Introduction

Ease of Use

The Canon PowerShot SX710 HS is virtually identical to last year's SX700 HS model, so a lot of the comments that we made in that review apply equally to the 2015 model.

Whilst it may be crammed with the latest technology, first impressions of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS aren't overly inspiring, although it does at least have a metal casing and consequently feels solid and well made. A pronounced rubberised ridge on the front and the raised shooting mode dial at the rear make the camera surprisingly easy to hold for what is otherwise a relatively slim camera that'll slip easily into a pocket or small handbag.

Atop the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS is a familiar zoom ring encircling the shutter release. Fortunately the zoom ring has two speed settings, so you can move it a little to make fine focal length adjustments, or give it the full twist for a quicker zoom. The SX710 HS also has a clever zoom assist feature which zooms the lens out to aid framing when using the longer telephoto settings, then automatically zooms back in again, accessed by holding down the dedicated button on the left flank of the camera. Canon have extended this feature for 2015 by adding three options for people (Face, Upper Body, Whole Body), so that the camera can automatically keep your subjects within the frame.

Front of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

The SX710 HS also offers an upgraded image stabilisation system. White it still compensates for 2.5 stops, the 5-axis Advanced Dynamic IS compensates for fast movement when recording video, such as running alongside your subject or walking backwards.

Alongside the shutter release is a one-touch movie record button, with the SX710 HS offering Full 1080p recording at 60fps or 30fps, as well as 720p at 30fps. At the opposite end sits the popup flash. You'll need to manually eject the flash using a switch on the left side of the camera, but this does eliminate any chance of the flash going off automatically when you're not expecting it.

Rear of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Power up the SX710 HS and it springs into life in a fraction over a second and you're greeted by a simple – if slightly dated – on screen display, but all the information you need is still easily readable. The menu interface is also simple and quick to navigate, with the Func/Set button displaying the most common shooting options together.

When you're ready to snap a shot, the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS doesn't waste any time in autofocusing and is quicker to find its mark in low light than you'd expect. The system can get confused when shooting a macro subject which doesn't occupy much of the frame, but otherwise you can leave the camera in Auto mode safe in the knowledge it'll focus fast and accurately. On the subject of macro focusing, a 1cm-minimum focus distance is very good for this class of camera.

Top of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

The SX710 HS is also a bit of a speed demon when it comes to continuous shooting. Sure, its 4.5fps capture rate with continuous auto-focusing isn't exactly blistering, but unlike many a compact it won't throw in the towel after a handful of shots and slow to a snail's pace. Depending on the speed of your memory card the burst rate will eventually deteriorate, but we found the camera kept on shooting at least 3fps. You can also indulge in a more rapid 6fps shooting speed for an unlimited amount of shots, but focus and exposure are locked at the first frame. Of course if all this still isn't fast enough to record the action, there's always Full HD video capture.

When you'd like to get creative the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS delivers a modest but useful range of effects. There's those Creative Shot and Hybrid Auto modes mentioned earlier, but if you delve into the shooting mode menu you'll also find effects like fish-eye and miniaturisation distortions, plus a ubiquitous toy camera retro look. These are mixed in with regular shooting modes which also includes a useful Smart Shutter function which will automatically snap your shot when the camera detects a smiling face. Switch to the My Colours menu and you can set all shots to be automatically recorded with enhanced colour saturation, sepia tones or in monochrome.

Pop-up Flash

It's perhaps a little disappointing that you don't get a touch-sensitive screen, but the standard 3.0-inch display does the job well. It's bright with decent contrast and great viewing angles, and the 922k-dot resolution is more than respectable.

Alongside the screen is a round shooting mode dial that selects between 12 different modes. Commendably the SX710 HS offers the full range of PASM creative shooting modes, ideal for those looking to take more control, with the rather thin rear control wheel used to set the aperture and shutter speed. Switch to Creative Shot mode and the camera shoots six images in a burst. The first is an unmodified photo, but the remaining five are customised by the camera with different aspect ratios and colour effects so you can pick the funkiest version afterwards. Choose the Hybrid Auto setting and the SX710 HS operates as normal, but rather than just snapping images, it discretely captures an accompanying 4-second video too. The resulting footage and stills are then merged to form a video and photographic montage of your day. It's a neat trick that's somewhat similar to the Zoe feature on some HTC smartphones and will either be a love-it or forget-it feature.

The Canon PowerShot SX710 HS In-hand

Moving down the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS' rear panel we find decent-sized buttons to control playback and a a dedicated button to engage the camera's Wi-Fi mode. Simply install Canon's CameraWindow app on your mobile device and connect to the SX710 HS' wireless hotspot and you can wirelessly transfer photos from the camera or control it remotely if you fancy some stealth shooting. You can also tag the location of every shot using the GPS via Mobile functionality. The system is slightly laggy, but we found the connection to be stable and image transfers relatively rapid.

Less funky but no less important is the SX710 HS' battery life. It's 230-shot lifespan is merely average, so if you're set to be away from the charger for some time, activating Eco mode can eek this out to a more impressive 315 shots-per-charge. This modest thirst for power is primarily achieved by dimming the display after just a couple of second's inactivity, and turning it off altogether shortly afterwards. Pressing any button will restore life instantly though. The effect is rather like a start/stop system on a modern car and doesn't seem to have any downsides, providing you don't have to wait more than a few seconds to take your shot.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20.3 megapixel SuperFine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 8Mb.

The SX710 HS produces fairly pleasing images. Detail is crisp across the frame and isn't as susceptible to noise reduction smoothing as many cameras with equivalent sized sensors. Consequently fine details in landscape scenes are well retained and don't get smeared into a painterly mess as is all too common with cameras in this sector. Bright, punchy colour reproduction adds to the appeal, as does the flawless exposure metering and reliable white balance.

Optically there is some chromatic aberration (purple fringing) visible in high-contrast areas, but it's rarely distracting. Despite its very generous focal length range, the lens also fares well in the distortion department, with only a hint of barrel distortion at wide angle and no noticeable pincushion effect when zoomed in.

With such an impressive performance it's a shame the SX710 HS's image noise levels let the side down somewhat. The SX710 HS produces noise-free images at ISO 80-200, with limited noise and colour desaturation starting to appear at ISO 400. ISO 800 exhibits quite visible noise, smearing of fine detail and colour desaturation, and ISO 1600 is usable for small prints. The fastest setting of ISO 3200 should be avoided if possible.

Noise

The Canon PowerShot SX710 HS has seven sensitivity settings at full resolution. Auto mode uses a range between ISO 80 and ISO 3200, or you can switch to one of the creative shooting modes to manually select these settings.

ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

We found that the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS images are already sharp, but do benefit from a little touch-up in post processing.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Canon PowerShot SX710 HS' 30x zoom lens achieves a maximum wide-angle focal length equivalent to 25mm, and is capable of a telephoto reach of 750mm (in 35mm-camera terms).

25mm	750mm

Chromatic Aberrations

The Canon PowerShot SX710 HS handled chromatic aberrations fairly well during the review, with purple and green fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

File Quality

Every image size option on the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS is accompanied by two quality settings: Fine and Super Fine. Going for the latter will up the file size of each image from 5MB to around 8MB.

SuperFine (7.85Mb) (100% Crop)	Fine (5.00Mb) (100% Crop)

Macro

The close focusing of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS at wide-angle is a mere 1cm. It does mean that there's little light getting in when you do that and the edge definition drops off leaving around 50% of the image in focus.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The Canon PowerShot SX710 HS' flash can only manage a relatively weak 3.5m range and hence there's some fairly obvious vignetting in our wide-angle test shot taken at a distance of 1.5m. The flash has four modes: Auto, On, Off and Slow Synchro, plus a separate setting to enable or disable red-eye reduction. Whether this is active or not, the camera successfully avoids any trace of red-eye.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (25mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (25mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (750mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (750mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Red-eye-Reduction settings caused any red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

As you can see here, disabling IS when shooting handheld at the upper end of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS' focal length range isn't a good idea. Keep the system on and it does a great job of counteracting the effects of camera shake.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti-Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti-Shake On (100% Crop)
1/6th sec / 25mm
0.8 sec / 750mm

Night

The Canon Powershot SX710 HS's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds at ISO 80.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Special Effects

The Canon PowerShot SX710 HS offers several special effects modes, accessible via the dedicated shooting mode.

Fisheye	Miniature
Toy Camera	Soft Focus
Monochrome	Super Vivid
Poster

My Colors

In addition to the special effect modes, you can also set the camera to apply various colour filters as you shoot. Choose from: Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue/Green/Red or Custom Color.

Vivid	Neutral
Sepia	B&W
Positive Film	Lighter Skin Tone
Darker Skin Tone	Vivid Blue
Vivid Green

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS camera, which were all taken using the 20.3 megapixel SuperFine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Front of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS / Turned On

Front of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS / Flash Raised

Side of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Side of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Side of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Side of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Side of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Side of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Rear of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Rear of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS / Image Displayed

Rear of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS / Turned On

Rear of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS / Main Menu

Rear of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS / Function Menu

Rear of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS / Device Nickname

Rear of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS / Mobile Device Connect Button

Rear of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS / Transfer Images

Top of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Bottom of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Side of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Side of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Front of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Front of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

Virtually identical to last year's SX700 HS model, the new Canon PowerShot SX710 HS takes a few minor steps forward, namely faster burst shooting rates, more Auto Zoom options and 5-axis stabilisation for video, but one major step back, offering worse image quality than its predecessor.

The move to a 20.3 megapixel sensor has done the SX710 HS no favours, with ISO 400 already suffering from obvious noise, smearing of fine detail and colour artifacts. If you shoot mainly in good light, the SX710 HS deliver impressive detail, colour reproduction and dynamic range, but low-light shooting is disappointing. The Canon PowerShot SX710 HS's main rival, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70, has dropped the megapixel count from 18 to 12 to try and offer better image quality (review coming soon...), so unless you're swayed by the number of megapixels, that camera may prove to be a better option.

Our other main criticism of the SX710 HS is the lack of progress compared to last year's model. While it remains simple to operate and offers a lot of features necessary in this class of camera, the SX710 HS continues to miss a panorama mode, proper multi-shot HDR capture, RAW shooting, a touchscreen interface and even a viewfinder. In short, we'd have expected to see Canon make a much bigger step forward with the SX710 HS.

In summary, the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS is still a well-designed, easy to use travel-zoom camera, but the lack of new features and inferior image quality means you should really look elsewhere (or even at last years discounted SX700 HS, if you can find one).

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	3.5
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	3.5
Value for money	3.5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Canon PowerShot SX710 HS.

Specifications

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