Canon PowerShot A710 IS

Opinion: My previous camera was a Sony DSC-V1, so that's my reference point in thinking and comparing. I am not a professional reviewer.

The first thing I noticed is the very fast response time, both to on/off and taking a picture (shutter lag). Also the batteries last long, I use NiMH 2300 now (I had those available).
The camera is smaller than I expected, and I like that. It seems a durable plastic construction. The large 2.5" screen on the back is very good readable in different lights, although the resolution could have been higher.

The picture quality is very good, very sharp and there is very little noise in the dark areas. The high ISO of 800 is usefull but of course noisier, so I rather take along my little fold-away tripod.

The colours are (as always with Canon) a bit brown-ish, especially compared to the Sony coulours, that are in my experience a bit blue-ish. Every human seems to have a very healthy skin complexion, even more so at the beginning and end of day :-)

The 6x zoom is one of the reasons for buying this model, and thankfully now with Image Stabilizer. The IS seems to work, but I need to do some more experimenting. I like the camera software's ease-of-use.

Opinion: I've been in this game a long time and gone through a lot of cameras. This won't replace my 5D or 20D or any of my arsenal of lenses, but... in the right conditions this camera approaches the quality I used to get from my 10D. I'm VERY impressed with this little cam!

It fits reasonably ok into a trouser pocket and is only 185g in weight. Of course, at higher ISO's the noise becomes unpleasant, as is the nature of the beast with a small sensor. The lens is a 35-210mm image stabalised lens, and there's full manual control and manual focus if you need to. Power is from 2xAA batteries that seem to last ages, and there's even a 640x480 30fps movie mode (although you can't zoom except digitally up to 4x, which is actually okay since you have 7.1mp to play with!). This is actually, good, because you can get the f2.8 for indoor video and digitally zoom the rest (noise does go up a little though).

ISO 200 very usable, ISO 400 at a pinch in good light.

Comparing A640 samples with the A710, the A640 is not resolving much more (maybe 5-10%). You really have to look hard. Which given it's the same 1/1.8" CCD as the G7, means there's not a lot of reason to get a G7 except for the hot-shoe. (I don't like the look of the G7 interface either, and it's a big, heavy, expensive brick!)

Flash on the A710 can be set manually (ie. not TTL, single flash output not double), which the A700 didn't... thus you can slave flashes much easier. Auto TTL is there if you want though.

Macro is a very respectable 1cm minimum focus distance!

Blinking highlights are back, hurrah! (A700 didn't for some reason! Same with the Ixus 800 IS - no blinkng highlights! Canon, what are you playing at?!!!)

Comparing with my S2 IS, it seems considerably wider at the wide end.

I've actually got rid of the Ixus 800 IS, since it's not a great deal smaller and the A710 IS does every it does and a lot more besides (ie. full manual controls!).

If I could, I would give Image Quality a 5.5 and Value for money a 6.0! :) As P&S cameras go, this is probably the best out there IMHO. You'd need a good lens on a DSLR to get better, but of course DSLR's have better noise and many other aspects.... but you can't carry a DSLR everywhere you go!

Opinion: I purchased this camera to replace my A620, however, I will keep my A620 and take this camera back to the store. I cannot justify replacing my A620 even though I really wanted this camera. If I did not have a camera and wanted a fairly small lightweight camera with manual/creative controls I would not hesitate to recommend this camera.

Pros:
6x zoom
Image Stabilization
small size and light weight
Large LCD
Viewfinder (not the greatest but there if need be)
Great level of creative manual controls (eg Aperture priority, Shutter priority etc)
Good picture quality
Uses AA batteries
Excellent macro mode

Opinion: In my opinion it offers quite a good all-round package in its class.

I'm certainly a happy customer.