A75 vs. A80

[np288]

Hi,
Im looking to buy my first digital camera. Ive done a lot of research and have narrowed it down to the canon A75 and the Canon A80. The A75 seems to have more preset modes like fireworks, foliage etc and has a higher resolution and bigger lcd screen whereas the A80 has a swivel out lcd and is 'rumoured' to take better pictures overall, plus it has more mpixels.

can anyone advise me on what i should do? the price of the cameras is within 10 dollars of each other. i cannot afford to buy a A95 - otherwise that wouldve been my first choice :(

regarding the A75 - i am worried abt the E18 thing, plus i read a previous thread where many ppl were upsett abt their A75. on the other hand, is the lcd for A80 too small/too low resolution? and what abt the lack of preset feature modes?

thanks!
-Natasha

[ReF]

there is a previous discussion about this. everyone including myself suggested the a80. why would anyone choose to loose 1mp and a flip out screen over $10? the presets on the a75 can be duplicated by manual settings on the a80. the a75 has a higher res lcd, but the a80 is a higher res camera than the a75, not the other way around.

[Thon]

A80.

It's just better in everything except the LCD, but then again it has a swivelling one.

And the lack of scene modes actually lets you play around with the settings a bit. Actually I don't even use the scene modes on my Oly C770UZ and it has a few of them.

[np288]

Well these are the main things i noticed:

(1) A75 has bigger and better lcd
(2) A80 has more mpixels - 1
(3) A75 has more preset modes
(4) A80 has swivel lcd
(5) A75 has better qualilty video
(6) A75 - have heard lots of complaints abt the E18 error!

Ok another thing is where to buy it:
compuplus is selling the A80 refurbished for 209 US dollars
compuplus is selling the A75 new for 179 US dollars

what exactly is 'refurbished'?
is it less reliable?
why is it so much cheaper - other sites quote 350+ for the A80

[Thon]

Refurbished are used ones and these are normally those returned to the factory due to defects and these normally have been corrected. If the case looks new and it still has the original box, I don't see any problems with buying a refurb.

[ReF]

A lot of people i've met have had bad experiences with refurbished electronics. buy at your own risk. even if it is covered by manufacturer's warranty, it could need repeated servicing and then you are stuck with cam that constantly breaks down and you probably won't be able to return it. then what happens when the 1 year warranty is up? it really is a mystery why the a75 has so many reported failures. perhaps it is because more people have it so failures are proportionally more common? i've taken the a80 to high-wind areas many times (and shot many many pics) and nothing has gotten stuck in the lens. it even rained the other day (high-winds + medium to light rain) and I shot a couple of pics without the rain-proof cover i have for it and it's still working fine. maybe you should consider a new, unopened a85 - haven't heard many problems about it.