A friend of the family is starting a small web business, selling floral arrangements she designs. Having good product pictures for her website is going to be important. The problem is, she is budget limited and not tech savvy. So a DSLR rig isn't a good fit.

She's purchased a light box and a tripod, but is not satisfied with the pictures she's been getting out of her old Powershot IS100. Can anyone recommend a point and shoot that is going to take crisp product shots with good color, that isn't going to need any post-processing? One thought was trying to find an old Canon S95. Any other ideas?

Canon G11 or G12 would be nice, due to the flip out LCD and manual controls plus a hot shoe

I've actually been using my Sony RX100 for some product shots. The 20 meg resolution gives great files, and I can get decent DoF control from the 1" sensor, which allows me to work at f4 or f5.6 and need far less lighting power than my DSLR's which would require f11 or more.

Probably if I didn't have the RX100 already though, I'd of bought a G12 for the project

Can anyone recommend a point and shoot that is going to take crisp product shots with good color, that isn't going to need any post-processing?

Olympus XZ-1 or older Canon G series

Getting good WB is important for getting good color without post-processing so I might try using manual/custom WB (since she use light box and tripod so I suppose doing customer WB shouldn't be too much a trouble for her)

This isn't what you or she wants to hear, but maybe she should contract with a professional photographer to take shots for her. It takes more than a camera to take good pictures. It doesn't make sense to me how a business would spend all the money to start and then skimp on showing their product to their clients.

JohnBrose wrote:
This isn't what you or she wants to hear, but maybe she should contract with a professional photographer to take shots for her. It takes more than a camera to take good pictures. It doesn't make sense to me how a business would spend all the money to start and then skimp on showing their product to their clients.

Yes and no. Of course an experienced photog could produce a 'better', stronger image which may (or may not) lead to greater sales. However small business, especially those on Evilbay or similar, can potentially produce images of a suitably high standard, faster and cheaper than if they outsourced the work. There's also an adhoc element where being able to do a good job yourself can be a huge benefit.

The camera is the least of the problem. The person using it needs to know how to postion and light the product, not to mention the posibility of at least some, albeit simple PP. That might be as simple as cropping and contrast/brightness adjustments. My wife can take a killer product shot using a mobile phone, without Photoshop skills. There's no reason anyone else can't, IMHO.

The Nikon P7000...P7100 would do very well. Better IQ than the Canon G12.

I think the Lumix GX1 would do well

epl1+kit lens could be had $150-200 why bother with a p&s unless the s100 style camera needs to fit in pocket?