Canon PowerShot A710 vs Canon PowerShot SX200 IS

[Roger Gibbons]

Tim Cowles, who lives in Lyon and undertakes an ongoing scientific study of the butterflies of the Rhone departement, has asked me a camera question about the relative merits of the Canon PowerShot A710 and the Canon PowerShot SX200 IS for butterfly photography. I haven’t a clue but I am sure the experts on this Forum will be able to give him good advice, so comments please!

To anyone who can help: if it would be easier to have a direct email dialogue with Tim, please pm me with your email address and I will pass this on to Tim.

This is Tim’s website
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/felixthecatalog.tim/
You can download a copy of his study of Rhone butterflies from the site.

Roger

[Gruditch]

Hi Roger, I'm sure others on this forum will be able to give Tim the in depth info he needs, I do know that the Canon PowerShot A710 came out 3 year ago, and in the digital camera age that's old.

My mum has a current Canon PowerShot SX200 IS, and my Step Dad has a PowerShot G10, both are fine cameras, I would take the G10 over the SX200.

Canon however have just come up with a replacement for the G10, which is unsurprisingly the G11. The first thing that caught my eye, was that they have lowered the pixel count from 14.7, down to 10. Which is a positive step away from the pixel war and towards image quality. IMHO worth a look, and maybe the extra dosh, but if its a straight choice between the A710 and the SX200, I would take the more modern SX200, but not in pink like my Mums.

Unlikely, but I hope this helps, Regards Gruditch

[JKT]

I may be wrong, but it doesn't look like either can take a close-up lens - not directly nor via an adapter. I would consider that an essential requirement as the normal macro modes require a bit too close contact with the subject.

[traplican]

I have bought Canon PowerShot SX10 IS this spring. It is a compact with 20x zoom (5.0 - 100 mm) objective with function SuperMacro (usable if some buttefly let you bring the camera near to itself because in this mode is the focal distance automatically set to 5.0 mm). Resolution 10 MPixels is important in case of butterflies snapping because it is mostly impossible to trim the shots. I recommend use as low ISO sensitivity as possible because by high one - ISO 800 and more - the shots have bad quality (low signal/noise distance causes granularity of the shot). Reflex cameras have better signal/noise distance.