This is my second Kodak digital camera, and my 5th digital camera. My previous Kodak is a cx6330 which is still going strong after 3 years of service.
The zd710 is easy to use and takes great pictures in the default auto scene selection mode.
It also offers a semi-automatic mode where you select the "scene" from one of many pre-programmed types ranging from Portrait to Fireworks. There is even a Text scene mode that can be used to copy documents by taking a picture of them.
There is a third, manual mode which offers features useful to more experienced users who understand depth of field, shutter speed, color temperature, etc.
The zd710 will also take good videos at 320x240 or 640x480, both at 30fps. You will need at least a class 6 SDHC card to use the 640x480 video setting in my experience. Slower cards will drop too many frames. Any old SD card works for me at the lower quality video setting.
The 10X optical zoom is a useful feature, especially for sports and nature photography.
Battery life is good with high capacity freshly charged NimH batteries.
This camera has some important improvements over the z710: Better video frame rate, panoramic mode available, and a stabilization feature that can be enabled, to name three that come to mind.
This is a great camera for a serious photographer.
Point and shoot enthusiasts might want to choose something a bit less feature-laden.
