New A80 Owner: is my camera faulty?

[genosypheus]

hi, just bought the A80 today, been playing with it, and was quite disturb by some obervations i made:

1) when i aim the camera at my fluorescent light bulb and moves it across back and forth, i noticed purple streaks trailing across the lcd screen, as if the light bulb is "painting" my lcd screen effect.....is this normal?

2) when i half press the shoot button, to focus on the scene, i notice some flickering of the lcd screen, at the same time, i can hear some sound matching the timing of the flickering as well........is this normal?

3) the lcd on the whole is quite grainy......ie, low resolution, is this normal?

4) so far i've been indoor, within my fluroscent litted bright white room, yet the flash still comes on......is this normal?

pls help me out guys, this is my very 1st digital camera, so i have no comparison and no experiences whatso ever......the camera might just be perfectly normal, or am i really down on my luck???? thanks in advance for any kind responses.....:)

[S45_fornow...]

hi, just bought the A80 today, been playing with it, and was quite disturb by some obervations i made:

1) when i aim the camera at my fluorescent light bulb and moves it across back and forth, i noticed purple streaks trailing across the lcd screen, as if the light bulb is "painting" my lcd screen effect.....is this normal?

Yes, if you point the camera directly at any light source, you will see streaks in the LCD. Most often, these streaks don't actually appear in the captured image though.

2) when i half press the shoot button, to focus on the scene, i notice some flickering of the lcd screen, at the same time, i can hear some sound matching the timing of the flickering as well........is this normal?

Yes, the sound you hear is the lens mechanism focussing. The flickering of the LCD is normal as the camera is focussing. If its really bad, then that may not be normal.

3) the lcd on the whole is quite grainy......ie, low resolution, is this normal?

Yes, unfortunately Canon used a lower resolution LCD screen on the A80 than the A70 and the S series cameras.

4) so far i've been indoor, my fluroscent litted bright white room, yet the flash still comes on......is this normal?

Yes, the flash will come on unless the luminosity of the room is higher. The camera shake warning will appear if you disable the flash under these circumstances also.

pls help me out guys, this is my very 1st digital camera, so i have no comparison and no experiences whatso ever......the camera might just be perfectly normal, or am i really down on my luck???? thanks in advance for any kind responses.....:)

Read my comments between your questions above. Don't worry so much. Go out and shoot, shoot, shoot. Learn your camera and it will give you great pics!

[mveach]

I see that s45_fornow has answered all your questions. I would just like to add, I am using an A60 and have had it now for about 6 weeks. I like the A series cameras a lot. They are a good place for someone that wants to do more than just point and shoot. But it still has excellent auto capabilities also for those quick shots. My only complaint as with most digital cameras, the lcd is very hard to see in bright sun light. since this is the only place you can see your settings, this can be a problem. I am thinking of getting an adapter that just straps to the camera for this situation. Take lots of pictures, play with the settings and have lots of fun.

[Alnath]

The flash on my A80 comes on when i am outside in the middle of the day :lol: i guess its down to what the metering works out.

I kind of like the fact you can hear the camera focusing, it makes me feel like its doing something

[genosypheus]

thanks guys, yall really calmed me down......though i wun mind some tips to on what;s the 1st things an experienced user will check immediately upon obtaining a new camera.....

[morim]

thanks guys, yall really calmed me down......though i wun mind some tips to on what;s the 1st things an experienced user will check immediately upon obtaining a new camera.....

Check it out, test how it works with different settings in different situations.
I've made some testshots trying my A80 with different effect settings, and tested the flash with different White balans settings.
see:
www.fnutt.net/morim/A80

IMO Never Use Auto mode(green), the program mode (P) gives better opportunities to set the settings u want to achive your photographic goals.

(I was having a cold that day if U think im looking like a dead fish.. :-) )

/morim

[Airwair]

I don't think any of those sound normal except the flash in bright light. I just tried looking strait into a regular bulb and I got a blue streak for about one second and then the lcd ajusted to the light. The lcd screen looks as good or better than any other I have seen. And my screen does not flicker at all. If you think it's a problem and can return it I would. I've had my A80 for 6 months or so and I love it. When they make millions of the things sometimes they put out a bad one.