Manual Control Options
The Stylus 710, being primarily a style camera, features very little manual control. There are some ways to adjust ISO, exposure and metering, but to access most of them the user must wheel through menus. One of the buttons of the four-way controller does access the exposure compensation feature.
Focus
Auto Focus
The 710 uses Olympus’ super high-refractive-index lens elements designed for digital cameras. Translation – this lens itself isn’t half bad. The focus system uses CCD Contrast Detection and the user can pick from four preset focus ranges–Normal mode: 23.6” – infinity, Macro Mode Wide: 7.9” – to infinity, Macro Mode Tele: 19.7” – to infinity, and Super Macro mode: 3.2” – 23.6”. There are also two focus modes, iESP auto and Spot AF.
The autofocus worked fine on the mixed lighting of the convention hall floor; it wasn’t especially fast or slow—merely average. Check back soon for a full review, where we will explore the camera’s autofocus capabilities in low light and low contrast scenes.
Manual Focus
There are no actual “manual” focus options on the 710. The user can also choose from the four pre-sets mentioned in the previous section – Normal mode, Macro Mode Wide, Macro Mode Tele and Super Macro Mode—but that’s hardly the same thing.
Metering
There are two options for metering on the 710 – Digital ESP multi-pattern and spot metering. For the price, we expected a center-weighted option as well.
Exposure
Like most digital cameras in this class, the 710 allows adjustments of exposure from -2 to +2 EV in 1/3 steps.
White Balance
White balance defaults to auto but the user can pick from six pre-sets – daylight, overcast, tungsten, fluorescent1, fourescent2 and fluorescent3. A manual option would have been welcome, and at this price point including it is not uncommon.
ISO
ISO ranges on the 710 from 64 to 800. There’s also a 1600 “equivalent” which we’ll explore more fully in a follow-up complete review. The user can, of course, also set the ISO to auto and let the camera decide.
Aperture
Aperture ranges on the 710 from f/3.4 to f/5.7 but is not selectable by the user.
Shutter Speed
Shutter speeds on the Stylus 710 span from 1/1000 sec. – 1/2 sec. (extending to 4 sec. in Night Scene Mode) and are not manually selectable by the user.
