Canon PowerShot SX710 HS (Black)

I am very happy with my decision to purchase this camera. After reviewing many of the point and shoot non SLR cameras this was my choice. The camera body is not as small is many out there but very compact for what it is capable of and works in my favor having fairly large hands. I was looking for something quick to grab while out in the woods to catch a few of the wildlife shots I always seem to miss with my big SLR camera. The 30x optical zoom was what sold me in the first place. My SLR is just to big to wield around to get the shot. For the same zoom as this camera an entire lenses change out would be necessary. By that time your subject is long gone... If you're not a novice which I am, you will appreciate all of the control you have over your shots in different mode settings. Seems like just as many choices as I have on my SLR in a small body camera. With this camera P-mode is your best friend and gives you just enough of the right possible adjustments for even a novice like me to get a great shot. Even when zoomed to the 30x optical extent or into digital zoom. So far I have had no low light focus issues as some have mentioned. Of course I have a tendency to shoot several shots of the subject. Because IMHO there is no such thing as perfect, even with an expensive SLR. With a 64GB card, I can shoot over the max 9999 shots that this camera reports available so deleting a few crappy shots is no big deal. This camera is exactly what I was looking for to close the gap in my photography and video needs for a compact, on the fly grab and shot with plenty of features.Pros:1.Unless manually released the camera will default to no flash and shoots a fine photo without flash. Of course it will up the ISO setting which tends to give a slight bit of granulation but well with in an acceptable range in a low light setting.2. Very good image stabilization even into the digital zoom range. There are two settings of which I haven't went beyond the standard one. The second IS setting should be great when shooting video.3. Variety of possible shooting modes and adjustments just like your SLR if you own one. You will definitely4. Fastest I have ever connected anything to Wi-Fi or my Droid phone. Both Wi-Fi to my computer and the NFC to my Droid seem to work flawless. I had prepared myself for the typical process of elimination to find out why it didn't work, there was none... it did work first time on both accounts. Very fast transfers to both the computer and the phone. I was amazed!5. Easily navigable menus and available adjustments for great shots.I'll post a few photos taken at about 5:30am in low light as examples with various zoom levels, As Is said I am just a novice so don't be too critical :-)Cons:Only one so far and it certainly doesn't bother me but I will add it just in case it may be important to someone else. The battery indicator seems to show full, or 2/3 then drops to nothing. I have found that once the camera has been cycled off then back on, you still have battery for several more shots before it actually needs to be changed. I have seen others refer to this fact also but it's certainly no worse than many other battery indicators on some of my other electronic devices. My company I-phone 4S drops down to 43% then shuts off after another minute. Think of it as a deep cycle battery and adjust accordingly and you'll be fine. I never go anywhere with just one battery.

This is at least the 8th digital camera I've had (5 Canons, 2 Kodaks, and an HP). As zoom lenses improved, I opted for larger-but-better zoom models, including two of Canon's (S3 IS and SX20 IS). I have liked the balance of great zoom but smaller-than-SLR size. However in recent years, I have wanted a smaller camera due to size limitations of the baggage I currently carry. After researching for a year or so, I settled on the SX7x0 HS to replace my SX20 IS.I waited until the SX710 came out and bought it just prior to a 2 1/2 week European vacation. I chose it over the 700 due to the enhanced mobile options and higher resolution. I have now taken almost 1,000 pictures and videos on it. Here are some observations in no particular order:* Battery life is fair with the stock battery and good with aftermarket batteries. I carried three (one in the camera, two in the case) and that proved adequate for weeks of travel. I had to charge every few days but never needed more even with heavy use.* Speed is mostly very good. I have review turned on (displays the photo after taking it) which slows things down slightly. Power up is quick. Focus is quick. Shot to shot with review on and having to focus again is not as quick as I'd like, but quick enough that I made no efforts to fix the problem (either turning review off and/or continuous shooting). Only on rare occasion did I miss a shot as a result.* Image quality is good for its size. It is noticeably inferior to the SX20 and S3 in one way that could be important to some people. At the long end of the zoom range, distortion from noise reduction is quite noticeable even at low ISO settings. I have not done direct camera-to-camera comparisons, but my hunch is that the usable information in the images from the SX710 is considerably less than the SX20, despite almost double the megapixles. However, when viewing on a screen (fit to screen) or printing smaller formats (say, 4x6) I think this problem would be unnoticeable. Aside from that one flaw, the camera takes very nice pictures which match or exceed the quality of larger models from even the recent past.* Video quality is excellent for its size. I took video at 720p to save file size (v.s. 1080p). Both the video quality and audio quality were noticeably better from any previous camera I've had, including the other Canons.* Ergonomics are fair. Canon packs a lot of features into a small package. I don't have specific suggestions for improvement, but I do regularly encounter several problems. Inserting or removing the camera to/from the case requires some care to avoid turning it on with one of the multitude of buttons that turns the camera on. The power, shutter, and movie buttons are close enough together to cause wrong-button-pushing problems. And occasionally the back panel buttons (especially the phone button) gets accidentally pressed.* Phone pairing features are very useful. This is the first camera I've had with those features and I wound up using several of them (transfer the images to the phone, and remote control). That was very handy and they're very easy to use after learning how. Based on what I've read about the 700, I'm glad I waited for the 710 for this reason alone.Based on my experiences, I believe this form factor now satisfies the important requirements that previously could only be met with a larger zoom (ala the SX60 and predecessors). Unless you need an absurdly long zoom (more than 30x), and provided you can tolerate the image quality issues at the long end of the zoom, the next logical step up from this is a SLR. An SLR is too big (and expensive) for me, so this camera is my choice. So far, I'm very happy with it.