Almost a DSLR

Author's Rating:

Pros: Perfect next step on this design. Great enhancements, including CFII drive.

Cons: Some things (flash) still highly proprietary, but workarounds available.

The Bottom Line: 
If you're a pro looking for a backup or pro/semi-pro with a smallish wallet, this is a great solution.

Author's Review
An upgrade from my DSC-F707 (http://www.epinions.com/content_278293941892). My uses: product images, public events (inside and out), local/regional advertising pix. Meaning, jpeg or tiff. Raw, though available on this model, isn’t usually necessary, so I don’t mind the slow write speed for that mode. Sony, btw, made their Raw format available to Adobe anyway. Smart move.

Improvements I appreciate: Zeiss lens (28-200mm equivalent!), manual zoom, enhanced menus everywhere (including histogram and setup), dedicated single-button review of last shot, CFII drive. I like what they kept, too: $ame FP50 battery, $ame 58mm thread, same screen layout…and that wonderful swiveling body, particularly useful for ground level or crowd shots. Oh, nice to finally have a hot shoe (the F707’s was a cold shoe and only addressed in the F717 ).

Image quality: yes, there’s a purple chromatic aberration (CA) evident if you really, really blow up a high contrast area. I post everything anyway and Noise Ninja takes care of most of it. Noise? In my a/b comparisons with the F707 there’s less, but I'd keep this one to ISO 64 to 200 max. Color? The F707 had a tendency towards overblown reds which were a pain to post. This camera does several things to address it: first, a fourth phosphor (emerald/cyan, eRGB), second, a “real” color mode, third, chroma control. What they’ve crammed into this 8MP CCD is remarkable.

Flash: upgraded the flash, as well, and here are some hints. Instead of the HVL-F32X which has no swivel, however, I found probably the only other one that talks to this camera: ProMaster (5550 flash/9816 module) and I strongly recommend it, particularly since it has full swivel capability for bounce flash from behind your position.

Overall, my considerations were price, speed and portability. I usually don’t have time to fish around for lenses. I need to shoot fast between wide and tele. I don’t have thousands to spend. Model's a few years old (and a great deal on eBay), but far from outdated.

Addendum: This one has a production date of 12/03. I understand 2004 production dates have more successfully addressed the "purple" issue.


"I have no ego to bruise" - Spock

Well, not quite. But my shots and my wallet are more important than making a Nikon/Canon fashion statement.