Rating: 
Summary: Great camera. Only one real gripe...
Review: A few of the reviewers have highlighted the low-light problem with this camera, and I must add my voice to the chorus of complaint. I've taken some stunning night shots, but dudded out on what I would have thought were easy twilight pics. Go figure. I'm sure there are ways to overcome this problem, but I have yet to mine them out of the manual. (I bought my camera in Japan, and I think I got the hastily translated version of the English instructions!) Backlighting the screen more in low light would, of course, spoil the low light of the environment, wouldn't it? That said, I 'm really pleased with my purchase. It's several classes above the silly toys which passed as digital cameras until now. Yes, the memory sticks are expensive, but I use mine in other Sony devices (like a dictating machine) which makes the price a bit easier to take. And, yes, you do need to supplement the puny 8 MB stick you get with the camera. I had no problems with the software, in contrast to some of the other reviewers. In fact, I use it in preference to Microsoft Photo Editor for images I capture elsewhere. The lens is marvellous. It makes the camera a truly professional instrument--in fact, one of the reasons I chose it was because I noticed an art-director friend of mine had bought one. I must admit, though, the lens doesn't seem to go as wide as standard cameras. But maybe I'm just using it wrongly. Highly recommended, especially since prices seem to be coming down worldwide. My friend paid about ... for the Japanese domestic version when it first came out, and I paid about .... I see it advertised here for considerably less...grrrr!
Rating: 
Summary: great product
Review: As a former Canon owner in conventional 35mm format, with an assortment of lens, (financial commitment) the change to digital was long in thought. Early attempts by the industry were just that, however it seems strange to me that the pioneer of the digital revolution (CD) would be ahead of the major camera makers at their own game (at least in price range). As for this particular camera it's nothing but great. With the rotation feature of the camera body, it can used as a waist level viewer with all the advantages of such. The hardest part I had was not trying to put the LCD viewer up to my eye like a 35. The Carl Zeiss lens however was the turning point for me though, and the lack of this fine lens in Sony's new CD burner was a great disappointment. The little tricks that comes with this camera including an incamera editing and a computer photo shop for PC use only make it better. (Not as poweful as Adobe but easier to use). The clipette movie pegs are one of the best features. If you want kid movie pictures simply take a 15 sec. MPEG and edit for the best in the computer. (These movies also play back in MS"s movie maker). Both the movies and the still shots can be played back on your big screen TV with the connector provided with the camera (a la Camcorder style but 100 times the picture quality. However Sony DVD will not recognize a album photo make up and turned out on a CD burner. Now for the good part. Picts are stored per user preference in TIFF file, JPEG etc. While the 4MG memory chips are not for snapshots, I use them the same way a an 8X10 box camera does, 1 Tiff shot per and label as such. File coversions with Matlab Image processing Toolbox takes care of all my scientific needs.
Rating:
Summary: Only the view finder lacks
Review: Great camera, no doubt. The image quality is outstanding, only the colors are a bit dramatic (SONY style..) but that is easy to fix in Photoshop, just reduce the hue a little bit. Light sensitivity is not overwhelming, like ASA 100, the low light pictures are a bit noisy - I cool the camera to below 20 degrees Celsius for reduced thermal noise from the CCD. The lens is top quality and it shows, unusual for a digital camera. My main problems: There is no real view finder, only the LCD. In low light situations (night, romantic restaurant shot, etc) you see plain nothing on the LCD. You have to shoot a couple of times to adjust the frame. Basically not usable in real life conditions when you have to deal with moving objects - shame. Great plus for low light is the manual focus, though. If the autofocus doesn't work properly you can switch to manual and adjust a ring on the lens like in a SLR camera - great idea, but poor execution, the ring is so sensitive that you jump from infinity to 1 meter so quickly that everything inbetween is very hard to adjust to. Also the time from first pressing the button to autofocus ready to exposure can be some 2 seconds - try shooting kids with that, a nightmare. But, since the extra tries don't cost you anything extra, you can just freely fire away, eventually you will catch a nice shot that way too (need a 64MB stick though, the 8MB it comes with are plain useless - not very customer oriented, SONY!!). The video modes are just a joke, at 320x240 pixels the 15 sec movies look horrible on anything but a tiny window on the computer. Alltogether a great piece of equipment. I made 2000 images in the first three weeks and I still love it. Maybe future versions will even have a better low light viewer function, faster response, better manual focus and pseudo-motor function. Then it would deserve 5 stars without hesitation...
Rating:
Summary: Not bad!
Review: Great color reproduction. Impossible to take night shots in low light conditions. However, color accuracy is my priority as I photograph mostly orchids. I tried the Sony DCS-S75 and it did great on yellows and oranges, but failed in the pinks and lavenders. The Olympus C-3040 was terrible with color accuracy as was the Kodak 4800. The Sony DSCF-505V is the best I have found so far. It has an awesome macro mode, but very very difficult to focus in macro in bright sunlight. Almost impossible to focus anything in very dark situations.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to Use; Astounding Image Quality
Review: I am a semi professional photographer. No doubt the best camera I have ever used. Well balanced, easy to use. Image Quality is stunning. Takes better pictures than my 35mm SLR. This camera is exciting! Picture taking is fun now. You will not be disappointed. Consider buying at least one 64 meg memory stick (aprox. $120.00)
Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: I am a surgeon and mostly I need to have macro photos with details upto 1 mm. With conventional cameras it was impossible. With this camera you do not have to have perfect light supply or get too close. It is perfect. Buy it!!!
Rating:
Summary: Nice camera, a few limitations
Review: I bought this camera a little over a year ago, when I was doing a summer internship in the Albany area. I had been going out on nature outings with the other interns, and wanted a way to share my experiences with the folks back home. Over the last year I've taken my 505V on hiking trips, trips into caves and even on a diving trip, where I took some pics before getting in the water. Here are my observations from my experiences. First of all. NEAT camera! It looks like something Captain Kirk would use to snap pictures of the orange-skied planets he used to visit! The controls are laid out well, so that buttons and things are under one's fingers when he holds the camera, and the menu system is simple enough to use. I did not notice any loss of sharpness around the edges of the frame; the Zeiss-designed lens, mounted well away from the heat-producing CCD, probably has something to do with this. The controls permit some simple Real Camera-type manipulations: several shutter speeds, several exposure times, that sort of thing, but there aren't nearly as many tweakable settings, or as much range, as there would be in a film camera. The 505V is designed to be used as a waist-level camera, and shots taken this way should be composed with this in mind. The front of the lens is threaded for standard filters (don't recall the size offhand), obtainable at a photo store. A UV filter to protect the lens and a polarizing filter for outdoor shots of sky and clouds might be a couple of good things to consider. As did several of the other reviewers, I have had problems getting good pictures in low-light conditions. Perhaps the CCD is not sensitive enough, or the shutter is held open too long for hand-holding, but low-light pics tend to come out blurry. The built-in flash is, of course, too close to the lens, though that's a problem with any camera whose flash is mounted right on the body. Last, the 505V is big. I've had it in some rather surprising places, but it was an effort to take it out of its case and put it back for every picture. I am considering getting a simple, compact digicam as an auxilliary adventure camera for spontaneous shots or narrow cave passages, though I do not anticipate the new camera replacing my 505. I have bought a PCMCIA card for plugging the Memory Stick into my laptop (heh! I can mount it as a Linux filesystem and not have to touch any Windows software at all!), an extra battery, and of course, a bigger Memory Stick than the 8M one that came with the camera. I have also purchased a small Pelican case from the dive shop, so that I can get my pack wet or drop it onto hard places (or fall and land on it, as has also happened a few times), and not worry about damaging my camera. The Pelican case also fits an extra battery and as many Memory Sticks as I care to take along, and is thus a Good Thing.
Rating:
Summary: Nice camera, a few limitations
Review: I bought this camera a little over a year ago, when I was doing a summer internship in the Albany area. I had been going out on nature outings with the other interns, and wanted a way to share my experiences with the folks back home. Over the last year I've taken my 505V on hiking trips, trips into caves and even on a diving trip, where I took some pics before getting in the water. Here are my observations from my experiences. First of all. NEAT camera! It looks like something Captain Kirk would use to snap pictures of the orange-skied planets he used to visit! The controls are laid out well, so that buttons and things are under one's fingers when he holds the camera, and the menu system is simple enough to use. I did not notice any loss of sharpness around the edges of the frame; the Zeiss-designed lens, mounted well away from the heat-producing CCD, probably has something to do with this. The controls permit some simple Real Camera-type manipulations: several shutter speeds, several exposure times, that sort of thing, but there aren't nearly as many tweakable settings, or as much range, as there would be in a film camera. The 505V is designed to be used as a waist-level camera, and shots taken this way should be composed with this in mind. The front of the lens is threaded for standard filters (don't recall the size offhand), obtainable at a photo store. A UV filter to protect the lens and a polarizing filter for outdoor shots of sky and clouds might be a couple of good things to consider. As did several of the other reviewers, I have had problems getting good pictures in low-light conditions. Perhaps the CCD is not sensitive enough, or the shutter is held open too long for hand-holding, but low-light pics tend to come out blurry. The built-in flash is, of course, too close to the lens, though that's a problem with any camera whose flash is mounted right on the body. Last, the 505V is big. I've had it in some rather surprising places, but it was an effort to take it out of its case and put it back for every picture. I am considering getting a simple, compact digicam as an auxilliary adventure camera for spontaneous shots or narrow cave passages, though I do not anticipate the new camera replacing my 505. I have bought a PCMCIA card for plugging the Memory Stick into my laptop (heh! I can mount it as a Linux filesystem and not have to touch any Windows software at all!), an extra battery, and of course, a bigger Memory Stick than the 8M one that came with the camera. I have also purchased a small Pelican case from the dive shop, so that I can get my pack wet or drop it onto hard places (or fall and land on it, as has also happened a few times), and not worry about damaging my camera. The Pelican case also fits an extra battery and as many Memory Sticks as I care to take along, and is thus a Good Thing.
Rating:
Summary: The best small digital money can buy.
Review: I can't say enough about this camera. The size and the power can't be beat and the resolution is amazing. I'm a medical examiners field investigator and I use this camera for work as well as pleasure. When placed at maximum resolution, I can produce photos that exceed the quality of 35mm SLR cameras and print the photos poster size for court presentations without the usual grainyness of film stock. If you have the means and want the performance, this is the camera for you.
Rating:
Summary: The best camera you ever own!
Review: I found this camera very professional and effective in many ways. SONY does an increadible job in producing such digital cameras. The finest quality of the pictures will amaze you!!! Try it you you will never regret it.
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