Bokeh from A5xx?

So I gave my neighbors some pictures I had taken at a party with my XTI (f2.8 iso100 shots). They loved the bokeh produced by the shallow depth of field. I saw they had an A520, and told them they could probably do the same. I took the camera, set it to f2.6 and took a couple of shots. The DOF was a lot more than I expected... I was actually quite disappointed. It appears that the f2.6 produced a DOF of 5 feet or so.

Is this how the A5xx's are? Can people show me what their A5xx can do with bokeh? Am I asking too much of this P&S? I was actually thinking of getting an A590IS, but now, I'm not so sure..

You're expecting too much. Shallow DoF is a function of subject distance, aperture, and focal length. The shorter the lens, the greater the DoF. There's an on-line DoF calculator here. Since the actual focal lengths of the PowerShots and other digital point and shoot cameras are so short, you need to really work to get a shallow DoF, or even an OOF background. The A520, at its widest (5.8 mm) setting and f/2.8 has a DoF from about 5 ft. to infinity when focused at 10 ft. At its longest (23.2 mm) zoom and f/5.5 (max. aperture at 23.2 mm) and 10 ft., the DoF is about 3.5 ft.

Note that Bokeh isn't synonymous with DoF; it's actually a subjective judgement of the quality or smoothness of the OOF areas, and varies from lens design to lens design at the same aperture and focal length.

AWESOME response Jon!! Thanks! I just started getting into DSLR, and just assumed the DOF was attributed solely to the aperture. Thanks for the clarification! I guess maybe I should take a class or maybe read more! Or what I've been doing (shooting more)

I actually took the picture at 5.8mm @ f2.6 which according to the calculator says the DOF of 2.24-4.55ft.. I'm actually surprised I was accurate in my visual measurement of 5ft..

Yes, what Jon said.

There are ways around this for P+S cameras but it basically involves taking shots on the macro setting and cropping right in which limits your freedom. You can also separate the subject from the background by several feet (20 or 30 or more sort of thing), go to the longest setting (tele end) and the widest aperture you have. Again, this is just a workaround and even the most basic of DSLRs will romp all over this.

Cheers.