More important is the quality of the CCD and
the lens. On auto settings, indoor shots were well
exposed, with good contrast and natural tones.
Outdoor photography revealed slight problems,
though, with the flash over-keen in dusky light,
and chromatic aberration in high-contrast areas.

There’s a big problem with operational speed.
The R717 is slow to adjust itself, occasionally
refusing to take a shot and compromising its
point-and-shoot credentials. The startup time
of 5.5 seconds doesn’t help, causing you to miss
those more spontaneous shots, and a click-toshoot
time of 2.3 seconds left us frustrated.

The LCD is slightly flawed. At 1.8in, it isn’t
as big as the Canon IXUS 50’s
(see above) and lacks the generous
viewing angles too. When the battery
runs low, the R717 disables the
screen, forcing you to use the optical
viewfinder.

With the 3x optical zoom at
maximum, the aperture can be forced
at either f/4.9 or f/8.4. This doesn’t give
much scope for depth adjustments, with choice
reverting to f/2.8 or f/4.8 when not zoomed.
Elsewhere, the R717 will let you force just
about any setting through its intuitive menu
system, including colour saturation, white
balance and metering method. There’s a handy
hint to tell you what each setting does, as well
as a range of generally effective preset settings
for specific shooting conditions.

In use, the R717’s design and weight make it
comfortable in the hand, and the rugged metal
and plastic case mean it will stand up to the
rigours of point-and-click life.

The R717 is certainly an improvement over
the R707. However, we’d buy the IXUS 50
for its superior image quality, features, slimmer
chassis and quicker shoot times.