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Hello

I am about to purchase a new digital camera and would like some assistance to choose between the Canon Powershot S80 and A540. I would like to buy the best quality camera and on paper both of them seem excellent and there appears to be little to choose between the two of them. However, the S80 is significantly more expensive which leads me to believe that it must have some significant advantage over the A540.

I have a few questions to help me differentiate between the two of these and would be very grateful of any advice you can give me.

Picture quality

Is there anything about the S80 (apart from the number of megapixels – 8 vs 6) which would lead it to take higher quality photographs than the A540?

As a (keen) amateur I really don’t know enough about the workings of digital cameras to know precisely which components contribute to picture quality.

This is the most important factor for me, I would happily pay a couple of hundred dollars extra to buy the S80 if (all other factors being equal) it takes better quality pictures than the A540.

Video quality

These two cameras appear to have very similar capabilities at 640 * 480 (30fps max).

Each of these models have their own additional features. The S80 can shoot at 1024 * 768 at 15 fps and the A540 can shoot at 320 * 240 at 60 fps.

Are there any other factors which would different about the video capabilities of these cameras? Which of these two features (high-res @ 60fps or low-res @ 15 fps) would you value more highly?

Wide angle lense

The S80 has a wider angle lense than the A540 (28mm-100mm range compared to 35mm-140mm range). The wide angle lense of the S80 seems like a strong selling point.
Is there a large noticeable difference between 28mm and 35mm?

What is the significance of the S80’s range stopping at 100mm with the A540 going as far as 140mm? Does this represent a serious shortcoming of the S80?
Underwater capabilities

One of the main reasons I have for buying this camera is to take pictures whilst I’m scuba diving.

Both cameras appear to have identical underwater capabilities (underwater housing available and an underwater white balance mode). Does anybody have any advice on how to distinguish the underwater capabilities of these cameras?

Thank you very much.

LTB

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