[Recovered Thread: 110232]

[Contriver]

Does the 710 IS have any advantages over the S3 besides being smaller and only using 2 batteries?

[kassandro]

It's only price and size, where the A710 is better than the S3. I payed 230€ for my A710, while I would have to pay almost 330€ for the S3. The Price of the S3 will come down substantially, when the S4 comes to market in march. Also the S3 weighs twice as much as the A710. Thus the price and size advantages of the A710 are quite substantial.
One might argue that the image quality of the A710 is better, because it has a more recent sensor and a less extreme zoom lens. As far as the sensor is concerned the differences are neglible. As far as the lens is concerned, the A710 has certainly less distortions because of the smaller zoom range, but I wouldn't rate this as a great advantage. On the other hand, the A710 lens is certainly a budget lens. It is quite sharp - perhaps sharper than the S3 - in the center, but definitely has some resolution problems in the corners at the wide end of the zoom range. This problem is not severe, though, and it will probably disappear, if you stop down to, say 5.6 or 8. I couldn't check this yet, because we had rather poor weather with lots of clouds and now sun. Thus until now I could only take shots at aperture 4.5 or wider. My S1 didn't have any corner problems and probably the S3 doesn't have either. Thus in the end it comes down to price and size as the sole advantages of the A710.

[mtclimber]

Why not save some money and buy a Canon S-2 at www.buydig.com. There were very few changes made in the S-3, that honestly make it worth its big price tag.

MT

[kassandro]

mtclimber wrote:

Why not save some money and buy a Canon S-2 at http://www.buydig.com. There were very few changes made in the S-3, that honestly make it worth its big price tag.

MT

Looking at the prices there I clearly would go for the S2, if size is less important. For $279 you get an extremely versatile camera with swivel display. The A710 is fairly expensive there. The price is higher (about 245€) than mine and my price includes 16% VAT, while in the US you can usually avoid the much lower sales tax. The same is true for the G7, which I could get for less than 400€ also including VAT.