suggestions for low budget cameras with sharpen edges focus

[dingodog]

Hi

I'm kindly asking for advices/suggestions about low-budget cameras (not expensive reflex) able to take pictures with enough sharpening not only in center of image but also at edges that, im models I've tried

nikon coolpix L20 (10 MP)
canon powershot A460 (5 MP) [in this camera softening edges was not as problematic as in coolpix L20 but a certain degree of softening was still present)

I'm aware that reflex is the best regarding optical lens quality, but only I'm unable to spend so much for as reflex and I'm currently looking for cheaper point and shot cameras able to, if not eliminating the problems, at least to reducing it

[dpc]

This old post might be of interest to you: http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... f=15&t=411

[dingodog]

very interesting reading, that confirms my experiments with zooming and taking as away as possible the camera from book pages (as yourself suggested in other thread regarding my nikon coolpix L20 focus problems)

So, having as more optical zoom as possible, can give more probabilities to keep out the blur around the text? My nikon coolpix L20 has 3.6 optical zoom, for an upgrade I was thiking to buy a nikon coolpix L28 20 Megapixel with 5x optical zoom

[rkomar]

This old post might be of interest to you: http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... f=15&t=411

Interesting discussion. I wonder if barrel-distortion correction factors into this at all? For zoomed out images, a lot of correction is done at the outside of the image, and much less so towards the center of the images. Zooming in reduces the amount of barrel distortion towards the outside. If would be interesting to compare the camera's JPG images with the RAW images they were produced from, to see if the correction affects the sharpness.

[dingodog]

If would be interesting to compare the camera's JPG images with the RAW images they were produced from, to see if the correction affects the sharpness.

I second this. Unfortunately As far I know, there is no way to get raw images from my nikon coolpix L20 (may be I'm wrong on this side), so I'm considering to buy a canon powershot hackable with chdk firmware to get raw images

I would be happy if I'm wrong and there are some ways to get raw images from my coolpix camera