PowerShot A530 or A540?? Screen resolution issue

[tornerito]

Good evening!
I have quite the dilema. I am possibly going to buy a P&S camera,a Canon obviously. My dilema is this,I am down to either the PowerShot A530 or the A540. But,I don't know which to buy. I like the better features on the A540,but I'm not sure they're worth the extra bucks to me.
I have heard one or two complaints about the resolution on the A540 screen,is it true that the res. isn't very good? I have used an A530 and was quite impressed,but have never used an A540. I am a amateur,amateur photoghrapher if that makes any sense,and maybe the 540 would be an overkill for me,but I doubt that aspect. Anyway,I'd be doing mainly nature and scenery photography and also general home use stuff which includes about everything. Also how is the video quality on these two cams?
Also does the battery life differ a lot between these two? I imagine the A540's large screen uses a lot more power?
In summary.. are the extra features on the A540 worth the extra dollars?(I don't hava a large budget BTW)
Thanks
Tornerito

[Stefan A]

Please tell us what the extra features on the 540 are, My wife owns the 530 and it's good enough for her. She just takes snapshots with normal lighting. Dark places give problems as well as dark video. I have not fooled with it much, so I really don't know it's full capabilities. But it seems like a very basic point and shoot.

Stefan

[tornerito]

The differences are basically that the A540 has Aperture Value and Time Value settings,and the aperture has more than two settings per zoom setting. The A540 has a 2.5in screen vs.1.8in on the A530,The A540 is also 6MegaPixel,The A530 is 5MegaPixel.
The 540 also has a few more shooting modes,but I'm not sure what they are right now.
You should really try out the your wifes camera Stefan,it's a nice little thing.

[Stefan A]

The ability to control the aperture and shutter speed are very important. I recommend you get the 540. I have tried her camera - just not that much. And I remember being annoyed with not being able to use a full manual mode. The video I did with it was in a dark room, and it did not turn out very well.

Stefan

[tornerito]

Thanks Do you mean the manual setting on the 530 isn't really all that manual? I never tried manual one the one I used but the owner(who is a friend of mine from another country) seemed to think it was OK One thing I'm not sure about is having to set the whole works(on the A530) just to be able to set the shutter speed. The Canon specs for exposure on the 540 is the following: Exposure Compensation ± 2 stops in 1/3-stop increments Also the movie on the 540 can be set to 30fps@640by480 and the 530 is
only 15fps at the same resolution,if I'm not mistaken.

[RadAL]

OH i Know the answer to this, same question came up at work (office max)... 540 has 1 more mega pixel and the screen size is 2.5 vs 1.8 for the 530.

[Stefan A]

You can change the shutter speed on both. But I don't think you have any control of the aperture on the 530. The 540 is a far better camera - especially considering the video specs.

Stefan