Hi!!

I got a F707 last year and it's wonderfull!! I really appreciate the ability to get extra lens to further improve the already amazingly crisp 5x zoom. The onboard flash is great (compared to smaller models). It's well built and most of all, battery lasts forever!! 3 hours of continuous use!! Some will say that AA Nimh batteries are more available, but doing a day of shooting without even changing battery is great too ;-)

Now, If I had to choose between 707 and 717, I'd get a 717. Maybe a little bit more expensive, but I got my 707 for 200$ more than what is the 717 now ;-/ Plus, you get 128Meg+ support for memory sticks (707 support 128 max, not the new 256 or 512) and hotshoe flash receptacle (not bound to Sony flash) and unlimited lenght video (which is great if you don't have camcorder... 25 minutes of movie on a 128M stick)

As for the 4 vs 5 megapixels, you can see the difference for large prints (16x20). What is different for small formats, is that you can crop a little bit more from the original shot to improve composition of the picture without noticeable degradation of quality. If I remember correctly, it is recommended to keep at least 200 to 300 dot per inch on printed pictures. so for 5x7, you need 1500x2100 which is 3 megapixels or so...


You can read more at www.dpreview.com.

So unless you have rally good deal on 707, I'd recommend getting the 717 (the are around 749$ US right now)

Patrick