Canon Powershot A710 IS Review
Review Date: October 28th 2006
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 7 megapixel Superfine quality mode, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb - 5Mb.
Noise
There are 5 ISO settings available on the Canon Powershot A710 IS which you can select at any time if the camera is in any of the creative shooting modes. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
ISO 80 (100% crop) |
ISO 100 (100% crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% crop) |
ISO 400 (100% crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% crop) |
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There is no discernible noise at the slowest settings of ISO 80 and 100. ISO 200 is beginning to show a little noise and there is slight blurring of detail to help hide it. At ISO 400 noise is quite evident and the camera blurs detail further, although it's still a usable speed. ISO 800 is very noisy and should only really be used as a last resort.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default setting ideally and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes via the My Colors menu option.
Original
(100% crop) |
Sharpened (100% crop) |
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File Quality
The Canon Powershot A710 IS has 3 different file quality settings available, with Superfine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
| 7M
Superfine (2.88Mb) (100% crop) |
7M
Fine (1.78Mb) (100% crop) |
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| 7M
Normal (0.82Mb) (100% crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Canon Powershot A710 IS dealt exremely well with chromatic aberrations well during the review, with only very limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, and only in a handful of test images.
| Example
1 (100% crop) |
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Macro
The Canon Powershot A710 IS offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is just 1cm away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
| Macro Shot |
Macro Shot (100% crop) |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Canon Powershot A710 IS are Auto, Manual Flash On / Off, Slow Sync Speed and Red-eye Reduction . These shots of a magnolia coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
| Flash Off - Wide Angle (35mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (35mm) |
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| Flash Off - Telephoto (210mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (210mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly. As you can see, neither the Auto or the Digital Red-Eye Reduction option caused any red-eye.
| Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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| Flash - Red-Eye Reduction |
Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Canon Powershot A710 IS maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds, which is great for night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds f/8 at ISO 50. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 8 second setting the actual exposure takes 16 seconds.
| Night Shot |
Night Shot (100% crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Canon Powershot A710 IS has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the lens set to the same focal length, aperture and ISO speed. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results.
| Shutter Speed | Anti Shake Off (100% Crop) |
Anti Shake On (100% Crop) |
| 0.4 second |  |
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| 1/4th second |  |
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As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
Overall Image Quality
The Canon Powershot A710 IS produced images of excellent quality during the review period. The 7 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can increase the in-camera sharpening level. The Canon Powershot A710 IS dealt very well with chromatic aberrations, with slight purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. Macro performance is excellent, allowing you to focus as close as just 1cm away from the subject. The built-in flash worked very well indoors, with little red-eye and perfect exposure. The night photograph was also very good, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds long enough for most situations. The 1/2.5 inch, 7 megapixel sensor used in the Canon Powershot A710 IS produced clean images at the slowest ISO speeds of 80 and 100, with slight noise at ISO 200 and more noise and blurring at ISO 400. The fastest ISO speed of 800 isn't really worth using unless there is no other choice. The Canon Powershot A710 IS also offers a very effective optical image stabilisation system, making this camera suitable for the majority of lighting conditions.
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organisation. Our test results for the Canon Powershot A710
IS have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.