S$629
Product Summary
7.6
out of 10View score
The bad: Sluggish flash recycling; widest angle of view is 35mm, auto white balance is very warm with tungsten lights.
The bottom line: Canon's A series continues to deliver tons of bang for the buck, this time including optical image stabilization, 6x optical zoom, and solid image quality in a midsize compact camera with a stylish design update.
Read full review of the Canon PowerShot A710 IS »
Average User Rating
from 3 users
9.3
out of 10CNET Asia Review
Canon's A-series cameras have a long tradition of providing solid performance and impressive but not over-the-top feature sets at a reasonable price. In the past, that has often come with a slightly utilitarian design, but Canon's newest addition, the PowerShot A710 IS, looks practically classy, with its gently curved top; shiny, silver-plastic accents; and curved, dark-plastic section on its grip. Add to that the fact that it has a 6x optical, 35mm to 210mm (35mm equivalent), an F2.8-to-F4.8 zoom lens with optical image stabilization, a 7.1-megapixel CCD sensor, and a bunch of manual controls, and you've got one heck of a nice feature set for a camera in its price class.
Design
Fans of the A series will note that the camera's grip isn't as large as some of the others' in the line, mostly because the A710 IS is powered by two AA batteries instead of four. This makes for a more pocketable design, and Canon still rates battery life at 360 images with NiMH batteries and 100 with alkalines. With a good pair of AA rechargeables, you should be able to use the camera for a weekend without running out of juice. Despite the smaller grip, the camera is still very one-hand-shooting friendly with all camera controls in easy reach of your right hand's fingers and thumb. Our only design criticism is the location of the SD card slot. As in a lot of cameras, it's tucked next to the batteries, which means that you'll have to be careful not to let the batteries fall out when switching cards. At least the spring-loaded slot pushes the card far up, so it's easy to remove.
Features
Features are similar to those of the PowerShot A700, another camera in Canon's line. Standouts include controls for manual exposure and aperture and shutter priority, as well as flash compensation, which lets you roll back flash output power, and second-curtain flash, which fires the flash as the shutter closes so that moving objects don't end up with trails in front of them when you're using the flash. This happens a lot when shooting cars at night; with second-curtain flash, the headlights end up with slight trails behind them instead of looking like laser beams. Of course, if you like the laser look, you can also choose first-curtain (a.k.a. normal) flash, which is the default.
As you might expect, there are also many choices for tweaking your pictures, including 11 color modes, one of which lets you create your own by setting contrast; saturation; sharpness; red, green, and blue levels; and skin tone brightness. You can also use Color Accent mode to turn all but a selected color to black and white--perfect for making cutesy pictures of flowers in which only the petals are in color. Along similar lines, Color Swap lets you trade one color for another.
Optional accessories, such as the 0.7x wide-angle converter, 1.75x teleconverter, and close-up lens, all of which attach in front of the built-in zoom lens via a bayonet-mounted adapter, letting the A710 IS grow with you as your shooting needs change and making the camera even more versatile.
The biggest place the A710 IS lags, feature-wise, is in its sensitivity settings. It tops out at ISO 800, which isn't bad. But with so many cameras, even budget snapshooters, pushing up to and past that mark, we would've expected to see Canon's flagship A-series camera go up to ISO 1,600.
Rate It Now
User Reviews
Wonderful Camera.
Dec 19, 2006Rating: 9 out of 10 (Spectacular)
Pros: It has lots of useful features and functions to play with and takes great pictures.
Cons: Prepare to have extra batteries on the move. It sucks battery life really fast.
Opinion:
Over the years I have tried many compact cameras and this babe is one of the best I must say. It has a hand grip that is comfort to hold. It takes very nice and clear pictures even under very poor lightings. The features of the camera are wonderful. However, the resolution for the display screen can be better as compare to Lumix FX 9. Overall it is still a wonderful camera to have.
You must try it and you will know what I mean.
wonderful canon cemera
Oct 23, 2006Rating: 10 out of 10 (Perfect)
Pros: Everything
Cons: 28mm focal length ( preferred )
Opinion:
Good function with the cheaper price. Crazy about it.....
simply impressive!!
Oct 22, 2006Rating: 9 out of 10 (Spectacular)
Pros: image stabilizer, more manual functions than usual, fantastic optical/digital zoom
Cons: not really cons but if only screen is 3" and if only lens is 28mm
Opinion:
i own a Canon film SLR and love it til now when i bought it in 2001. A710IS is just the digital version of my SLR. i would prefer this than even a 350D. nothing is perfect. however, clear cut, sharp images when zoomed, able to manual function the camera - shutter/aperture priority. transfer speed is fast too. user friendly overall and even when transferring photos (can choose to transfer one file in just seconds). many adjustments can be done with fantastic results. was shown by sony salesperson that its T30 doesnt darken image when zoom, so do my A710is!! my suggestion is, if u get a built-in lens rather than a physical one, i rather u get the mobile N73, u get to use it as a phone too!! i think it works better than those with built-in lens. however, i still love my A710is!! so many FUNctions to play with, can even choose to take pictures with only ... Read more
