canon A710is digicam

unfortunitely i purchased a canon A700 last summer- it had some clitches, and i got some pretty awful results along w/ mistakingly erasing all the pictures on the disc ,not once but twice. both times done a darkened theater where i could not see any of the controls..advice: bring a pocket flash lite along if goin to shoot in darkened areas. memorizing the controls is not easy when you can not see the camera prompts clearly..tha tbeing said, i also got some excellent photos.well balanced color wise with nice saturation.. i got the yen to improve upon the situation, when i saw the new A710 is released by canon basically as a replacement for the A700.. with three major changes ,otherwise the same layout and configuratrions as the A700-slightly heavier,same feel - the improvements are substancial — 1. Image stabilization (IS) added.2. 1.1 more pixels up from 6 to 7.1 and lastly a bewtter coordinated flash. less light more flash , more light less flash. no guarentees against "white out" of close by subjects, but a little less harsh and a little more forgiving. am positive canon added other subtile improvements w/o making a big deal out of it. They go out of their way not to make owners of discontinued for newer model products,feel no malcontent.. I now have both cameras ,using the older A700 as a back up for the new A710is— this is easy to do. if you buy the auxiliary lenses and tube to put them on the nifity little digicam, you will find these auxiliary items fit both cameras. in my case that is what swung me to the A710 is .. Olympus uses auxiliary lenses for their SD -350 ,but neglected any olympus owner who wanted to upgrade to their newer SD 510 model. differant size thread for both camera auxiliary optical products..NOT NICE olympus...canon seems to have more comman sense or at least are more in tune w/ their audiences.In conclusion- The A710is is versatile,easy to grip,but still laden w/ bugs a novice user is apt to trigger, just the same as its predicessor the A 700.. using care in the menu options goes a long way towards producing better photos and less stress..