Rating: Summary: Comments based on 6 months of use Review: I wrote a review about a month after we bought the F707. Now, after an additional 5 months of use, I still love it and have learned more about it:A high res jpeg will consume about 2.5 MB or memory space. The Sony battery is expensive but has good life and the charging system is very smart. Be patient when using the manual focus. The zoom setting varies as you manually focus. You need fairly good light and contrast for the macro mode autofocus to work properly. Force the fill flash when working indoors under fluorescent light and you'll get better color balance. In low light, I use the LCD screen to compose. Under normal circumstances, I use the eyepiece to save on battery life. I do wish it was easy to delete all images on the chip simultaneously, but haven't found a way to do so. ... This really is a great quality tool. I love it. We've been getting great images. The shutter response is faster than most digital cameras, a real plus.
Rating: Summary: Far and Away the best 5 megapixel camera on the market Review: I originally bought the Nikon 5000 after owning a 2 megapixel Kodak DC290. Unfortunately (but fortunate in a way), this camera was stolen. I was dissapointed wtih it from the start. The colors were nowhere near as vibrant and clear as the Kodak DC290. I often found outdoor pictures to be yellow saturated and distant objects to be far from clear especially if they are bright like a snow capped mountain. Indoor pictures were terrible, colors were way off and half the time the light sensor did not sense correctly leading to half the pictures being blurry. The optics are also a joke and the menu options far from intuitive. Now the Sony F707, on the other hand, brings back the beautiful clear vibrant pictures of my Kodak DC290 and much more. For starters, the F707 is noticeably more solidly built. The menu system is far more intuitive than the nikon. I didn't have to read any of the manual to start playing around with advanced features. The optics are awesome blowing away the Nikon. Indoor pictures are crisp and clear and can be taken faster than the Nikon which has a terrible lag in low light. And the battery is phenomenal (dont even think about buying the Minolta Dimage7 just based on the battery life). To me, this is the only competitive 5 MP Digital on the market.
Rating: Summary: Impressive Photos, Unimpressive software bundle Review: While its obvious that this camera takes outstanding quality shots I would like to focus on 2 disappointments: 1. The MGI PhotoSuite 8.1 software is not a suite at all. More like a 1991 watered down MS paint... On top of that the MGI VideoWave III SE software isn't even compatible with Windows XP. There was a long list of compatibility problems on ... Save me the $... they charge for this junk. 2. The 16MB Memory stick is an insult. ... Is this how you got the camera under ...? I had to dish out another $... to get a 128MB stick. I would have rather not had the 16MB stick included and paid $... less. I understand the whole marketing point of accessories but when you're buying a $... camera the above listed items are absolutely unacceptable. The price should be more around $... and leave out the software and stick. Other than that the camera is excellent!
Rating: Summary: outstanding product, a great value Review: Did my homework on dp review dot com and everything indicated picture quality surpassed anything else currently on the market, especially in this...price range. I have not been disappointed: this camera is definitely worth the money. Resolution is excellent to 11"x17" prints (1400 dpi inkjet outputs here) or so. It's outstanding for general use and great for design prototypes or ideas before committing to a photo shoot, documentation, etc. The manual focus and controls are intuitive and the camera, while bulkier than the some ultra compact digital cameras, is very very easy to handle. Batteries last a LONG time, especially if you don't use the flash (I don't). You'll need 128 MB memory sticks: I recommend 4, and also suggest a spare battery, case, uv filter, and card reader. For less than [money] you can do all your web work, very small scale print, and all your personal photog. Because film is so expensive I never had as much fun as I am with this camera. Definitely one of the best purchases in hardware I've ever made.
Rating: Summary: Super Sony Review: I own this marvelous camera, bought new at Fry's in northern California. It is a true marvel, not to be soon obsoleted. It's has the capability of shooting in absolute darkness, with its built in laser! I also have the wide-angle lens attachment - expensive but worth it to me. The only drawback is that when the very large wide-angle lens is attached, it partially blocks the built-in flash. so either shoot wide angle stuff with available light or external lighting or flash. In good light, images are super sharp! Gene Deitch, Prague
Rating: Summary: Outstanding Picture Quality and Features Review: I have been using this camera for two weeks now and cannot say enough of good words about it. The picture quality is simply amazing even when using automatic. The feature array is unmatched. I especially came to like the NightShot and NightFraming features that allow me to take clear pictures in complete darkness. I cannot think of anything I would like to see improved and added. Great camera for good price
Rating: Summary: Digital Keeps Getting Better! Review: Wow! That's how I felt when I got one of these in my hands. The look and feel is a bit different but becomes very natural very quickly. Don't let that deter you from looking closely at this camera, its output is tremendous and is top rated by almost all reviewers and is on all the recommended lists I've found. For starters, this is my 4th digital camera, my last being the highly rated Kodak DC4800. What this brings to the party is more pixels (more pixels = higher quality output), a longer optical zoom (digital zoom is practically useless) and low light capability. Oh, and it also has an unbelievable Carl Ziess-built lens system that is optically superior to most others out there. Did I mention the quality output? I was extremely happy with my Kodak but this one beats it hands down for any indoor and/or low light scenes. The color saturation is on the high side (which is what I like anyway) and isn't adjustable in-camera. There is a sharpness setting and I found this camera likes a +1 setting as the standard setting is just a bit too soft for my tastes. The end output matches the true SLR professional cameras that are out there (digital), and even beats some of the old "pro" digitals. But I haven't got to my favorite gain with this camera. Specifically, I've always grieved over digital cameras poor performance in low light. I've tried most every brand out there and found they all lack in this scenario. Sony addressed this by taking some of their electronic wizardry from their broadcast and consumer video camera world and adapting it for a "still" camera. It has Night Shot and Night Framing capability and delivers low digital noise on the final product to boot! This is the answer I've been waiting for! On the downside, EVF's (electronic as opposed to glass view finders) aren't perfect yet. Sony has done a good job here but it still can't fully match SLR capability, except for one exception; it can actually lighten (enhance) detail in very dark scenes that the naked eye can't even see. It's also a bit hard to store and carry due to the HUGE lens system. Don't get me wrong, for what this camera delivers, I'm willing to adapt to the size and weight. Also, although not difficult to learn what all those buttons do, you'll still need to refer to the owners manual for a while until you memorize all the features. If you're not sure about this camera, my opinion is that if you splurge, you won't be sorry. Yes there are similar and smaller cameras on the market with better memory cards (read larger), but Sony has a real winner here and I'm glad I looked beyond some of Sony's quirkiness with using proprietary batteries and memory! I'm one happy owner...I love this camera!
Rating: Summary: My First Digital Camera Review: For years I contemplated buying a digital camera. After researching the lastest in big and small sized it came down to the Sony. The other two I was considering were the Olympus 4040 (mid sized) and the Canon S40 (small sized). Short battery life and other limiting features eliminated these two. Hello DSC-F707. I am so happy I bought this camera, and being my first it is well worth the wait. The quality is outstanding! I found a cheaper non-Sony branded 128 MB memory stick for extra storage. It comes with a 16 MB stick that can barely fit a single large uncompressed TIFF (on the other hand, it could come with none!). JPEGs are of course a lot smaller, most people I know never use TIFF. This camera will probably make people even more JPEG happy, the JPEGs are of incredible quality. Only a select few purists (like me) are going to be TIFFing it up. What else can I say, I just got it this morning and I already know its a winner. Fun stuff for years, and soon I will complement it with a pocket sized camera with 5 or more megapixels (for sneaking). I think this camera will have high resale value based on its immense feature set and incredible quality. The swivel design is cool, I'm already used to it. Nice job Sony. FOUR DAYS LATER: Still love it. The manual focus took a little getting used to but I have it down now. Excellent macro photos too! The pop-up flash has a life all its own and sometimes startles me, easy to disable however, which leads me to the menu system. It's great! Sony has a simple and logical way of laying out the features. Big important features are given a dial or a button, and less used ones a more nestled in menus, makes a lot of sense. The few "icon" branded features are simple to use. The lens is sharp and fairly bright. Colors come out looking rich and full, on the warm side. Sony Products recommended by this reviewer: MP3 CD WALKMAN D-CJ01
Rating: Summary: Much improved from the 505V Review: I owned the DSC F505V before I bought the 707. The improvements are exactly what the doctor ordered. Through the lens composition for starters, but still has a very excellent LCD screen, actually better. The memory stick writes very fast and the picture quality is phenominal. You can spend a lot more on a digital camera, but why would you want to. The ergonomic layout is much improved with the zoom control on the barrel away from the on off switch. The price is a bargain and digital is the only way to fly. Poor Kodak, what will they do with all that film.
Rating: Summary: Top of the line camera Review: We bought this camera planning to start a new hobby. My wife and I are absolutely satisfied with it's performance. We will probably never outgrow this camera's capabilities. Although this is a pretty expensive camera that provides more megapixels than most consumers will ever need, it's a great and powerful camera. Easy to figure out and use.
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