Canon's A-series entry-level point-and-shoot cameras are high-quality, easy-to-use, and very affordable—in short, they're a terrific value. Case in point: We were impressed with the PowerShot A590 IS's advanced features and sweet sub-$200 price. The PowerShot A580, which sells for $30 less, is nearly identical to its higher-end big brother, but without image stabilization and manual exposure controls. The A580 includes an 8-megapixel sensor, a 2.5-inch LCD, and face detection. And while I found this camera's features and image quality to be good, I kept asking myself why anyone would purchase the A580 over the similarly priced, more feature-rich, A590 IS. There's nothing wrong with the A580, but the A590 IS is simply a better camera, while still being budget-friendly at $179.99.

Sharing the same boring, bulky design as the A590 IS, the A580 is too large to fit in the average shirt pocket. On the back of the camera, conveniently located next to the LCD, is the main control center, whose function button lets you change white balance, ISO modes, and resolution, among other settings. The mode dial on the top right of the camera offers access to a multitude of shooting modes, as well as auto mode and five of the 12 scene modes (the other seven must be accessed through the LCD while in scene mode). The shutter button and zoom lever also sit atop the camera and can be reached with your right forefinger, making it easy to hold the camera with one hand. The small 2.5-inch display leaves room for an optical viewfinder. Although the LCD is bright and clear for framing images, you'll need that viewfinder in bright, direct sunlight.

With its 4X optical zoom and 5.8mm-to-23.2mm lens (35mm film equivalent: 35mm to 140mm), as well as f-stops ranging from f/2.6 to f5.5, the A580 provides a good overall package—but again, this lens is also found on the A590 IS. Face detection has been improved from the previous model, the A560. Previously, when a face was detected, white balance was calculated for the entire scene; now it focuses on specific faces in the scene. With a more accurate white balance configuration, faces were more vivid and focused, and the lighting was better. With face detection disabled, faces tended to be muted, and the color wasn't as accurate. As with the A590, low-light shots displayed noise at about ISO 100 and higher, although it wasn't bad until about 400 or so. Though the ISO settings go all the way up to 1600, I would recommend staying at 400 or below.

One feature I like is Easy mode. Accessible via the mode dial, it automatically adjusts settings, including the flash, for optimal image quality. This, indeed, is about as simple as it gets, making the A580 perfect for digicam newbies.

The camera registered average to below-average results in the lab. Boot-up time was 3.5 seconds, compared with the A590's speedier 2.7 seconds. Recycle time and shutter lag were also behind the A590 IS, and generally below average, at 5 and 1.7 seconds, respectively—hence the A580 is not ideal for action shots. I suspect that what causes the sluggish performance is a slow autofocus. When testing outdoors, I noticed that the A580 took a little longer than other cameras to focus and then snap a shot. On the other hand, like the A590 IS, the A580 performed exceptionally well on our resolution test. It averaged 2000 lines on our test shots, which is impressive for an 8-megapixel camera. Image quality was the same as with the A590 IS. The camera produced accurate colors and clear images. I saw a normal amount of barrel distortion and a little fringing in images of tree branches. Simulated daylight shots were bright and clear, but flash shots were slightly underexposed and turned out a bit dark, though not distractingly so.

The A580 has three movie modes: 640-by- 480 at 20 frames per second, 320-by- 240 at 30 fps, and 160-by-120 at 15 fps. Unfortunately, I noticed a fair amount of blurriness with video, which wasn't apparent on the A590 IS—yet another reason to spend the extra 30 bucks. Like the A590, the A580 takes AA batteries. The camera comes with a 32MB MMC card but also accepts SD and SDHC cards.

Even with its better bigger brother occupying the same market space, the A580 is a decent starter camera. While it doesn't measure up to other compacts such as the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T70, or even the Fuji FinePix Z10fd, it's still a good camera with a very good price. But the Canon A590 IS offers more features and better performance, and is well worth the extra $30.

Check out the Canon Powershot A580's test scores.

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