Hi
I'm an experienced diver and am about to take up underwater photography (this is my first post on the forum).
I'm going to buy a new camera and am currently deciding between the Canon Powershot S80 and A540.
The specifications of these seem pretty similar but the S80 is much more expensive. My gut reaction is that the S80 must be a better camera as it is so much more expensive, however, I would like to seek out a more tangible reason before spending extra money just for the sake of it.
Can you please give me some advice on whether the S80 is actually a better camera and, if so, why I should choose it above the A540.
Both cameras appear to have the same specific underwater features (an underwater white-balance mode and casing is available). The S80 has some features which are missing in the A540, however, the A540 has other features which the S80 is lacking (i've summarised the main ones below).
The S80 is 8mp compared to 6mp for the A540 (however, the A540 has a 4* zoom compared to 3.6* for the S80).
Regarding video, the S80 can shoot high-res video (1024 * 768) at 15 fps, the A540 can't shoot at this high-res. However, the A540 can shoot low-res (320 * 240) at 60 fps, the S80 can not shoot this fast.
The range of the S80 is 28mm-100mm compared to 35mm-140mm for the A540.
Thanks
ID
