Canon A710 IS or G7 AND what is RAW mode?

I'm a novice that takes MANY pictures (lots of blurry close-ups) of dogs, kids, waves, dewey spider-webs - you name it. My Sony died - but I'd outgrown it. This site has me waffling between a Canon PowerShot A710 IS and The PowerShot G7. Please help & if I'm totally off base, please push me in the right direction. I'm not rich, but I hate missing the pictures of my grandsons... And what is RAW mode?
thank you!

I have owned four digital cameras in the past 7 years, manufactured by Sony, Olympus, and Canon. Everytime I bough a new one, I made an extra effort to locate a camera that would correct the flaws I felt my previous model had. Last month I began looking for a camera to replace my beloved Canon PowerShot SD10 (which skittered across the highway to an early grave)...
Enter the Canon PowerShot A710. This camera is absolutely stunning. Big, high resolution screen. Manual viewfinder. Big optical zoom with a readout on the screen showing you where the optical zoom ends and the digital (pixelated) zoom begins (solid gold!). An amazing selection of programmable settings: adjustable flash intensity for no more blown-out white faces, adjustable f-stops, etc. Movies at up to 60 fps(!). Very fast start-up time. Will accept optical accessories. No proprietary memory cards or batteries.
Of course, the camera has a small list of cons: Plastic body instead of metal. No raised lip around the LCD screen to protect against setting it down and scratching the screen. Plastic mount for tripods (with plastic threads - what we're they thinking?) Speaker for listening to movie sound on top of camera making difficult to hear it. No case included.

Not a big list of cons, I'll admit. And I added the last one just make it look like I wasn't trying to gloss it over.

I think it is expensive, but everything else in its price category is either complete junk or more poorly executed.

Yeah, if I had more money I would buy the G7. But that's the only difference between the two - money.

The G7 gives you a more solid body with quicker access to the fucntional controls than the A-series camera. The G7 is metal, has a metal tripod mount, and has the flash mount as well. It's not just the same thing as a 710is for $200 more. You're getting more controls for faster operation and 10mp, which when shooting at high-iso helps cancel out the noise when you print. It's worth the $550 it's sold at, IMHO.

I'm a DSLR user and prior G3 owner. I've looked at the 710, but will probably buy the G7. If money were a huge factor, the 710 (indeed a great camera) might be my choice, but I like the more solid feel of the metal body. And I've learned well that a camera (or any other tool) that doesn't feel good to you won't get used.

I also worry about battery life from 2xAA in the 710, even if you use rechargables.

I will have to disagree with Joe about the advantage of the 10 MP. First, the G7 has the new Digic processor, so we're hoping the images will reflect an improvement. Second, you don't need to print huge posters to see an advantage in more MP -- with 10 MP you'll have more freedom to crop.

The downside of ever more MP on a tiny sensor is the signal to noise ratio. With luck, the new Digic chip makes that a non-issue.

RAW is a "digital negative", a lossless format which saves all the original information. You need a special program to convert the images to jpegs, but I've found the tweaking you can do in RAW to produce better jpegs than any of my cameras produced on their own, even after PS tweaking. The loss of RAW in the G7 is a major bummer ...

I find the zoom much too fast. I miss a battery readout feature and the ability to crop and recompose on camera.

I find A 710 is a tiny beauty with a lot of features making it a nice workhorse with some limitation. Apart from its power hungry quick battery draining nature and constant worry for LCD scratches I recommend this camera as iI am quite happy.

IMHO, G7 is worth extra 150-200 bucks, unless the difference is critical for the budget.
Under similar options, I went for G7 and quite happy about it.
Most pros have already been mentioned:
- better built quality (metal instead of plastic; Japan instead of China);
- hot shoe for external flash;
- better/faster controls;
- 10 MP allow more options for crop;
- greater options for further growth;

Guess what? The A710 DOES allow in-camera cropping. I just discovered this a few days ago.

I DO like the G7---it looks like a Porsche design. But it is larger that the A710, I think the G7 is about the size of the Canon A630-640 cameras.

But frankly, for $550, I'd get the Nikon D40 and be done with it.

2 Richio: it makes sense, if the size is of no essence and if the budget for further purchase of lenses is there.
G7 allows to be carried around in a pocket all the time, and, therefore, it allows to follow the main rule for making great photos: having the camera, when you unexpectedly need it...
It also makes a good second camera, in case if later on one decides to go for a serious dSLR...
Anyway, you are not talking from your own experience and seem to be just estimating possible options, whereas those who have actually made their choice in favor of G7 don't seem to be regretable at all :-)))

True, true.

And about having a camera when you need it: I have gotten into the habit of taking a digital camera with me when I leave the house. It seems a bit silly at times, but I'm hoping the day will come when that will pay off in a great photo or two.

can any please comment on the when using flash and the lcd is switched on in A710 IS? Does it goes off when a pictute is clicked? please comment as i wannna buy this set.

I am trying to make the same decision. When you guys say "faster control", do you mean the menu tree user interface or the camera itself.

I have an old Kodak 6440 - 3 or 4 megapixel and 4x optical zoom. It is slow and I miss good shots. Thanks.

I have the A710 IS. I love it.
Just for the record I'm getting about over 300 shots (full memory card) at highest settings, with and without flash before needing to recharge the NIMH AA batteries. In fact the same batteries last longer in the 710 than they did in the A200 previously.