The Canon PowerShot A710 IS is the compact camera with the largest optical zoom in their lineup. The camera has a 7 megapixel resolution sensor, 6x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 35-210mm on a 35mm camera), and good high ISO performance. It also has an optical viewfinder and runs on two AA Batteries. It has a start-up time of 1.4 seconds and a pre-focus shutter lag (half-press to full-press of shutter button) of 0.05 seconds. The full-press shutter lag is 0.50 seconds. In the Continuous Shooting Mode, the camera can take shots at the rate of 1.7 pictures/second until the memory card fills up. The shot-to-shot speed is 2.2 seconds (without a flash). The maximum usable aperture at maximum zoom (i.e. tele-photo end) is f4.8 (the lower the value, the wider the lens aperture, meaning more light gathering ability). It has full manual controls (e.g. aperture priority, shutter priority, etc.) for additional versatility. It supports wide-angle and tele-photo conversion lenses, which are available separately as accessories. It has a battery life of 360 shots (900 shots without using the LCD screen). It also has an Image Stabilization feature to help avoid blurry pictures because of camera shake.

The camera received a Highly Recommended rating at Digital Photography Review (a popular digital camera review site). It is also one of the favorite cameras at Digital Camera Resource Page (another popular camera review site).