Canon EOS 80D Full Review | Jack of All Trades

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to do my final review of the new Canon EOS 80D camera
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This is an APS-C or crop sensor camera and is Canon's newest camera body release
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And, you know, my experience has been is that when there are product announcements from Canon
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often coinciding with some other manufacturer's own announcement, it's rare that the Canon looks the best when it comes to the raw specs
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And a lot of us lament Canon's lack of innovation. The reality is that Canon does innovate
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but they're conservative in the sense that they often, by the time their products come to market
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whatever new innovation they have is a little bit more fully realized
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than what sometimes the competitors are. and some of the competitors will offer up a more impressive spec list but when it gets out into the
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real world shooting often the Canon is better at delivering on what it shows on its specs as
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opposed to some others. I believe that's the case with the Canon 80D. When it was first announced a
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number of people you know kind of gave a collective yawn. You know it had some improved specs obviously
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but at the same time it didn't necessarily blow them away at its overall improvements
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but after having used this camera for about two months now and a lot of situations taken
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thousands of images with it I can safely say that Canon has really done an excellent job of
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delivering an all-around performer. Let's jump in and take a closer look. I'm going to do a lot of
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references to the previous generation 70D here because that is really the the top competitor and
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many of you may be considering whether or not it's worth upgrading or spending the extra money to buy
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the 80d over the 70d one of the chief improvements of course is a whole new sensor on this camera
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that has a 24.2 megapixel as opposed to the 20.2 megapixels of the 70d and so it has got more
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pixels and so in that that case and now equals the 7d mark ii and and so it will allow you to
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have a more detail, a bit higher resolution, and of course the ability to crop more if necessary
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And that comes in handy if you're shooting wildlife or you need additional reach
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Beyond that, this sensor has improvements to the DPAF. That's Canon's dual pixel autofocus
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which gives even better autofocus when it comes to what you might call live view autofocus. And
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It really is incredibly fast now, and that mode, both in stills and then, of course, it tracks very well
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In fact, I did a segment that I encourage you to look at here
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where I compared the tracking ability of this camera, the 70D, and then also the EOS M3 that I'm filming on today
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and how they compared in their tracking performance. You might want to take a look at that
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The other thing that was majorly improved in this is a whole new autofocus system
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The 70D basically inherited the focus system with a few minor tweaks from the original 7D
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and so it had 19 AF points. This new Canon 80D has 45 AF points, and they are all cross-type
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focus points. So the advantage, of course, is not only are there more points, and it's not that they
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just cram more points into the same area, but now those points cover a much larger portion of the
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frame, which I have found that for the most part means that you can compose pretty much as you want
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and have not just a focus point there, but have all cross type focus points that are there
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On top of that, Canon did something unprecedented with this in that while the 70D, if you're using
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for example, a lens with a teleconverter, one, a common one is the 100 to 400 millimeter
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f4.5-5.6 LIS Mark II, which is a fantastic lens that I own and that I love. But if you
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throw a 1.4x teleconverter on there, the 70D is not going to do anything in terms of autofocus
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It has no autofocus at a maximum of f8 They did not they added f8 autofocus to the 80D but not just a center point or a few points like some other bodies but this has a full 27 AF points that
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will allow you to autofocus at f8. So basically that means that the three groups of nine across
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the center of the frame can all be selected or used with that. In real life, I found that the
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fewer focus points that you used at a time, the better the result. And by the way, if you have
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the Mark II version of Canon's 1.4x teleconverter, note that you can AF focus at F8, but only on the
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center point. You need the Mark III to unleash all of the focus points. And so with the Mark III
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version, I found that using a single point, particularly that center point, it focused very
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very well. Very fast, no hunting. And also if I chose other individual points, the story was
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similarly true. If I chose a group, I was more likely to get a little bit of pulsing before
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focus locked. And if you select all the focus points, I found that to be a not fantastic
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experience. So the upside is, of course, is that you can autofocus effectively at F8 on a number
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of different places across the frame. The downside is, is that if you want to select a lot of focus
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points like for tracking movement, in some cases I think you're going to be disappointing. And so
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those of you that hope that this would really be fantastic for bird in flight shooting, for example
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your mileage may vary according to mine, and of course depending on what lens you're using
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but I wasn't blown away by the performance in this kind of application. The other thing when
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it comes to an improvement to the autofocus system was is that like the Canon 6D, Canon
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touted that the center point would have that hypersensitivity down to a minus three exposure
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value. And that's the same claim that it was for the 6D. The 70D, for example, it will only go down
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to a minus 0.5 or a half stop EV value. So that's a huge improvement. And it means that if you're
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shooting in very low light conditions, if you'll use that center point, it'll label you to autofocus
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in situations where the 70D won't do anything. And I certainly tested that and found it to be true
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That being said, the 80D is not really up to the standard of the 60
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and I found that the 60 would still lock on in situations where the 80D would just hunt
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And so how that all plays out, I'm not exactly sure, but I can say safely that it's not as sensitive
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as what the 60's center point is, and thus not as effective in low light conditions
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It's still an improvement over the previous generation, but still not up to the full frame
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performance. If you look into the viewfinder of the new 80D, you'll notice an improvement over the
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70D. The 70D covered 98% coverage of the frame. The 80D has now moved up to 100% coverage
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and so it's got a really nice viewfinder with a lot of ability to customize it and to improve
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when it comes to that. On top of that, it also adds a few features like the 7D Mark II had when
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it comes to the flicker detection and those of you that shoot events or sports under particularly
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like sodium lights that are cycling all the time. It will allow you to get more consistent results
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and more evenness. Another nice bonus if you are an event shooter is there is now a new white
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balance mode in which it's a white balance priority, which means that even if you're
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shooting under something like tungsten lights, where you before would get kind of a very warm
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kind of yellowy type look, it will try to maintain a very solid white balance. So it works very well
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if you're in changing lighting conditions. And so it's great for event shooters. You may find
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however, that in some situations where you kind of intentionally want that warmer look that you
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need to switch back to some other mode because it really will go for a very white and thus a cooler
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image as compared to the warmer image that you get in other situations. The camera also has received
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an upgrade to the new Digic 6 processor instead of the 5 plus in the 70D and so that gives a little
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bit more horsepower under the hood and of course it needs it because it with file sizes up around 20 it that much more information that got to flow through the pipeline all the time And so they
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managed to not only increase the megapixel count but also increase the buffer to 110 jpegs or 25
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raws as opposed to 65 jpegs and 16 raws. And so that is of course an upgrade but what hasn't been
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upgraded is the actual frame rate, which is still seven frames per second, which to be honest
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from my applications, I'm not really a sports shooter. And even for shooting sports, I find for
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me, seven frames per second is enough. And if you want more than that, you may consider the 77D Mark
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II, which is going to give you a higher burst rate frame rate, and then also a larger buffer size
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Another improvement when it comes to the actual shooting is that the shutter lag is reduced from
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65 ms to 60 ms and so it's even faster when it comes to that. As far as the overall ergonomics
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of the camera, the overall build is very, very similar and so the upside of that is that you can
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continue to use 70D accessories including the battery grip, underwater housing, things like that
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Some of the buttons have a slight redesign and I find that while the back looks very close to
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identical and has the same kind of wheel and then rocker panel configuration i find that the rocker
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panel tactile feel is improved it's more definite and has less of a kind of a spongy feel than what
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the 70d does on the left side of the body there are some changes to the way that the ports are
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represented there and that's because there is the addition of a new headphone jack for monitoring
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audio while video recording which is certainly very welcome if you are a video shooter and so
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as a result some things have shuffled around and i think that the placement of all of these ports
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is is better implemented here when it comes to the video the chief disappointment for a lot of people
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is the fact that the 80d does not support 4k video so it tops out at 1080p although it will now allow
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you to shoot 60 frames per second as opposed to topping out at 30 frames per second so a little
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bit more control over slow-mo type footage, but clearly not up at the level of the new Sony A6300's
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4K video, and then of course 120 frames per second at 1080p. And so it's not keeping up when
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it comes to the codex on that. Neither does it offer a clean HDMI out. And so if you're wanting
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to do hardcore video production, the ADD may not be a great bet for you. But if you're wanting to
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do something like a YouTube channel or vlogging, the 80D is actually an easier camera to use than
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what the a6300 is. For one thing, it's got this fantastic variable tilt LCD screen that is touch
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screen, which means that selecting a focus point or even doing a focus pull is as simple as
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touching the place you want the camera to focus. The a6300 doesn't have the touch screen at all
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And so as far as using the camera, it's not nearly as user-friendly or ergonomically sound as what the 80D is
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Furthermore, I find that the video footage out of the 80D looks really, really good
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Its color rendering is much more natural than what the a6300 is
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which has a little bit kind of too aggressively pumped up color coming straight out of the camera
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And so it's highly detailed. It looks very good. and it's become my go-to camera for recording for my own YouTube channel
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I really like the video quality, but of course it doesn't have as much video modes as the a6300
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And so if you're looking for a great video rig that includes 4K, you may want to look at the a6300 instead
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Overall, when it comes to the actual shooting, one of the big advantages that I covered in this segment
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is the improved dynamic range from this camera. and the image quality really is great
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It's perhaps the best APS-C sensor that's out there right now. It's got great dynamic range, great resolution, great color rendition
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lots of resolution with that 24 megapixels The high ISO performance is somewhat improved over the 70D or the M3 but it it not as exceptional as the full frame offerings and but overall it does allow you to shoot up to ISO 6400
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with pretty clean results and and so nothing to complain about when it comes to that and so it
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might have improved a full half stop I wouldn't say a full stop in terms of highest ISO performance
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but there are strides also along the way there. But overall the image quality really does look
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very nice and so now we're getting to the place where you're not at quite the penalty that you
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used to be going from full frame image quality to the APS-C or crop sensor and so that's certainly
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a nice addition as well. The overall functionality of the camera and the ergonomics just shooting it
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has been really great and if you're familiar with the 70D you'll pick up the 80D and it will feel
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instantly familiar to you. Everything is still laid out in a very logical way and it's really a
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pleasure to use in that regard. There is a new battery for the 80D and it's the LPE6N instead
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of just the LPE6 battery but the good news is if you've got a supply of the LPE6s they will still
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work in here. You may just notice a very very minor performance difference because the voltage
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is delivered a little more effectively for burst shooting and with the new LP-E6N battery. The
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other thing you'll want to make sure is that it has only one SD card slot. And so you're going to
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want to try to get the fastest SD card that you can because that's a lot of, again, a lot of
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information that's being moved there. And so you'll find that your buffer will take a while to unload
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if you're using a slower camera. And so these days, SD cards are so cheap, you might as well get a
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really good one and get the best performance possible out of your camera. So my conclusion is
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is that really the 80D is a great jack of all trades camera and if you want a camera that can
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do everything quite well from video to action shooting to great image quality it's now got
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built-in time-lapse ability, HDR movie mode plus a lot of new creative options and new custom modes
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it's got a lot to offer here and the longer you spend with the camera the more you can delve into
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its custom functions and you'll be able to really get a camera that can do a lot of things very well
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when it comes to absolute video performance it's not as good as some of the other options but
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what it does have to offer is very well implemented both in the capture as well as the overall
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footage the image quality is great from the lens the new auto focus system it works really well it
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tracked really well for me and you can see in this burst it didn't miss a frame and I did this with
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a number of different lenses and in fact as part of my lens reviews I've been doing burst with the
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80D and I found that going from lens to lens be it first party or third party lenses it's doing a
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great job of keeping up tracking and autofocus situations so I'm really happy with the implementation
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of the camera and how that it plays out in the real world. Now as I come to my final conclusion
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I do want to add this. As you can see on the 70D, I've got one of these kind of custom
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neoprene or silicone lens or camera protectors and wraps here in a cool camo color. It's custom
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designed for the 70D. Right now, EasyCover who makes this, they're in the process of designing
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the one for the 80D and they've given me permission to run a giveaway to give away one of the new
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camo looking skins for the 80D. And so if you're looking at buying an 80D and you would like to
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have one of these skins for it in the cool camo look, if you're a wildlife shooter, that's a great
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look for you right there. So anyway, if you'll look down below, I've got a competition with a
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number of ways to enter and so that you can be a winner of that easy cover camo custom cover for
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your new 80D. I'm Dustin Abbott and I encourage you to take a look down below. You can follow me
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on social media. I've also got a very thorough, full review, written review of this on my website
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and there's a link down below to that. If you haven't already, please subscribe and have a great day

Canon EOS 80D Full Review | Jack of All Trades

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Canon EOS 80D Full Review | Jack of All Trades

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