Front
With a crisp metal face plate and nicely engraved lettering, the front of the 710 is pretty slick. Engraved on the front left of the face plate is “7.1 Megapixel.” About halfway over is the 3x lens, which protrudes when powered up and then retracts back so it’s flush with the body when asleep or powered down. Just above the lens to the right is the small rectangular flash, and below that on a stainless steel plate is the Olympus logo. Engraved below on the right is the model name and the words “All-Weather.”
Back
The top edge of the 710’s back has been cut off by a long beveled plane, giving the camera a wedge shape. Taking up most of the back of the camera is its 2.5-inch LCD. On the upper right is a zoom rocker and below that is the control dial with six settings. On the bottom right of the camera forming a square are four buttons – the menu button, the DPOF print button, the trash button and a display and help button. In the center of the square is a four-way controller labeled for exposure, flash, self-timer and macro modes.
Left
The left side of the camera is slightly curved and pretty much blank aside from a small metal lip where the face plate meets the polycarbonate back side.
Right
The right side of the 710 has two bolts for the face plate, a recessed strap lug formed from the steel Olympus logo overlay and a plastic hinged covering for the USB, A/V in/out and DC in connections.
Top
When you look at the top of the camera, you can see how wedge-shaped it really is. The left side has a beveled plane for a finger grip, and a basic power and shutter button on the middle right side. All the way to the right is another recess in the polycarbonate back for your thumb.
Bottom
On the bottom of the camera there’s a sliding door for the optional xD-Picture card and rechargeable li-on battery. There’s also a polycarbonate tripod mount on the bottom.
