Rating: 
Summary: dolphstar
Review: Fringe, Sminge...you are going to get great shots with this camera! I read about the purple fringe issue before buying mine but felt safe trying it thanks to amazon.com's generous return policy. It is now 2 months later and I wouldn't consider giving up my F828.It is true there is purple fringing in high contrast situations (like bright sun shining between small branches in a tree). In most cases this is only visible when you magnify the image many times on your PC monitor. It is apparent in less than 10% of my photos and I have never needed to correct for it when printing. I had one instance where it was visible at full size and corrected it easily in my photo editing program - took about 60 seconds. This is much easier to fix than lens flaring, image softness or the exposure problems you can find in many digital cameras. Of course, I would rather the camera be perfect but I've been around photo equipment for decades (35mm, medium format, digital) and trust me - there will always be something. The F828 is a delight to use, combines a great lens and body into a well built, reasonably compact package. It has excellent battery life (a huge problem for some digitals) and delivers great image quality. I think you will be amazed at the detail you will see. You can set it to automatic or use a host of manual features - all of which are easily accessible. I can't tell you how handy the 828's swivel lens/body is. My first digital camera had it (Nikon 990) and I considered it a must-have feature for its replacement. Do you need an all-in-one solution i.e. camera and lens together? Are you looking for vastly improved image quality over say a 3-4 megapixal digital? Do you need it now? If YES, get the Sony - you won't find a better choice. If no, you might wait a bit and look at the other 8 megapixal cameras that will be rolling out over the next few months (I've already seen a few but none beat the overall quality of the 828). If you don't care about physical size, then one of the new digital SLRs from Nikon or Canon might be a good choice - but remember you have to buy the body and lens separately, they are more expensive, and you've got to haul all that stuff around with you - I take my camera on business trips and just don't have the room. Bottom line, don't let all this geek talk scare you. You might take a thousand pictures before seeing the purple stuff. If you do encounter it, correcting the image is easy. ENJOY!!
Rating: 
Summary: 2nd Version (Current) Fixed Problems
Review: I normally like to be an early adopter but I am glad I waited since I have seen absolutely NONE of the issues mentioned for this camera. I have went as far as trying to make the problems occur and cannot do it. I suggest to most people that they get an attachable flash that has 360 degree pivot ability so as to bounce light where you really want it since the on-board flash is a bit too strong for any real close shots. As a professional photographer, I love this camera!!
Rating:
Summary: Great Camera
Review: I've had the camera for about 2 months now and have taken close to a 1000 shots. I knew about the fringing and noise, but researched and found that these are problems in all digital camera (some worse that others) The shots I have taken have been great - colors vibrant, clear. The only time I get a problem with fringing is using the extreme end of the comera's settings. Battery life is great, the camera is quicker than my other digital cameras (I purchased a Kodak DX 6490 right before Christmas and sold it to my sister in law because I was sorely disappointed, prior to that I had and Olympus C-2100 which I still own and really like) One word of advise when getting a camera like this (8 megapix) be prepared for some large files (3 meg per pic) This adds up quickly - I will need a second hard drive very soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Overpriced, overhyped crap - Give me the Fuji S7000 any day!
Review: I purchased a Sony DSC-F828 as a second camera. Here's what I found: Horrible at action shots.
Picture quality is abysmal when going above a 4" x 6" in size.
Lots of noise at most any speed.
Easy to get your money back on eBay because everyone seems to want this technological piece-o-crap. For the money, the Fuji S7000 is a far superior camera...and I've blown up the 12MP JPEG images on that to 46" x 52" without the problem of noise or purple fringe in low light situations AND I've used those pictures for professional art gallery shows in Los Angeles. Sony needs to get their act together in the digital camera realm. This model was rushed to the floor - and I think everyone expected something with far better quality and versatility.
Rating:
Summary: Sony's Cybershot Pro rocks!!!
Review: I have owned the F828 since 12/30/03, and I just love this camera. I admit there is still a considerable amount of learning for me to do with this camera. The Carl Zeiss T* lens is just incredibly, and the 4-color CCD does seem to render colors better. I am consistently impressed by how eye color and detail is captured by this camera.....by far the best I have seen in a "non D-SLR" digital camera. OK, now onto the niggles....(1) Yes there is some noise from ISO200 and above, but there are others in this boat also, and there is a noise reduction feature in the "twilight" profile. Neat Image software does an acceptable job mitigating the noise in most images. The FujiFilm S-7000 (my previous selection) has a horrible reputation for high ISO noise, and apparently has some real issues trying to autofocus in low-light. Were it not for Howard Creech's appraisal in Epinions, I would have an S-7000 and probably be pretty pissed off. (2) Purple fringing.....stated by so many as being Chromatic Aberration, is most likely due to CCD Blooming. I believe this is CCD Blooming due to overloaded pixel elements dumping onto adjacent pixel elements and you get purple fringe. I have seen night shots of city waterfront areas, and on "auto" there is significant fringing, but in "aperture priority", with a small aperture the purple is very slight. Makes sense......less light entering the lens equals fewer CCD pixel elements overloaded. Also, I recently began using a circular polarizing filter, and this really helps control situations where harsh glare would induce "the fringe". The Carl Zeiss T* lens, while not an "apochromatic lens", has extremely high optical qualities. If there is some chromatic aberration to blame for the purple fringe, the F828 has nearly every other digital camera as company in that department! I really like this camera, and I feel quite strongly it was the best $919.00 I have ever spent. Sure there are better digital cameras out there, but the F828 offers alot of options for a wide variety of photography situations.
Rating:
Summary: Too much money for too little
Review: While 8MP sounds great, this camera has too many problems to make it competitive with other cameras in this price range. For $999, you can get the 6.3MP Canon Digital Rebel which has far superior image quality and considerably less noise per picture, AND is compatible with all of Canon's EF lenses. I recomend looking at sites such as dpreview.com and look at the test images generated. For a slight reduction in picture size, you can get vastly better quality with the similarly priced Canon and Nikon Digital SLR cameras. And get more features to boot.
Rating:
Summary: I love it so far!
Review: I owned the F717 for a year and then I upgraded to the F828. I have had the F828 for 4 months now and I have taken some very good shots with it. I love the new settings for color. You can have the camera display the "real" color or there is another setting that slightly saturates your images. This is called "standard" mode. I found I was always saturating my F717 shots via Photoshop so this is a welcome feature for me. Sony's new 4 color processing gives you more realistic color. I have compared may shots from my F717 an I like the color better on the F828. For the first time Sony has included another pic storage option besides their incredibly expensive memory sticks. You can now use compact flash cards. They are about half the price of memory sticks so you won't have to sell your car to get 1 megabyte of storage. You can use Memory stick and Compact flash together. There is a switch to go back and forth between the 2. This means you can theoretically have 2 gigs of storage before you have to change a memory card. Another cool feature is smart zoom. The camera is capable of 8 megapixel photos. I use 5 megapixels generally. Smart zoom will let you add to the 7x zoom if you are not using the highest resolution. It does this automatically. Very cool. So the lower resolution you are using the more zoom you can use. I love the night framing mode. Normally it is impossible to see your subject in the view screen when you are taking pics at night. This camera has infrared so you can see a black and white outline of your subjects when taking pics in total darkness. This really helps frame your subject. The pic you take however come out in color and generally it is perfectly in focus! Then, when you push the shutter button, the camera emits a laser beam on your subject. It lets the camera know the exact distance your subject is from the camera. I have taken some great, in focus shots in total darkness! Before this technology, night pics were never in focus!!! I have read several reviews and slot of people find faults with the camera. I personally haven't run into anything bad yet. But, please note I am not a professional photographer. It's just a hobby for me. I think this camera is perfect for newbies because the auto mode works very well!!!! Dave Morehead
trumpet/arranging/composing
DaveMorehead.com
Rating:
Summary: Best camera I've ever owned
Review: After all the buzz about purple fringe on this camera, I was a bit concerned as I began taking pictures with my Sony DSC-F828 in early January of '04. Now it's Mid-March, I've taken it a third of the way around the world and shot close to a thousand photos with it, and precisely ONE had even the tiniest purple fringe. What's more, the fringe ENHANCED that backlit photo. My personal theory is that Sony managed to improve the camera between the time the first review samples went out and when mine was built. On a recent trip lots of great and costly cameras were in heavy use by fellow travelers, including the new Canon Digital Rebel. So far as I could tell, none of those cameras got better pictures of that trip than the Sony, and most of them had to worry a lot more about dust and water, due to their interchangeable and add-on lenses. My one caution is that you can't use the 30 FPS movie mode with CompactFlash memory. That is only allowed with MemoryStickPro memory or a Hitachi CompactFlash hard disk. If that matters, get LOTS of memory, as even 15 FPS used over 100 MB in 5 minutes. One other suggestion: cover the rear LCD display with a clear plastic sheet (such as is sold to protect Palm and Pocket PC PDAs.) Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Know the Facts!!
Review: Before you buy this camera you should ask yourself one question. Is compositional freedom important to me? if the answer is no then get this camera. If it's yes then don't because of the following reasons. First of all if you look past sony advertising.. the only thing F828 lens shares with a true 200mm is the angle of view. It does NOT have the same DOF as a true 200mm lens..(you think just because u got an apperture of 2.0 that u will make portraits with beautiful bokeh?? think again.. you will not! A 50mm lens gives u good background blurr only at very close focus at which the features of ur subject will be distorted. It does NOT compress perspective like a true 200mm lens. Which mean u cannot stack those hills.. You cannot push ur subject closer to those gorgeous mountains. You cannot compress a crowded traffic filled scene and make it seem dramatic. At best it will do normal perspective where nothing is dramatic. It does NOT have the same magnification as a true 200mm lens! And if those good marketing folks were replaced by engineers there would no such thing as 'digital zoom'. Advice: if a salesman tells you "this has a 5X digital Zoom" .. please please please prove you are not stupid by laughing in his face! Additionally at the wide end.. it's a 7mm lens.. come on?? you don't expect distortion? go to www.dpreview.com and see for yourself! Normal people call it 'Rule of thumb', engineers call it the 'The Bayer Imperitive'. Smaller the pixel size higher the noise. Pixels don't get any smaller than in the SONY. Nevermind that magic fourth color, the sensor produces unacceptable noise at all ISO's above 200. source: www.dpreview.com What about the purple fringing?? I hope Carl Ziess bought sony dinner first! Don't belive me? go see www.dpreview.com. Before u commit to settling for the chromatic aberations resulting in the purple fringes, keep in mind that there is no filter in the world that will cure this completely because filters can only mask problems they can't alter lense geometry. If you are serious about photography and money is tight.. get an entry level DSLR from canon or Nikon. Conclusion: If I were to make a sony F828 out of my EOS 300D I would have to do the following: perminently superglue a fast 50 lens to the camera. (then slow it down because they are usually f1.8). Take a shot and crop the edges away in photoshop till I get about a 200mm field of view.(offcourse the sony does the exact same thing except the crop is much higher res because it is done by the senor that is way smaller than the image made but the lens). If my explaination is unclear then consier this.. take a 35mm film plate, take a pair of sissors and clip away the edges and make the film area about 25% of it's original size. Then make the film 4 times more dense. Then give the film a name like 'miracle film' that makes any lens 4 times more powerful. Then ask your self one question.. Will I buy this film if it were sold to me? Sony lens is 7-51mm.. sony marketing says 35-200mm (35mm equallent) Please see past the marketing.. demand to know the facts. Ask then to define equallent. Lastly, it uses an EVF: let's try an experiment.. I'll come to ur house and replace all the mirrors with tiny TV screens. It's a great idea becaue u can then see urself even in the dark. If you think you will like that.. they you will like the EVF idea too.. come on damnit! it's a 1000$ camera.. If you are an SLR user and are thinking about buying a sony F828.. your decision is simple.. don't. If u are a newbee and this is ur first camera.. then buy it.. it's got killer features and u will make beautiful pictures never knowing what ur missing.
got more question? don't agree? vik_wvu@hotmail.com
Rating:
Summary: A Very Sharp Camera
Review: I bought this camera Jan. 31, 2004 and I loved it the minute I took it out of the box. I took about 600 pictures and was very pleased with the out come. I started reading about the purple and noise problem, I then started doughting the camera. I used Adobe 2.0 to enhance the photos, they were breath taking. I had some noise, very little & Purple, very faint. I still was not happy because everyone else was giving this camera a poor review. I sent some pictures to the Sony Image station to have some 4x6's printed. The decision to return the camera had to be made with in 14 days or it would be mind after that. On the 13th day I took the Sony Camera back to the store. I ordered the Canon 10D, it arrived 3 days later. I ordered a Canon 24mm-85mm lens. The pictures arrived from the Sony Image Station, the pictures were awsome, couldn't believe my eyes. The pictures had great detail and sharpness to them. I wish I would have kept the Sony Camera instead. The Canon pictures are not sharp at all, I was really shocked and disappointed. The Canon 10D has a Idiosyncratic metering problem. I spent close to $2000 on the Canon with lens. I gave the Canon about 12 days trying different things and contacting Canon, with no prevail. After finding out about the Metering problem on the 23rd of Feb. I took it back and PURCHASED THE SONY DSC-F828 AGAIN. The images are super sharp compared to the Canon. The sony had a little more noise than the Canon but didn't show up in the pictures I had printed. Also the purple was in the Canon images also. Anybody that ask me I will tell them to try out the SONY and forget about the hype, you know the purple/noise band wagon. Go to this web site and read what a professional has to say about the SONY.
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