CANON UPGRADES POPULAR MID-RANGE D-SLR
THE NEARLY THREE-YEARS-OLD EOS 70D is on the way out, replaced by the new EOS 80D which incorporates quite a number of revisions and updates, starting with a 25.8 megapixels (total) ‘APS-C’ size CMOS sensor which is coupled with Canon’s latest DiG!C 6 image processor. The sensitivity range is equivalent to ISO 100 to 16,000 with an extension to ISO 25,600. The maximum continuous shooting speed remains at 7.0 fps, but with a significantly increased burst length of 110 maximum quality JPEGs or 25 RAW files. As before, the EOS 80D has a single memory card slot for the SD/HC/XC format.
With the increase in sensor resolution comes an improved version of Canon’s ‘Dual Pixel CMOS AF’ sensor-based autofocusing for live view and video shooting, and the number of AF points is increased from 19 to 45 – all now cross-type arrays – with 27 still operating at a lens speed of f8.0 (nine as cross-type arrays). The 80D inherits the 7D Mark II’s ‘Large Zone AF’ area mode and auto switching between the horizontal and vertical camera orientations. There’s an upgrade to the meter too, which now uses 7560-point ‘RGB+IR’ sensor which delivers 63-zone evaluative metering with the options of selective area, spot and centre-weighted average measurements.
The EOS 80D has a weather-sealed bodyshell with a pentaprism viewfinder – which now provides 100 percent scene coverage – and variableangle LCD monitor screen which has a resolution of 1.04 megadots and provides touch controls. The shutter has a speed range of 30-1/8000 second with flash sync up to 1/250 second, and is tested to 100,000 cycles. There’s a built-in WiFi unit which provides the convenience of NFC connectivity. There’s also an integrated Speedlite transmitter which allows for the wireless control of off-camera Canon flash units. Video can be recorded at 1080/50p in the MOV format with MPEG 4 AVC/H.264 compression (either ALL-I or IPB methods) and stereo sound. The camera has both a stereo audio input and output, both standard 3.5 mm minijack connectors.
The EOS 80D launches with a new version of Canon’s EF-S 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS USM which employs a more compact ‘Nano USM’ ultrasonic AF drive, but which, more notably, is designed to accept a clip-on accessory power zooming drive called PZ-E1. This component – which offers a choice of zooming speeds – is primarily aimed at videographers and is powered by four AAA-size batteries. At the moment, it’s dedicated to the Mark II 18-135mm lens, but it’s likely that a number of future new EF-S lenses will also be compatible.
The Canon EOS 80D is available now with likely ‘street’ pricing to be in the range of $1300 to $1400 for the body only. A kit which includes the new18-135mm zoom is also available. For more information visit www.canon.com.au