Canon PowerShot A710 IS

Opinion: The A710 IS is a imprssive A series camera with a 6x zoom lens (35mm-210mm)-
fantastic for zooming close to a subject and grat image quality.

What I like best about it has lot of My Color modes (including several neat ones
for skin tones) plus full manual controls and FlexiZone AF for selecting a AF point-
that's one feature missing from my 2008 A580 and Stitch Assist (missing from my
2008 A580 as well).

Also found the IS to quite effective in reducing camera shake when the IS to
"shooting" mode.

Opinion: i BOUGHT THIS CAMERA BECAUSE I WANTED IMAGE STABILIZATION AND A BIT OF A ZOOM.
This is what I got the zoom sucks unless it`s macro.
Night shots are incredable especialy when i adjust the manual control all the way till i get a bright screen and take the shot in 20 seconds no flash on a tripod ! it`s crisp with no noise.
Day well lit pics that are closeups are incredable clear and colourful...
Image stabilization was exellent for it's first round of tech and I love the videos in my truck while moving threw snow storms...Pretty cool...
Night recording is also great.

Opinion: I bought this cam as soon as Canon released it, end 2006, for 300Eur, and took 7,000 photos so far. I had great expectations but I am somewhat disappointed as, though it has great capabilities it also suffers from real flaws.
I was looking for a camera that works on 2 standard AA batteries with a powerful zoom helped by an IS system, plus an optical viewfinder.
Such cameras have sadly become a rarity … only Sony and Canon continue to offer the optical viewfinder that is required to shoot on sunny days, and AA batteries are being replaced by smaller but so expensive Li-Ion batteries.
With a 6X zoom, Canon had to release a model offering Image Stabilization to replace the Powershot A700, and I must say that the system works very well.

The cam is not really pocketable but uses only 2 AA batteries unlike former Powershot models and has a very good grip to hold it firmly.
The lens is a 35-210 mm equivalent offering an aperture from 2.8 to 4.8 at the full end (nice 3.5 with 4X zoom !), which is great too.
I’ve even used is as binoculars, e.g. to spot the numbers of buses on a bus stop from far away or to see the craters on the moon!
The 1cm macro mode is just astonishing.
If you want to take photos during the day, with good light, the results are outstanding; literally noise free, with splendid colours and lots of details using the ISO 80 mode.
Movies are beautiful, you can even use the digital zoom while shooting, but they take lots of memory space and DivX converter cannot process them !

It has all the shooting modes for the serious photographer: Auto, Program, Aperture and Shutter speed priority, fully manual (shutter speed from 1/2000 s to 15 s – aperture from 2.8 to 8).
The autonomy is good; the camera is fast to enter into action, very responsive, and the burst drive mode is excellent.

Note however that the “spot” measuring mode uses a frame and not a real spot.
When you change mode, the wheel is not displayed on the (low resolution) screen : you see the current mode but you don’t know when the one you’re looking for will come.
Other little flaw: unlike other brands, you cannot edit or resize (nor upload) the photos on the memory card.
The tripod screw in placed on the extreme left of the camera … the ideal place to break it.

Well … so far not bad at all. But big problems arise once you shoot in low light conditions or using the flash. The flash power has a correct output but takes lots of time to recharge (while other AA powered cams don’t have that problem). Worse, many snaps show dust sposts and most portraits come with strong red-eyes (red eyes reduction system is on, but what does it change ?). The shutter speed is always set to 1/60 s when using the flash: the camera adjusts the ISO to create the correct exposition, and this is where the worst comes …
At anything above ISO 200, the pictures become very noisy (but details are still there). The ISO 800 mode is totally unusable in any condition, while ISO 400 pictures need to be reprocessed with, e.g. Photoshop to remove the strong noise and get something nice.
OK, Canon’s approach to the noise problem is to keep the details (hence the noise), but what can you expect when you also decide to stuff more than 7 millions photosensors on a tiny 1 / 2.5 inches sensor ?
Finally, when one doesn’t choose the Auto mode, the ISO choice is simple: 80 or 200 !

To solve this, Canon should have put a bigger sensor instead of fooling customers with pseudo high ISO capabilities. What did Canon do next ? Add 1 megapixels on the same surface and release the Powerwhot 720 IS which goes upto ISO 1600 ! The “megapixels race” is really a disaster for serious amateurs who don’t want to spend on a bulky reflex camera.

Yves Loriaux

PS: the camera is “generously” provided with a … 16 MB … memory card.

Opinion: Everything I expected locked in a solidly designed body - and it STILL somehow fits into pocket.

Bought the A710is in September 2007, I carry it everywhere, I dropped it more often than I wanted.

Size + Features + ImageQuality were the decisive factors when I was choosing.

It is not very "slim" camera but you can STILL stuff it into a pocket - that's what I was after: a versatile/creative camera that I need not to rock on my neck&belly half a day.
For the size it's quite comfortable to hold (at the start i kept putting fingers around the lens and so covering the sensors, SLR habit i guess).
It has an (rather informative) optical viewfinder, I never used it - but if you are on a trip across sahara and want to save batteries - it is there.
And I confess - I like that slightly curvy, silverish-grey design. This cam IS nice to look at!

I found picutre quality "good+" - and traditionally with Canon very little post-processed - which i consider important as i prefer to do it myself!
Also when comparing to rival models/brands' samples, I found I can get fairly identical results after very little Photoshop tweaking.

Pleasant 6x OpticalZoom rather unusual for this compact class at the time I bought A710. Yes it could be faster & with couple more steps - that's hardly an issue (if, then I would rather prefer to have wider end than 35mm eq - but then you can buy an extra converter for A710 to get proper wide lens!)
There's some loss of detail in distance photos (compared with Panasonic for example) but not a big deal (unless you want to tele-photo steal graffiti tags...?)

A710 has full manual settings option, which was one of "must" for me. Controls are average easy to access; you get used to it quickly - for more refined functionality you will need to flip through user's manual (...and it is worth it)
Most of the time i use the "P" program (works like Auto but you can change any settings to you likeness) or Manual, AV, TV - so cannot really judge on the Scenes settings.
Focus delay/shutter is good average, you won't really notice it.

With CHDK loaded, you get so many additional features in your hands that I was not even able to check them all out (scripting, RAW, zebra, live histogram... Sokoban(!)) So I definitely recommend Canon A series+CHDK to geeky-tweaky people!

A710is wont do out-of-box photo-miracles, but it is versatile enough to handle anything you might come up with.

A710 is for people who see digital photography as an exciting new game - meanwhile it serves as an above-average point-and-shoot cam.

-however-

If you really want better IQ go for bigger sensor with A650.
If you only want P&S and won't miss manual settings, probably try one of the Fuji's F-.

Opinion: I had a Canon S45 camera and I was definitely satisfied about that product. When it was too damaged to be repaired I choose this camera as a replacement and it was an happy choice.
Good image quality, nice zoom 6x and anything you can espect from an A series + the Image Stabilization.

Opinion: Excellent phots - took over 300 in washington dc including many museum painting/sculpture pix (w/o flash) and ALL came out just wonderful. Not a bad one in the bunch. Also had a panasonic FZ50 which my husband used and frankly, out of the camera w/o post processing, viewing on a new flat panel tv, the canon won hands down for LOW noise. Not sure where these other folks are having problems.

Opinion: For the money I paid (£170) I really don't think that this camera can be beaten! The lens appears to be of good quality, has a generous 6X optical zoom and is coupled to a large F2.8 maximum aperture at the wide end. The image stabilisation is incredibly useful and very effective. The high ISO noise levels on this camera are a little higher than average, but the image stabilisation means that a speed 2 stops lower can be used. This means that you can get away with iso 200 when iso 800 would normally be used. The build quality is okay. Hardly built like a tank, but then again I don't see that any bits will fall off over time either. The camera performs well on the pre set scene settings for snapshots and has comprehensive manual modes for when more control is desired.
The shots benefit from some unsharp mask in photoshop, but this has been true of every digital camera I have ever used. The amount of detail that is captured is really very impressive and A4 sized prints can easily be made at photo quality. In fact for distance shots, this camera VASTLY outperformed my Nikon D50, even when the D50 was fitted with a 50mm prime lens!
I have now sold my D50, as this Canon A710is has a better specification, is pocket sized and produces pictures that are of an overall higher quality.

Opinion: Bought 10 months ago. 3 months using CHDK hack. For those who are looking for a portable camera price/value is unbeaten at this condition (Camera + CHDK). Of course with its compromises as P&S camera but quite honest results. And a lot of manual controls if you wish. Good Auto Mode for those who dont care about adjustments.The only big drawback is flash recharging time due to only 2 AA batteries. Nothing is perfect...

Opinion: The fine Canon underwater case sold it for me in the first instance, with excellent view of the large screen, plus all controls, at an affordable price. I have since discovered how powerful the programmable exposure and adjustable colour balance is for underwater use.

Very solid camera construction, and comfortable to hold for general use, plus easily pocketable unlike mock-slr style cameras with similar features.

But the most important feature of all for me is the speed of capture of the photos ... feels just like my old Pentax ME, with negligible delay twixt pressing the button and image-capture. So very acceptable for candid photos and sport. Sensitive enough too for lowlight no-flash shots.