Canon M80 digital photo storage
Digital photography was supposed to lighten the shutterbug's load. With no need to carry and accumulate film, travelling types should have had lighter gear bagsBut as megapixel counts increase and happy snappers become happier, memory cards strain under the storage demands, and kilograms of laptop make their way into the camera kit.
Rest assured: there is another way. With portable hard-drive image tanks like the 80GB Canon M80, you can travel lighter and shoot as freely as you like.
Canon's solution to the storage issue is aimed directly at the higher end of the market. With a magnesium-alloy body and a rock-solid build, it's designed for a long life in a pro's gadget bag, whether or not it's left inside the supplied case.
I took the Canon M80 on a hot and humid trip and used it as an image backup instead of my laptop. In the sort of bumpy, moist and dusty conditions that could spell death for many lesser devices, I was able to download photos from my camera's CF card and keep shooting without a hiccup.
It's not a particularly speedy process but image transfer is easy. Remove the CF or SD card from your camera, stick it into the Canon M80, press the Backup button and away you go. Once you've downloaded the photos, you can review them and delete the failures - although the 3.7in (9.4cm) screen is so clear that every photo tends to look like a winner.
I only used the Canon M80 for storing and sorting photos but it also plays music and movies, playing sound either through the inbuilt speaker or the headphone jack.
The unit uses the same batteries as Canon's mid-range DSLRs, such as the EOS 40D, so if you have one of these, you can save space by using your backup battery. A viewing stand is included in the box, as is an A/V cable for connection to a TV, and a padded leather case with a belt hook.
Menus are intuitive. Shooting information for each image - focal length, shutter speed, aperture, ISO sensitivity - is easily accessible with a press of the Info button while viewing an image.
The Canon M80 is breeze to use (just make sure you don't lose it!), and transferring images, music and movies to your PC is as simple as plugging the unit into a USB socket. There's no software required.
The Canon M80 retails for $1099 and is available from Canon dealers nationally. For more information, call Canon on 1800 021 167 or visit http://www.canon.com.au/
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