Canon Powershot SD1100 IS or Canon PowerShot A580

[btaylor]

Hi new to the forum, I've done a bit or research lately as I'm about to get a new camera. From what I've read canon powershot is the way to go as they take great pictures and are in my price range. I've heard a lot of good things about the A580 as far as quality goes so I'm wanting to know if its going to take better photos than the SD1100 or is it going to be the same. I'm using the camera to take photos of my paintings so zoom is not a big factor. As long as the accuracy of the colors is good then ill be happy, I don't want to spend hours color correcting my pictures in photoshop.

Does anyone know? both are 8 megapixel cameras

[David Metsky]

Neither camera has manual controls which would be nice for taking important shots like this. I suspect the A580 will take slightly better shots due to a slightly sharper lens, but otherwise they should be very similar. You'll want to use the custom white balance feature on either camera, and take your shots from a tripod.

For a little more money you can spring for the A590 and take advantage of the manual controls to set up the shot exactly as you want it. The key for any photos like this will be probably be lighting, not the camera. Or, for either of these cameras you can use the CHDK hack (http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK) and shoot in RAW, then do the best color matching possible but it sounds like you want to avoid that extra work.