camoldnewHaving migrated to a SLR camera, I have stopped using my Sony S80 point and shoot as much. In fact the last time that I used it was when I was writing a review of the Sony A300 that I bought in December 08. My S80 has served me well for the last 4 years, right up until December 25th 2008. I might still have not bought the SLR if the card reader in the S80 had not gone bad and stopped reading the memory cards. The S80 was a very versatile camera, allowing me to shoot with the ease of a point and shoot and also creatively with a full manual mode.

This is a comparison of my 4 year old Sony DSC S80 Point and Shoot and my brand new Sony Alpha DSLR 300K. At the end of this comparison I myself was surprised at how little different the two are for the average user.

Camera

Sony DSC S80

Sony ADSLR A300K

Lens

Carl Zeiss 39-117mm

Kit 18-70mm

Image Sensor

4.2MP 4.0 effective

10.8MP 10.2 effective

ISO Sensitivity

Auto, 80 to 400

Auto, 100 to 3200

No. of Sensors

1

2

Storage

32MB Internal, Memory Stick

No Internal, Compact Flash

Power

2 AA Batteries, Optional Power Adaptor or Battery Pack

InfoLithium Battery Pack, Optional Power Adaptor

Modes

Auto, Manual, Program, 7 scene modes

Auto, Manual, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, 7 scene modes

Built in Flash

Yes

Yes

Buttons on Body

12 + Dial

27 + Dial (Wow!)

Connectors

1

3

Image Stabilization

No

Yes, In Body

LCD

2.5in

2.7in Tilting

Made In

Japan

Body: Japan Lens: China

Tripod Receptacle

Yes

Yes

Shutter Speeds

1/1000 to 30

1/4000 to 30 + Bulb

File Formats

JPEG

JPEG, RAW

In Camera Editing

Yes

Not Really

Manual Mode

Yes, Full Aperture and Shutter Adjustment

Duh!

Live View

Duh!

Yes

No. of Accessories Supplied

6

9

After having gone through the manuals of both these cameras for this comparison, I realized that I was able to almost everything with the S80 that I am able to do with the A300 albeit at a much lower resolution. Plus, I always wanted a SLR camera.