Small, yet does what others cannot!
Written: Apr 14 '05 (Updated Jul 23 '05)
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Pros: SWIVEL LENS, superb close-ups, VGA clips, great ergonomics
Cons: Price, image quality (but no worse than any other compact)
The Bottom Line: A unique compact camera that takes shots that no others can. Highly recommended, especially for social photographers.
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| jeannebucks's Full Review: Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-F88 Digital Camera |
I was puzzled that there weren't more reviews for this camera, which usually means a lot of people haven't bought it. Perhaps it's because it tends to be more expensive than other compact 5 MP cameras, that it gets overlooked. And maybe the fact it uses Sony's memory stick as opposed to other more common and cheaper memory card types further discourages people. But this unique camera has capabilities that all others lack which kept it at the top of my wish list for a compact camera until I could afford to get one. And now that I have it, I just have to write about it.
Standard Features
The standard stuff first: Its compact design and light weight means that this camera is meant to be taken anywhere and and to take pictures without a lot of fuss. So it has the standard features that you might expect - 3x optical zoom, 5 Megapixel sensor, auto point-and-shoot mode. It also has a scene mode where there are some fixed camera settings ideal for shooting fireworks, people, snow, candlelight, beach, sports, etc. depending on your selection. There is also a decent amount of manual control (more on that later).
Special Features
But let's get to what makes this camera different (and in my opinion far superior) to most compact cameras out there.
First of all, it is the ONLY (to my knowledge) compact camera where the lens can rotate relative to the display/body, to allow an unmatched flexibility in shooting. This is due to Sony's unique lens which can rotate a full 270 degrees to the body, and allows for all sorts of possibilities:
Examples:
a) Rotate it the full 270 degrees and the lens and display are both facing you, for a self-portrait or a self-group shot.
b) Put the camera on the ground, and rotate the lens so that it's pointing slightly upward. This lets you get complete shots of scenery, especially buildings from bottom to top, that would otherwise be difficult to take.
c) Hold the camera horizontally in your hand (say at waist level), so that when you look down, you can see the LCD display on the back. Rotate lens so that it faces outward, and you can get great inconspicuous shots of people. This is great for social occasions where you don't want to be looking like a member of the paparazzi.
d) If you need a tripod to keep the camera still, in many cases you can find something to rest the camera on. Then
rotate the lens until what you want to shoot is in view. This is a lot easier than adjusting a tripod, or worse, having no tripod, searching for something that you can rest the camera on, only to realize that the camera's lens isn't pointing at what you want to shoot since the lens can't rotate! Since compact cameras tend to be light, it can often be hard to keep them still in your hand, so it shouldn't be underestimated the importance of being able to do tripod-like shots.
I'm really going on about the rotating lens feature, but its seems such an injustice to this ingenious design to say that it rotates and leave it at that. Now that I'm used to it, I simply HATE using cameras with fixed lens/body angles, and being forced to hold them near my face every time I want to take a shot!
The rotating lens also doubles as an on/off switch - you rotate it down toward the camera body to turn it off and protect it, and rotate it up and the camera switches on - excellent ergonomics!
Sure there are cameras that have a flip-out-and twist LCD display which also lets you orient the camera at a different angle than the display, but these are much bulkier cameras. And I think these are clumsier to use, even though they offer somewhat more flexibility.
Enough about the lens - the other key feature is that you may (or may not) find useful is it's "magnification mode" which lets you take a picture from an unreal 1 cm from your subject (though the lens is NOT zoomed). While not unique, it's a rare feature among cameras, where the standard for a good macro shooting distance is 5cm.
Anyway, you can take outstanding close-ups. As I'm trying to get my mother interested in digital/computers, the best way is to show her killer digital close-ups of her garden plants, flowers and bugs. Okay, enough of my personal life; you may have your own reasons for wanting close-ups and it's hard to beat this camera in this regard.
Other Features
A key requirement for taking good people shots and social occasions (which such a portable camera encourages), is that it needs to shoot quickly and recharge the flash quickly. The F88 is pretty good in this area - focus time is a fraction of a second, and the flash recharges in a couple of seconds. It also has a burst mode which lets you take about a shot per second. I don't have precise figures here, but it beats the heck out of my old Canon A40 which I (and nearly everyone on this forum) used to just love.
It lets you take VGA (640x480) quality movie clips, while many other cameras still limit you to 320x240. Another bonus, though I believe the frame rate is only 16 fps.
While mainly meant for point-and-shooting, the camera still has picture-taking modes that let you adjust exposure, white balance, sharpness, saturation, contrast. There is a manual mode that lets you set aperture (limited choices) and exposure. Also, while there is no manual focus, you can set the focusing distance to one of a few fixed values (.5m, 1, 3, 7 and infinity).
The user interface I would say is quite good. Being a compact camera, it only has dedicated buttons for setting flash mode, macro mode, timer, and for reviewing the last picture taken, which are the most common functions. It has a dial set the picture taking mode. You have to navigate menus for the rest of the settings which are associated with each mode. The on-screen display and menus look identical other Sonys that I've seen (i.e. F707, F828), so if you're used to Sony you'll instantly be familiar with how to use this camera. The camera I'm most familiar with is actually a Canon A40, and I had no problems finding out how to use the various settings on this camera without looking at the manual.
Finally, if it matters to you - well, it's a pretty sexy camera that will get you a lot of looks. Besides the standard silver, you can also get in red or purple if you really want to stand out.
All these key features add up to one killer compact camera.
Gripes
As with all cameras it has its compromises. I've heard that the images are not quite as sharp as other 5 MPix cameras; if you're willing to do some light sharpening in Photoshop, you can bring it up to the levels of others. But, it's really meant for capturing people, as opposed to detailed landscapes/architecture I suppose. (On the other hand, I think we should all try to get comfortable with Photoshop s/w or similar products; took me awhile to get up to speed on it, but now I almost use it like a word processor. This isn't supposed to be a review for Photoshop but now I really believe that it's a full 50% of the equation for getting the most out of your camera. OK, so Photoshop's not for everyone, but if you're the type to spend time nitpicking about certain technical features of your camera you should instead spend the time getting to know Photoshop and how it can improve images - things like wrong white balance, red-eye, exposure problems, even some of the noise problems can be all improved using Photoshop and its plug-ins. That's besides all the effects you can do. And each version that comes out gets more and more intuitive; so if you want to a better camera, use Photoshop!).
Another potential beef is the memory stick storage: you'll have to buy one (camera comes with a 32Meg stick which is only good for about 12 images at the fine quality setting), and it's going to cost you more than other more common formats like SD cards. However, as time goes on, even memory sticks aren't such a big deal; at the time of this writing, I could pick up a 512 meg stick (SanDisk branded) for $60 (US) which is much less than I paid for my original 128 Meg CF card a couple of years ago. The camera itself does cost more than other compacts; however, the price gap is narrowing, and I still paid much less than what my 2 Megapixel A40 cost me 2 and a half years ago. And did I say it comes with a rotating lens?
And of course a compact camera isn't going to have as clean images as a digital SLR or film, so under low-lighting conditions you will see noise, especially if you crank up the sensitivity (ISO). But that is true for all such cameras and I mention it because that's my only real beef about compact digital cameras in general - this industry keeps making cameras with more pixels but doesn't put much of a priority on making them cleaner. I guess it's their way of ensuring that some day I go and buy an SLR (like a Canon 350D or Nikon D70) in addition to my compact because right now that's the only way to get silky clean images under nearly all shooting conditions.
Update July 24/05
Now that I've had the camera for a few months, I thought that I would describe some of my specific experiences with the camera. Plus, I promised someone that I'd write this about 2 months ago (apologies for the massive delays, but I was I suppose busy doing my "research").
As for being an ideal social camera, well, I've discovered a couple of issues, but manageable if dealt with properly. If you're not using the flash (my preference) but the lighting is low, you will have trouble getting non-blurry shots because the camera is so lightweight the action of pressing the shutter can cause you to move it. So you can do a couple of things to improve this situation: a) place the camera on a fixed surface and swivel the lens so that what you want to shoot is in view. b) if that doesn't work and you have to keep it hand-held, use the self-timer so that the shutter actually goes off 10 seconds after you've pressed (and shaken) it. Please Sony, add the option to set the delay to 2 seconds, so I don't have to wait so long! c) you can crank up the sensitivity (ISO) up to 400 which will require a shorter shutter time (and hence produce less blur). The consequence of this is noisy photos; however, if you're so inclined, you can use the Noise Ninja plug-in for Photoshop to miraculously remove a significant amount of the noise. (it's simple to use, though it requires a relatively simple set-up step of creating a noise profile for the camera). I highly recommend you try it; it makes your camera dramatically better - you have to see it to believe it. But you might want to shoot closer to your subject than you normally would because you will lose some detail as part of the noise removal process.
The solution that Panasonic has adopted for light shaky compact cameras is to put an image stabilization system into the sensor, which means the sensor actually moves to compensate for your own camera shake, letting you take non-blurry pictures even with relatively large exposure times. This is a great thing and I hope that someday all cameras will have this. In the meantime, since Sony has actually discontinued the F88, you can settle for the old technology and get one for quite cheap (if you can find it). Or, if you can afford to wait, maybe Sony will someday come out with a sensor-stabilized camera that has a swivel lens. They better not abandon the swivel lens design, or they'll have to answer to me!
As I mentioned, the swivel lens is great for taking self-portraits or self-group shots, plus it's a lot of fun - everyone can see themselves on the display and make whatever face they feel they have to make. Rotate the lens 270 degrees so that both the lens and the LCD display are now facing you, pose, and shoot. I have wished, however, on more than a few occasions that I had longer arms because I haven't always succeeded in getting everyone into the shot. For people like me (I'm a little shorter than average at 5'7"), there is an optional wide-angle lens for the F88, which will alleviate the need for surgery.
The super macro ("magnification mode") feature of the F88 I've found to be really superb. Although I spend time shooting things that some may find a waste of time - like 1 cm close-ups of the weave in a tablecloth, or my friend's beard - the results never cease to amaze and amuse me. On a more practical side, my mother has been absolutely delighted with the pictures I've taken of the budding flowers and vegetables in her garden; especially when displayed at full-rez on a 20-inch monitor a flower bud is really something to see. In addition, when necessary, you can use the flash when taking close-ups and you won't end up with a washed out mess, but a properly exposed photo.
I have to admit that I'm not overly impressed with the video quality from this camera. Although it's 640x480 and much better than the 320x240 I used to have, the compression used is quite high, so the video I would say is not TV quality. Not bad for outdoor, sunny day stuff, though. If video is really important to you, you should shoot a sample before buying your camera. If you want to see the what is achievable, check out the video sample taken by the Canon Powershot S2 in this review: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/page6.asp. That is superb and has me drooling. Yes, admittedly, I'm always shopping around for a "more better" camera...
So overall, I'm still very happy with this camera after 3 months and amazed with what this little package can do. I have however found some areas for improvement, and as usual cameras keep improving, which I find simply miraculous.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 365
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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Epinions.com ID:
jeannebucks
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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