Customer Reviews

Canon PowerShot A710 IS 7.1MP Digital Camera with 6x Image-Stabilized Optical Zoom

5 star:		(172)
4 star:		(69)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

First off I would like to say that I am just an average camera user with no special skills and I really do not understand what any of the jargon means when people talk about their cameras.

I was interested in this camera for several reasons:

1. It was highly rated in every review I read about it by people that know a whole lot more about such things than me.

2. It uses 2 AA batteries not 4 and not a rechargeable battery. I use rechargeable AA batteries on my own. I really do not like being forced to use the ones provided with the cameras. No matter what they say the batteries will run out and at the most inconvenient time. I can swap the batteries out in an instant or buy new ones. You can't do that with other rechargeable batteries. I travel a lot. I never know if I will have access to electricity to recharge my camera or if I will even have time. For this reason I absolutely insist on AA batteries. This may not be a concern for your standard user but it is to devoted travelers.

3. I am not that obsessed with photography. I wanted a camera that would work "out of the box" and let me learn about the features as I go.

4. It uses an SD disk. This allows me to use the same disks without buying new ones or buying an adapter for my computer. I can use the same SD discs with my mp3 player and my palm pilot. This is why I refuse to buy items using xd discs or anything by Sony and their insane use of their memory stick. Hey Sony the Beta was great but no one bought it. You are going down the same path with your memory stick. The deciding factor between a Sony computer and the Gateway I bought was the memory stick feature versus an SD drive. I did not buy cameras from Sony twice now because of the use of memory sticks. I have told many people about this and have steered them to other brands for the same reason. Compatabilty is very important in electronics.

5. It has lots of cool accessories that I may or may not eventually decide to buy. The main one being the waterproof case. I tried this out at the camera store and it was really cool. It allows divers full access to all of the features on the camera and seems like it is really easy to use. I will be buying it in a month or so for an upcoming diving trip. I will know better after that if it works in the water as well as in the camera store.

6. It has a separate watch battery to store the date and time information. That was a major issue I had with my last camera. Digital cameras go through batteries fast. Having to constantly enter this information gets annoying, especially if I am not wearing a watch.

These are my initial thoughts after purchase:

Setting up the camera was a snap. Everything seemed intuitive and I had no problems whatsoever.

I have taken a few test shots in the various modes and am really impressed. It has a lot of detail that my previous camera did not provide.

The camera seems to be the perfect size for me. This camera is big enough so that you can operate the buttons without getting a 4 year old to do it for you. And small enough that it can be used as a handheld camera, fitting nicely in a case around your shoulder.

My only complaint on this camera and with a lot of them is the wheel that switches the modes. I really wish they would make these things flush with the camera body. This one is better than my previous camera but the wheel still shifts modes when you pull it out of its case. Other than that one minor gripe I am very pleased with this purchase.

I researched digital cameras for over two weeks and finally decided on the Canon A710 IS for a couple reasons. One)it offered the 2nd largest optical zoom, only surpassed by Panasonic right now. Two) the sharpness and quality of the canon images. Three) the Image Stabalizer (IS), which is absolutely the best on the market right now. I shook my hand violently while I snapped a picture and it was crisp and clear. Warning: the IS does not work as spectacularly with flash, nor would any other IS system, because the camera sets the shutter speed lower to get enough light in and this effects the IS capability. Still works well, though. Four) This Canon camera is sleek, easy to hold, easy to use menu features, manual options, and lots of cool extras (I love the color accent feature). And five) because of all of the excellent reviews on this particular camera. Pros, cnet, customers, everyone had something positive to say and very few negatives.
I wanted a camera to capture our first child (Simba, a Shiba dog)and our future first child (hopefully in the next year) when they are active, indoor low-light shots of when we are hanging out with our friends, and have the instant on-hand video camera to catch exciting moments. This camera does all that and more! Very impressed with low-light pictures but was hoping for slighly less red eye (hard to get less red eye, though, with where such small cameras have to place the flash).

I was really torn between this one, the Fuji Finepix F30, the Panasonic Lumix TZ1, and the Canon SD800IS. We had a Fuji before that lasted forever and the F30 is said to take the best indoor, low-light photos available in a digital camera right now, but it was hard to find customer reviews on this camera and the optical zoom was only 3x. The Panasonic has the highest optical zoom at 10X, and customer reviews said it was very impressive but I saw quite a few reviews regarding problems in the first few months and a short warranty along with bad customer service. And nothing was said about low-light images, though Panasonic images just aren't as clear and crisp as Canon's.
In the end, I decided the extra megapixel was not worth the lower optical zoom, so I went with this one over the 800IS.
I have attached some pictures to view.
I am very very impressed with this camera. I viewed my pictures hooked up to a 64" TV and they were awesome. The video is also great quality; my stepdad is considering this digital camera with a large memory card instead of getting a new video camera, he was so impressed.
The camera is extremely easy to use and comfortable to grip. The only thing I have to complain about is that I am nervous about the error 08 that people have said causes the camera to stop working and the lens to not retract. However, this was not enough to stop me from purchasing it. This is something any camera could have happen if grain or dirt blocks the lens shutting and canon customer service assured me that if it did happen, they would repair it free of cost to me (I would have to pay shipping). Best way to avoid this, keep in a case.
I have had it for 4 months and have had zero problems.
It uses 2 AA batteries (great for me cause they can be found anywhere) and I played with the camera for almost 2 straight days before they died (lots of pics and video and viewing on screen).
Also, my stepmother has the Canon 600. She dropped it and it fell down about 20 feet, hitting multiple rocks along the way. When recovered, the LCD screen was broken so the menu cannot be viewed, but the camera still works and still takes great photos! Amazingly durable.
I would recommend checking out [...] for more info.

UPDATE: I don't know if it was summer and I just wasn't taking many indoor photos or if my "Auto" setting has changed itself, but I am not getting very clear pictures inside anym ore. Maybe my hand is shaking more but with the IS feature, this shouldn't be a big deal. I have added some pictures that aren't as sharp as before so you can see what I am talking about. I am still happy with my camera but now I will have to toy with all the setting features to see if I can get better inside people shots. Either my subjects have bad red eye, are slightly blurred, or just not clear when I zoom in on my computer (even when the pics were taken at highest resolution. I will update if I fix this problem.

Canon has an excellent rep with its digital cameras and the A710 is one of the latest in that long line. It's a great camera...not too small to handle with but small enough to be slipped into a jacket pocket. The zoom works well and the stabilization keeps zoomed photos clear, although a bit grainy at full zoom. Syncing with the computer couldn't be easier...load the included software and you're ready to go. I couldn't believe how easy it was to do this. As stated by another reviewer, the included 16mb card is almost worthless, but I used it to practice and get the hang of the camera operation before loading up a 1 gb card. I took the camera on a week and a half vacation and loved it. At the touch of a button I can see how many shots I have left on the card and how many I'll have if I adjust the size and detail of the photos. This let me reduce photo quality just a bit to get the last few photos at the end of the vacation onto the card. Zoom is quick, but, as stated in another review, the flash recharge takes a few seconds. The large LCD screen is great, but, like most digitals, difficult to see in bright light. This makes the optical viewfinder a god-send, but be aware that the viewfinder shows you a tighter shot that what is really being captured in the photo(watch out for the trend from other camera manufacturers of dropping the optical viewfinder!). There are a multitude of optional settings that I'm still figuring out. One - the night shot setting - is questionable. I get better night time shots with the setting on 'automatic' that I do using the 'night shot' setting.

My only problem with the A710 is battery life. Even with the power save function on, I went through a set of batteries a day. Obviously, using the flash a lot reduces battery life and I took many photos inside buildings. I also took 50-60 photos a day, so I was working the batteries from sun-up to sun-down and sometimes after that (I took 600+ photos in 10 days of travel). Rechargables are probably a good idea, but traveling in Europe complicates that....you need to carry a Euro style plug in addition to the battery charging apparatus and lugging all that would be just about as bad as dragging around my big, old Pentax film SLR (the main point, for me, of going digital was to reduce the size and weight of taking the film camera on an extended vacation). The need for all the batteries is the only reason I don't give the A710 5 stars and that's probably not really fair considering the number of photos I'm taking and the conditions of flash use.

In conclusion - The A710 takes great photos, is easy to use, figure out, and connect to your computer, has all the features a non-professional photog could want has the megapixels to let you enlarge your photos to at least 8x10 and is reasonably priced. If you can live with replacing batteries frequently in heavy-use situations, I doubt you can do better in this price range than this camera.

I hope you like this camera as much as I do!

I spent about three solid days online/in store researching camera's before I decided that this was the camera for me. There were three things that I really wanted from a new camera: better zoom, image stabilization, and better quality pics. I believe I got all of this and more in this little camera.

First, most camera's on the market have a 3X optical zoom- this one has 6x, which gives you a better quality picture further away. I realize there are other camera's on the market that have a better zoom ability, but I did not want to jeopardize size, I wanted something close to "pocket sized."

Second, the image stabilization feature is great- especially at night when you are trying to take photo's of buildings, etc. Regardless of how steady my hand was with my last digital, I could never get a night shot to come out- not a problem with the A710.

Third, the quality of pictures this camera offers is superb. I have no complaints on the ease of taking pictures. While there are quite a few different settings to choose from, the "basic" manual explains each one in an easy to follow manner (and I am not directions reader).

I highly recommend this camera to anyone looking for an easy use, high quality camera. Everything you need comes in the box, you can literally pop the batteries and memory card in and you are set. There are many camera's that have a lot of great options out on the market, but I believe this to be the best.

I got a Canon SD600 Digital Elph camera for Christmas. This is after owning and using a SD30 for about 4 years, give or take. I was deciding between getting the A710, or a Casio Z70/700 or similar. I decided on Canons, due to supposedly higher image quality. The Casio's have great/fast interfaces.

I got my A710 from Amazon, and thought "I can't wait till it's charged and I can use it". Then I remembered, it uses normal batteries! At first I didn't like this, since I liked the easily rechargeable battery from my older S30. However, I love the normal batteries now; they're easy to replace if you need to, and I can keep multiple pairs for charging (great for trips). Plus, no special charge to misplace all the time.

The IS is why I bought this camera. It seems most of the available cameras (when I was looking, Christmas '06) don't include Image Stabilization (IS). This is the part I love most! When I'm moving the camera, it's almost eerie and disconnected since the picture doesn't move when I'm shaking the camera (including intentionally shaking the camera like I've eaten too much sugar/caffeine). You can definitely notice, especially on movies where normal camera shake have rendered other movies unusable. The IS is great!

The LCD is good, noticeably better than the Exilim's I've seen and used. It's bright enough, though hard to see in the bright sun. For those situations, I've found myself using the viewfinder. The higher-end exilims without the viewfinders are supposed to have incredibly bright LCD's, still usable in the bright sun.

The shot quality is amazing, much better than my old S30. Even a lot of higher-megapixel cameras simply don't look it, as their shots are fuzzy, have chromatic aberation (purple fringing), and bad color. This camera shoots great pictures, and has rekindled my love of taking quick snapshots.

The camera is quick from startup and shot-to-shot, with the exception of using the flash. I don't use the flash much, due mostly to the fact that the old S30 looked horrible with the flash on (overexposed everything, no matter what the manual settings). The flash on the A710 looks great, but it adds a delay. You take a picture with flash, can review the picture right away (hold the button down if you want to review it for a while). As soon as the review is gone, the LCD turns off for 4-5 seconds to recharge the flash. First time this happened, I thought I'd broken the camera. It's annoying, and is the one huge flaw on this camera. I imagine it's due to the camera using 2 AA batteries instead of 4 like older A-series Canon's.

The movie mode looks fantastic (I would definitely consider using this instead of a non-HD camcorder) except that the files are huge (125mb per minute... no MPEG-4 here!). I really wish Canon would get onto the MPEG-4 bandwagon, like the Exilim's. A 1gb card does 8 minutes, a 4gb card a half-hour. You can pull quality down, but it's just a shame it doesn't do MPEG4. However, the sheer quality of the video is excellent, and makes for a good quick clip (30 seconds, couple minutes) feature.

It's smaller than I thought, less bulge due to using 2 AA's instead of 4. The lens doesn't protrude any more than the handle bulge, and it's comfortable to hold. The interface is nice, easy to change most items from a couple of menus.

Battery life for me has be very impressive... about 300-400 pictures so far on my single set of AA 2800mah NIHM batteries from Walmart. I decided to use the camera until they die... they still haven't yet! I keep getting the low-battery warning, but they just never quit. I've got little energizer bunnies in there or something. The bundled Alkaline's died after the first 100-200 pictures, still pretty decent. About on par with what I got from my old S30, which wasn't great on the included Li-Ion battery anyway.


The only things I'd change are the blank-LCD-delay after flash photos, and the extremely huge but nice video clips. Definitely recommended for a good mid-range point-and-shoot semi-manual. Very happy with my purchase.

I bought this camera about 2 weeks ago and I'm very happy with the camera so far. It's easy to use right out of the box and the picture quality is very good. I like the 6x optical zoom and the IS really helps with the camera shake, especially when using the zoom. The movie mode is very nice as well. The camera is big enough to feel right in my hand yet small enough to easily slip into a sweatshirt pocket or purse. My two complaints are: the camera ships with a 16 MB SD card-which is a joke, and battery life seems fairly short. Investing in rechargables would be a good idea. I'm now using a 1 GB Ultra II SD card with great results. Overall, I'm very happy with the camera and I'm still getting to know it.
I recommend it.

I bought a 710 when my beloved 700's sensor died after two years (digital cameras do not have long lives, unfortunately).

This is a fabulous almost desert island level camera once its limitations are understood and accepted.

The general image quality and color are superb. I have a Pentax K100 DSLR and it is gathering dust because its kit lens colors are inferior to this little Canon.

Resolution is very good at ISO 80-200. I generally just leave it on 80 most of the time. With the image stabilizer, I can take handheld pictures in available light down to 1/5 second at least.

The meter will always blow highlights, I just leave it on -1/3 and all is well.

White balance is fairly decent outdoors, needs to be set manually if you're picky indoors.

I love all the other manual tweaks: manual exposure, color ranges from screaming vivid to insipid neutral, black and white and sepia, the ability to change contrast and sharpness and saturation. I have sharpening set to -2 since their algorithm tends to oversharpen things like landscapes with a lot of detail. I have never used Auto mode, but the Portrait mode produced excellent reduced depth of field as long as you remember to use the lens at maximum telephoto and try to fill the viewfinder with your subject.

The flash recycling time is horrible, but if you have a lot of time and want to illuminate something standing still, its coverage is decent.

Battery life is great. I get about 200 or so shots with rechargeable AAs.

The best thing about this camera is that it lives in my pocket and can be taken anywhere so I not only never miss a shot, but have infinite opportunities to learn and grow as a photographer with shots I never thought I would take.

It would be wonderful to have a swivel screen, but Canon never listens to its customers.

However, if you have more guts than me and can get in people's faces, this truly is the poor man's Leica for the early twenty-first century.

The A710 falls into a strange niche -- that is, it has no niche. It has a long zoom range, but not the screaming 12x reach of a superzoom. It has image stabilization but it lacks the larger, 10mp sensor of other new compacts. It's smaller and cheaper than the G7, but has fewer features, too. It has more features than an ultra-compact, but it's not as pocketable. The A710 does everything great, but it doesn't have a specific top feature to distinguish it from the rest of the pack.

But it's an excellent camera. 6x optical zoom is plenty unless you're shooting a football game from the back row. The lens has little distortion or fringing -- issues I read about all the time with superzooms. The meter is fine, with hardly any highlight clipping if you leave exposure compensation at -2/3. That great vagary, "image quality," is first rate as far as I'm concerned.

The A710 fits in a pant or jacket pocket. It gives you wide and easily accessed control over everything from saturation and tone to ISO and white balance. The full manual setting is a lifesaver when the program modes can't get the exact look you want. The menu system is logical, fast, and unobtrusive.

Photos print great up to 8x10", as you'd expect from a 7mp camera. Because it's so many pixels on such a small sensor, you'll see some noise in the shadows and some details will be smeared by noise reduction even at the base ISO of 80 -- photograph a forest and you'll see what I mean -- but that's true of all compacts. I wouldn't use ISO 800 unless printing smaller. Fortunately, image stabilization allows you to keep the ISO at 400 or lower even indoors. 4x6" prints from ISO 400 aren't noisy to my eyes, but it depends on the subject. On a computer screen, ISO 400 is really noisy, but that's blown up to sizes you'd never print at.

Flash recharge is slow, but that's the trade-off for using only 2 AA batteries (I should note that battery life is bad, as with all 2 AA battery cameras). I think flash usually looks ugly indoors anyway, so unless you shoot backlit subjects all the time, this issue won't be crippling. Without flash, shot-to-shot time is good. The LCD screen is good, too. I've read many complaints about its uselessness in bright light, but I never had this problem. If you're taking pictures in such blinding conditions they'll be over-exposed and probably not that great anyway.

Extra features like color accent and widescreen mode are cute and work well. The video is very good, especially because it's image stabilized -- on my computer monitor it looks better than 8mm video does on my TV, and for less money than a camcorder. The files are huge, though.

In my opinion, if you want top performance on any feature from zoom to low-light shooting, you should save for a DSLR. They get smaller, less expensive, and more useful every year. Getting a more expensive or bigger compact camera won't get you there, so you might as well keep your expectations realistic. It depends on what's important to you. If you want huge zoom, get a superzoom; if you want a camera you could do magic tricks with, get an ultracompact; this camera will do everything else in a low-priced, small package. Every camera has compromises. This model fits right there in the middle of it all. It's great at what it does.

Before replacing our old digital camera, I did research online, checking customer reviews and camera-review websites before I decided to get this one. The deciding factors for us were:
- cameras with 10-megapixels appear to be overkill unless you have a really expensive camera to take full advantage, and I think this camera's 7.1 megapixels are plenty for us to get great photo resolution for our needs,
- the zoom is super for taking pix at my son's athletic events,
- image stabilization (IS) is a feature highly recommended on camera review websites,
- it can be a fully automatic point-and-shoot, or I can adjust settings for different effects and results,
- it had good ratings for use as a short-video camera (which we need but not enough to buy a separate video camera at this time).

Amazon had the best price, free shipping, no tax, and I now see that the post-holiday price is even better than what we paid a month ago.

The camera is small enough to stick in a pocket if you want, but big enough that my husband and I can both use it easily. It has a nice heft and solid feel. The right side protrudes to allow for the battery compartment and that makes the difference between a secure grip and a tenuous one. The LCD screen is nice and big, too, covering about 3/4 of the back of the camera.

We are on set #3 of batteries after fairly light use, but so far I have spent less time taking pictures and more time going through the manual and playing with the camera settings to learn the bells and whistles. I hope I will get more pictures per battery once I learn what I want to learn. But so far, battery usage is my only complaint and not a major one. We have a great padded camera case with zipper pockets to carry extra batteries. (It's an M-Rock case purchased from a 3rd party seller through Amazon... if you need a camera case, ours is beyond great and was relatively inexpensive). The SD card that comes with the camera is barely enough to take some test pictures at medium resolution, so be sure to get one with more capacity, like 1GB.

So far I've most enjoyed the color adjustments this camera offers. I can sample any color and take a photo which is all black and white except for that color (i.e. red flowers in a b/w photo). Or, I can intensify either blues, reds, or greens to make that color really pop. Also, there are white-balance settings for different lighting conditions (daylight, cloudy, flourescent light, etc) if the auto-mode doesn't adjust colors correctly (or the way you like). There are settings for night, fireworks, foliage, kids&pets, which I haven't tried yet but I look forward to tinkering with those as well.

We are really enjoying this camera and are happy with the photo results and extra effects we've tried thus far. I would recommend this for anyone in the market for a new camera.

I purchased the camera because we needed to replace an old 1.3 meg camera. I have purchased a Canon camera for my daughter and I was always pleased with the image quality. A while back I saw the A700 and I was interested because my wife wanted a greater zoom range then the 3-4X and I wanted a viewfinder. However I knew she wouldn't use a tripod or steady herself before taking shots so I decided to hold off buying it for a while.

I was cruising the web recently and I noticed the A710IS. After reading the reviews I was sold. I received the camera and started taking sample shots (indoors and outdoors and movies.) My wife took it to the kids swim meet (the final test) and we reviewed all the photos.

All I can say is wow. The outdoor shots are clear even at full zoom. The indoor shot are good but subject to lighting conditions. The movies are great.

The most interesting thing of all is how long the batteries are lasting. I am still on my first set of batteries (Costco-Kirkland)and we have taken over 200 photos (medium, fine and superfine resolutions)and movies (6 min, 3 min, 2 min) over a few days. I use the viewfinder and set the LCD display to only stay on for 3 seconds after each shot. I don't typically review the photos in the camera. Of the 200 shots at least 50 were taken using the flash. So I don't understand some of the comments about poor battery life.

A friend at work had just bought a Panasonic 7.1 meg IS 3X camera the same week I received my A710IS. He commented that he wasn't sure the camera was working well. So the next day he and I walked during lunch stopping and taking photos (same resolution settings and trying to match the same zoom amount). We even took movies while we were walking. Later in the day we downloaded the photos and did a side by side comparison. Both camera took nice pictures but when you enlarged the photos and compared the images, hands down the Canon was superior. My friend returned the Panasonic and now has the A710IS and his wife loves it.

Go for it.