Viewfinder
There’s no optical viewfinder on this slim camera, an increasing trait on most camera models in this class.
LCD Screen
With approximately 115,000 pixels on the 2.5-inch LCD, resolution is merely fair. When panning around, response on the LCD seemed sluggish and movement caused light trails and aberrations to appear on the screen. We’ll test this screen out more fully in a complete review, but for now, we weren’t very impressed. It drives us crazy that screens have gotten larger but, in some cases, pixel counts have stayed the same, resulting in compromised visibility.
Flash
At the wide angle, the flash projects to 13.1 ft (4.0 m) and at the long end it throws out to 7.9 feet (2.4 m). Flash modes include Auto (for low and backlight), Red-eye reduction, Fill-in and Off. Like most models in this class, the flash is close to the lens, which will often cause red-eye in portraits.
Zoom Lens
The 3x zoom on the 710 extends from 6.5- 19.5mm or 37 to 111mm in 35mm photography. According to Olympus terminology, it’s “seamless” to 15x, or in other words when you combine the 3x optical and the 5x digital you get 15x. Consumers however should be aware that any use of digital zoom will degrade the image and should be avoided in most cases.
