Canon PowerShot A710 IS Concise Review,
December 2006, Simon Joinson

Review based on a production Canon A710 IS

Even in the 'blink and you'll miss it' world of compact digital cameras the budget-priced 6x zoom lensed Canon PowerShot A700 was a short-lived model; announced late February and replaced in August by the camera on test here, the PowerShot A710 IS. Aside from a design facelift and a few feature tweaks the biggest - and most welcome - change is that the new model adds optical image stabilization, something we bemoaned the lack of on the A700. There's also an extra million pixels ( up from 6 to 7MP) and the usual A series mix of manual and automatic features. So let's find out if the A710 IS a worthy successor to the popular A700, starting, as ever, with the headline features.

• 7.1 Megapixels
• 6x optical zoom with optical Image Stabilizer (35-210mm equiv.)
• DIGIC II, iSAPS, 9-Point AiAF, FlexiZone AF/AE
• Digital Tele-Converter and Safety Zoom
• 2.5” LCD with wide viewing angle and real-image optical viewfinder
• 20 shooting modes

Powershot A700 vs A710: What's changed?

The A710 is more than a mere styling re-vamp (although it is a much better looking camera); it's actually a pretty significant upgrade, with the addition of an optical image stabilization system top of the list (this is the first 'A' series model to get IS). The only downside is the slight reduction in battery life (still an impressive 360 shots or so from a decent pair of AA NiMH batteries).

• Higher Resolution (7MP vs 6MP)
• Image Stabilization
• New 'Safety Zoom' (advanced digital zoom function)
• 60fps (QVGA) movie mode
• MyColors effects in playback mode
• Playback overexposure warning
• 3:2 overlay on live view
• Marginally lower battery life
• SDHC card support
• Underwater scene mode (for use with new optional 40m underwater case)
• Slightly reduced continuous shooting speed (1.7fps vs 2.0fps)
• 10g (0.36oz) heavier

PowerShot A710 IS specifications

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this article (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions. Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (typically VGA) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

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