Canon S1 vs Canon A80

[nikko]

I'm in the market for a digital camera. I've owned a couple of Canon Powershots in the past and have liked them well enough that I will almost certainly buy a Canon this time. I more or less have narrowed down my choices to the S1 and A80 and am looking for advice on which is a better buy. The A80 has 4 megapixels while the S1 only has 3, but I guess I don't even know what the advantage of having 4 megapixels is. When would I potentially miss having the extra megapixel? Also, the S1 doesn't have an AF assist-beam, but I honestly don't even know what that is, so I don't know if I need it. My main interest in the S1 comes from the 10X optical zoom and it's expanded movie mode. The movie mode isn't critical to me though, so would it be smarter to buy the A80 and along with the optional telephoto lens?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[imported_dualblade]

i'd go with the s1, as extra reach is always a valuable thing. i've printed 8x10's with a 2.1mp camera that came out very good and i'm extremely picky about image quality. the real advantage of having tons of resolution is so you can crop. in this situation, i don't think you'd need it as there's not too much you can't frame correctly with a 10x zoom. the way i see it, if you can't make great pictures with a camera that flexible without cropping, it's the operator that needs improvement.

if you do decide you'd like to have more resolution and a great zoom, there is always the olympus ultra zoom series. far as i know, they don't have IS which is a shame because it really is good technology. olympus' original ultra zoom (the c-2100) had IS and that was an excellent camera (i owned it).

 

[DaveSimmons]

A bunch of camera nuts hang out in Off-Topic and don't usually visit General Hardware. You might search "cam" in OT thread titles, for some good website content, then "s1" in thread contents to find anyone discussing it specifically.