Canon Powershot A720 IS

[Shalyn]

I bought a Fujifilm S700 on amazon.com a few weeks ago but sent it back because I wasn't in love with it. I am now back to square one and am trying to find a camera to buy.

The one I am really interested in is the 720. Is this a pretty good camera?

Also - one thing I want to know is.......on my old Kodak you could choose for the date to show up on the picture or for it not to. Can you do this with the 720? I like to know the date the picture was taken once it is downloaded on my computer or printed.

Also - What is the difference between the 570 and the 720 besides the zoom?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

[David Metsky]

The A720 is a very nice choice for a camera, but without knowing what you plan on using it for it's hard to say if it is the right camera for you. It's a very good, all around camera with manual controls, a nice lens, and excellent image quality in most situations.

You can only imprint the datestamp on the image when taking pictures in the lowest resolution. All that information is in the EXIF data in every image file and camera makers are loathe to drop those ugly orange pixels on top of their carefully crafted images. There are third party products that will extract the date info and drop it on the image. It really only makes sense for when you print, IMO. If it's on the computer you can just view the properties of the file and see everything you need.

The A720 has a faster lens so it's slightly better in low light then the A570 and is 8MP instead of 7MP. Beyond that, there aren't any significant differences.

[AndyfromVA]

I own both the A720 and A570 and they are very similar. The A720 has more optical zoom, which comes in very handy. I have no complaints about either camera - they work well and take good looking pictures.

[Shalyn]

I wanted to add that I will be using it mostly for taking pictures of my 2 young children (inside and outside) and my dog.

[AndyfromVA]

I bought a Fujifilm S700 on amazon.com a few weeks ago but sent it back because I wasn't in love with it. I am now back to square one and am trying to find a camera to buy.

What didn't you like about the Fujifilm S700?

[Shalyn]

What didn't you like about the Fujifilm S700?

I didn't like how the flash popped up and you had to put it back down - in my opinion that is just something else to break. kwim?

I also didn't like that you couldn't put the date on the picture - but maybe that is just the way they make them now. I had just assumed that all cameras did that - oops. I like that feature because I have young children and I barely ever print pictures so when I do it's nice to know when they are from so you know how old the child was when the pic was taken.

I also thought the video quality SUCKED. I know it is not a video camera but my pos kodak even took better video quality than that.

[David Metsky]

I didn't like how the flash popped up and you had to put it back down - in my opinion that is just something else to break. kwim?
I've never had a problem with that on any of my cameras with a pop up flash. It's not something that breaks often.


I also didn't like that you couldn't put the date on the picture - but maybe that is just the way they make them now. I had just assumed that all cameras did that - oops. I like that feature because I have young children and I barely ever print pictures so when I do it's nice to know when they are from so you know how old the child was when the pic was taken.
All that information is in the EXIF data that you can view on the computer. It's not information that you need to print on the image. There are many simple ways of reading the EXIF. Besides, essentially no cameras will do that for you now.


I also thought the video quality SUCKED. I know it is not a video camera but my pos kodak even took better video quality than that.
I've been very happy with the video quality on my Canons.

[bascom]

Pop up flash and date stamps seem like minor issues. How was the S700 photo quality and zoom? Doesn't that matter more? You can zoom with video with the S700. I doubt the Canon's A's will do any better with video (no zoom) and may not have better photo quality either. But they are smaller, have the built in flash and date stamp at low res.

Pop up flash usually gives better results and less red eye than built in flash. I think you can turn the pop up flash off without putting it down, when you don't want to use it.

[Setter Dog]

I have a Canon A710 which I really enjoy.

You can date stamp your photos on these Canons but only in the fairly low resolution postcard size prints. Like you, I wish it were available on the larger resolution sizes.

About video, my A710 takes great videos. My Canon TX1 is even better. I think that all the Canons take good video and have the same set up for date stamping.

[bascom]

The Pan FZ8 review says "The FZ8 has a rather unique date printing feature. You can print the date/time on your photo, the age of your baby or pet (if you used those scene modes, of course), or what day of your vacation you took the photo on. Do note that the camera will downsize the image to 3 Megapixels or less when using this feature..."

[theginkamos]

I have the A720 IS and it works great.