks where I could not shift much by twisting the screen sideways,
-of children/smaller objects on the ground without having to kneel on a sidewalk etc.