Cons: Aperture priority is limited, very proprietary, no continuous mode and only one focus zone.
The Bottom Line: I had spent months searching for the best fixed lens digital camera under $1000 and found it on accident! This is the best Image Quality!
El_Terrible's Full Review: Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-F707 Digital Camera
I would like to start off by informing you, you're about to read one of the most well balanced reviews you'll ever read. The first question you'll probably ask is, "why is he recommending this camera?" However, if you just hang on till the end you'll understand why.
First, let me say I was not looking to buy another digital camera when I bought the F707; I was reading digital photography forums and happened to find a post on price matching at sears. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up trying the price match (using digitaldealz.com
s price + shipping) and sears matched it... The total came to $622.00 and I was all too happy to pay. Now lets move on to the camera specifics.
Optics and Ergonomics
The first thing most people notice is the lens, it sticks out like Carl Malden's nose (almost 2x the size of the body); take heart though as there is good reason for this (unlike many of your coworkers). The lens boasts a true six stage iris capable of 2.0 apertures at full wide angle and 2.4 at full telephoto. Zoom range is from 38 mm - 190 mm and is completely fixed (it will not extend or retract). The lens barrel uses a standard 58mm thread and can have filters attached right to the camera without any need for an adapter.
There are only two issues I have with the lens itself... The first stems from the fact that it only has one point of focus and the second is the lack of a continuous focusing mode; although those digital professional/consumer cameras that have these features are known for having more serious issues with focusing (the two most notable are the Nikon CP5700 and the Canon G2). It is entirely possible that Sony realized there were issues implementing these features in digital cameras and decided to drop them all together or Sony was looking for the easiest way to cut corners that users might not notice.
The lens itself sits heavily to the left of the very small body and requires a somewhat awkward grip to use the zoom controls fluidly. There is also a small amount of barrel distortion at full wide angle and a small amount of pincushion distortion at full telephoto. These are the main points, both good and bad, of highlight concerning the lens.
An interesting note about the lens... To find a Carl Zeiss designed lens with a 38mm -190mm zoom (close to 35mm - 200mm), AF, true 6 blade iris and a 2.0 aperture for an SLR could cost you close to $2000 (no that is not a typo, the closest I've found was a Contax 45mm - 90mm w/AF and a 3.5 Max Aperture for $2200). No other digital camera on the market today has a lens this good! You would have to buy the Contax N Digital with Carl Zeiss lenses to beat it and that would run you close to $6000.
Speed and Control
Shutter speed and image processing are the two areas that will affect the speed of the camera the most.
With the F707 the shutter speed ranges from 30" - 1/1000 of a second. This puts the camera on par with the G2 but well behind many of its competitors (CP5000/CP5700 (1/4000), S620Z (1/10000), Dimage 7i (1/2000)). However, when it comes to shutter lag it is on par or better then all but the Fuji S602Z (this is exceptionally fast).
Control isn't really that limited for everyday use but the camera lacks some cosmetic controls. With SONY'S poor understanding of what red really looks like you'd think a saturation control would have been included in the camera. Furthermore, taking pictures and having to use the menu and control switch to change built in scene types (portrait, landscape & twilight) makes it less on the fly flexible then some of its competitors. Even more against this is the awkward layout often requiring you to switch between looking at the buttons and EVF / LCD, this also slows you down when trying to capture pictures quickly.
Flaws By Design
In designing the F707 Sony went out of their way to boost accessory sales even to the point of abusing their customers.
The Flash Shoe is the first place you'll notice this trend. The shoe wasn't designed by ISO standards and isn't even powered; this made purchasing a proprietary Sony flash your only option as it uses a cable to get it's signal (the ISO sockets have the ability to send signals to a speedlight built-in). However, since the camera has been released Promaster has released the 5550 (close to the Canon 420EX equivalent but only $159.99 / includes adapter) and 5750 (Canon 550EX equivalent but only $199.99 / includes adapter) speedlights with adapters for the F707.
The second place this happens is with the built-in flash. When Sony decided to place this on the lens instead of the camera body they basically took away one of the biggest reasons to have a swiveling lens, being able to bounce the internal flash. Basically now you get to spend another $130.00 for this feature when the cameras design was more then capable. The pros of the location are you can turn the camera sideways and take pictures without blocking any of the flash.
The third, and somewhat less of an issue, is the proprietary battery. Basically this is a camcorder battery and will cost you a tidy sum for a spare. This wouldn't be so bad if they followed the NIKON approach and made the slot compatible with an off the shelf battery. The good side of this, it isn't uncommon to have a battery last more then the entire days shooting.
Fourth, and still not the final issue, is the use
of Sony memory sticks for image storage. This technology isn't a standard and falls way behind the current market leader (compact flash) in capacity (Sony recently released it to the standards board and has allowed Sandisk and Lexar to use the technology). Overall it performs as well as a 12x Lexar CF card of equal size and never seems to get very hot.
The fifth and final issue that I have with the F707 is the lack of an optical viewfinder. This is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that you can actually zoom in and focus with the EVF (the main competitors that use optical pretty much dumb it down). The curse on the other hand is the fact that you can't always find the small detail you wanted to catch in the picture.
Special Features or Excessive Garbage
Sony has bundled several features that are very good and one that is impractical.
The color variants are very good and will at least save you money on a sepia filter or time on post processing; overall they're pretty typical of what you'll see in other cameras.
Two of the most talked about features are the "Night Framing" and the "Night Shot". They're both interesting but not always practical.
The Night Shot feature was first seen in Sony's line of camcorders; it basically uses Infra-Red light to allow photography without any real light. The pictures are devoid of any real color and are basically a tinted green hue. In short this feature isn't very practical.
Night Framing is somewhat unpractical for a camcorder but is a very realistic idea for a camera. With this mode the camera will use the Night Shot feature to get a nearly perfect focus and then switch to normal mode with a flash to capture the pictures in full color. Overall this is a very good idea and really adds to the cameras lowlight ability.
Hologram IR Focus Assist is one of the most notable and well implemented features of this camera. Basically in low light situations a red cross pattern shoots off the lens illuminating your point of focus; the camera is capable of locking on to this pattern for a reasonably good flash shot (often better then the G2 can do in light). A similar feature was implemented in the G2 but, Canon took a camera that couldn't focus on low contrast objects and added a low contrast light; does anyone else see where Sony did a better job here?
Inventing a New Rainbow
If Sony has one issue they never seem to get beyond it is over saturated color and the F707 is no exception to this fact.
Basically the reds look too red (no worse then the Canon G2) and the greens look too green. All of these can be corrected with post processing. A quick color and contrast adjustment and the pictures are truly stunning.
Come in to the Light
The flash on the F707 is actually very powerful and can be adjusted both up and down. I personally haven't found any place the flash won't work but I'm sure in large halls there will be some falloff. Overall it performs better then all the other built-in flashes.
Imagine That!
Image quality is the one area in which the F707 is tough to beat. Even with the minor distortion and color problems the camera doesn't have anything resembling competition until you start looking at Digital SLRs and even then the only cameras that clearly beats the F707 are the Fuji S2 Pro and the Nikon D100 and those are nearly 3x the price of the Sony. If you think that I'm exaggerating search pbase.com for the D60, S2, F707 and the 1D and you'll see for yourself.
The Bottom Line
The F707 has quite a few design flaws and some of Sony's arrogance built right in. However, the bottom line is always going to be image quality and this is where the camera excels. In fact the output from the camera was so good I ended up keeping the camera in spite of all the other issues.
Conclusion
If you want the best camera in the prosumer range and you're willing to tolerate its flaws, then you should go for it! If you want to stand against Sony's business practices at all costs, then don't even pick the thing up or you may find you can't resist it!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 622.00 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
The new HVL-RLA ring light from Sony allows you to consistently capture impeccably lit macro photography everytime. Just attach the light to your comp...More at eBay
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