The Sony DSC-F717 Cyber-shot Digital Camera is one of their Best!
Written: Oct 24 '02 (Updated Aug 30 '03)
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Pros: Excellent photo quality with a lot of features!
Cons: I didn't care for the pop up flash and their battery.
The Bottom Line: This is a nice camera made for anyone to use from the amateur to the professional!
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| surferdude7's Full Review: Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-F717 Digital Camera |
The Sony DSC-F717 Cyber-shot Digital Camera gives you a 5.02-megapixel effective CCD image sensor (5.24 megapixels gross) that will give you a superb large 2560 x 1920 resolution digital photos. To give you the superb quality in photography they use a Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar 5X optical zoom lens with a F2.0 aperture for clarity, crispness and color of your digital photos.
The camera offers you still photos in the JPEG & TIFF formats and MPEG for movies, plus GIF.
The DSC-F717 uses a Memory Stick that seems to be exclusive for Sony products, a 32MB Memory Stick is included. It also comes with a InfoLithium (NP-FM50 7.2v) battery, an AC adapter/in-camera charger, an A/V output cable, a USB cable, a shoulder strap and a lens cap.
~*~ The View ~*~
The Sony DSC-F717 has both an LCD viewer and an electronic viewfinder.
The electronic viewfinder is a High-resolution eyelevel TTL color viewfinder with a with a diopter adjustment knob. What is so nice with this viewfinder is you can view what you have taken a photo of just like the LCD screen.
The LCD is a 1.8 inch - 123,000 pixel color LCD monitor for taking your photos, movies, playback and all your camera adjustments.
~*~ The Lens ~*~
The lens will swivel from the body 50 degrees down and 90 degrees up. Because the lens is the balance point for the camera a tripod socket is mounted under the lens.
The lens is 5x optical all-glass Carl Zeiss F2-2.4 Vario-Sonar lens, equivalent to a 35mm lens of 38mm-190mm.
Auto focus range is 19.7 inches to infinity
Macro mode has a range of 0.8 to 19.7 inches
Aperture Range of f2-f/2.4 to f/8.0
Filter Threads is 58mm
The camera offers a 2x digital zoom to give you a total of 10x zoom.
~*~ The Flash ~*~
The flash pops up from the top of the lens automatically unless you have the flash mode disabled.
Flash modes are Auto, On, Off and Red-eye reduction.
Flash range is 11.6 inches - 14.7 feet when the ISO set to Auto.
The flash does a good job, it is the location of it on top of the lens popping up which I didn’t care for.
~*~ Video ~*~
You can take home movies in 320 x 240HQX, 320 x 240 and 160 x 120.
The 320 x 240HQX produces video at 15fps (frames per second) with audio and is limited only by the amount of memory you have.
All movies are saved in the MPEG format.
~*~ GIF Files ~*~
The DSC-F717 has a Clip Motion Mode to create your own GIF files. It lets you capture up to 10 images and then automatically merges them into an animated 160 x 120 GIF file.
This is pretty nice and easy to use, just remember to take all your clips on the same thing so it will look like there is movement in it.
~*~ Other Features ~*~
Image sizes of 2560x1920, 2048x1536, 1280x960, 640x480
Selectable ISO sensitivity of Auto, 100, 200, 400 and 800
TTL autofocus with a hologram laser AF assist
Program AE plus four Scene modes
Shutter speed priority of 30 seconds to 1/1000 of a second in 30 steps
Aperture priority of F2 to F8 in 13 steps
Manual exposure with EV indicator
In-camera sharpening of /- 1 or 2
NightShot and NightFrame exposure modes
Picture Effects of Negative Art, Solarize and Sepia
Multi-pattern, Center-weighted or Spot metering
Auto Exposure Bracketing /- 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0 steps
Three shot burst mode at 2fps (frames per second)
Five white balance presets
14-bit A/D conversion
3:2 image ratio for making the "perfect" 4x6 prints
Self-Timer of 10 seconds
A Voice Memo Mode to add narration to still images
Multi-Burst mode captures sixteen 320x240 @ 7.5/15/30fps
USB 2.0 connectivity for fast downloading to PC
A/V output for a TV connection to view your photos and movies.
Exif 2.2 compatible
~ ~ The Good! ~ ~
It takes excellent photos plus movies!
The Hot Shoe for being able to use different flash units!
The Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar 5X optical zoom lens!
The electronic viewfinder, Nice!
~ - ~ The Bad! ~ - ~
The Pop up flash on top of the lens!
Having to buy their specific batteries because the cost is much higher than standard type batteries!
The cost of $999 is high for most consumers!
~!~ The Cyber-shot DSC-F707! ~!~
The Sony Cyber DSC-F717 is the replacement for the DSC-F707, I will list the differences that I know. The bottom line is Sony has tweaked the DSC-F707 and replaced it with the DSC-F717. Basically they look almost identical!
ISO settings - on the Cyber-shot DSC-F707 it goes to the maximum of 400 and the DSC-F717 goes to 800.
Memory Stick - the DSC-F707 comes with a 16MB stick and the DSC-F717 comes with a 32 MB stick.
Other Flash Units – the DSC-F707 only allowed the Sony HVL-F1000 flash, the DSC-F717 uses it plus other 3rd party flash units.
Battery Life – using the same battery with the EVF or LCD, the DSC-F707 gives you about 150 minutes and the DSC-F717 gives you about 205 minutes.
More ergonomic - by better placement of the zoom control.
Colors – the DSC-F707 had a tendency to over saturate some greens and reds, the DSC-F717 gives you a truer color.
~*~ My Final Words! ~*~
My first thoughts were it looks big, bulky and heavy. Well it does weigh about a pound and a half, which is heavier than most digital cameras, but it doesn’t feel too heavy when holding it. Handling the camera was easier than I thought holding the body with my right hand made it easy to balance the camera with the left hand by holding around the lens. Then there is a manual focus ring on the lens when in the manual mode and when not in the manual mode the ring is used for zooming. Very easy and handy to use!
All photos taken had beautiful clarity and color that makes this camera something to have to buy! I used the camera mainly in the AF mode and it produced some really nice photos. In the manual mode I had to regenerate my brain since I use most cameras in the AF mode. There are plenty of settings and special effects when using the manual mode.
The movies are alright, if I want movies I would use a movie camera, this one is made for beautiful still digital photos.
The DSC-F717 is very impressive with performance and quality. With the Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens image quality is crisp, clear and colorful like a photo should be.
One thing I didn’t care for is the pop up flash over the lens but they did include a “Hot Shoe” made for the Sony HVL-F1000 flash plus you can use other 3rd party flash units.
Another thing that I don’t like is you have to use their specific battery. (NP-FM50 7.2v InfoLITHIUM) I prefer a camera that uses AA or AAA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries that can be found in most stores at a reasonable price.
One thing that I did notice is since the lens is in a fixed extend look on the camera, it took only a couple of seconds when you turned it on to using it. Most cameras when you turn them on have the lens extending out making their ready to shoot time from 5 to 10 seconds depending on what camera you have. Plus the lens being able to move up and down from the body is really nice.
Overall even with the pop up flash and the InfoLITHIUM battery, it is still an exceptional digital camera. This camera is made for the professional and the person just wanting to point and shoot.
Sony has done their homework, I highly Recommend the Sony DSC-F717 Cyber-shot Digital Camera.
Thank you for reading my review!
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Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 849
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Solid Enough for a Professional
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surferdude7
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