Auto Mode
Auto mode, symbolized by the small black camera icon on the control dial, turns over total control to the camera – which adjusts shutter speed, aperture, ISO and all the basics. There is some limited manual control within the menus including ISO adjustment, metering, exposure compensation and white balance, but this is not a camera for people who like to “drive stick.”
Movie Mode
The Olympus 710 records QuickTime Movies with sound in three formats – SHQ at 640 x 480 at 15 frames per second, HQ at 320 x 240 at 15 frames per second and SQ at 160 x 120 at 15 frames per second. Not having any movie mode that shoots at 30 fps is a bad move by Olympus. An argument can be made that the level of user that might buy a 710 isn’t so interested in shooting movies, but then why put such a mode on there in the first place? And if you put it on, why have it only at a flickering 15 fps level? If users are already not so keen on movies, 15 fps will put the final nail in the coffin.
Drive / Burst Mode
The Olympus Stylus 710 offers high speed sequential shooting at 3.7 fps at up to 11 frames in HQ mode and 1.1 frames per second for up to six frames in SQ mode. Not a lot of range there, but this camera is not exactly meant for sports photojournalists.
Playback Mode
Playback mode offers a basic slideshow feature, some editing features including cropping, a feature for indexing your shots (in fours, nines, 16, or 25 shots), an enlargement zoom feature that lets you check out an image of up to 10x magnification, image rotation, a calendar, an album and a histogram. Users may also resize and rotate pictures, and fix red-eye.
Custom Image Presets
There are many shooting presets on the 710 – Portrait, Landscape, Landscape + portrait, Night Scene, Night + Portrait, Sport, Indoor, Candle, Self Portrait, Available Light Portrait, Sunset, Fireworks, Museum, Cuisine, Behind Glass, Documents, Auction, Shoot & Select1, Shoot and Select2, Beach, Snow, Under Water Wide1, Under Water Wide2, Under Water Macro and Digital Image Stabilization Mode. Phew. This should be more than enough for anyone, except for maybe die-hard Casio fans who aren’t happy unless their compacts can offer over 30 scene presets.
