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Sony did not disappoint with this unit. I took a lot of pictures with this: candids, scenery, performances, panoramas, eBay, events and more. I always walked away with lots of good photos. The most distinctive and useful feature is the unique barrel lens that rotates up and down. This is great for candids. When you're looking down at the camera, you can point the lens forward or to the side and sneak pictures of camera-shy people. If you like to get down to a child's eyelevel, you don't have to kneel down to get the shot. If you like to photograph that dog or cat lying on the ground, or you're following it around, you can get great pictures at their level without so much exertion. I'm now using a Digital SLR with the tiny viewfinder that makes me do all of the bending down. How I miss that feature. You can also hold the camera above your head and shoot over the heads of people. For landscape shots, it has a very generous exposure time so that you can get great sunset and night time shots by holding the shutter open for a long period of time. The auto exposure mode was great for most shots but when I needed to adjust the shutter speed or aperture, I felt confident in its metering system to tell me that I was still getting a good picture. This camera was used to photograph a performance because the professional photographer who was supposed to to do the shoot could not locate a muffler for the shutter noise in time. There is no noise with this camera. The main problem was its defective sensor. I'm glad Sony is covering its repair as well as shipping. The other problem was the low-light focusing system. It puts out a red light when the lighting is poor so that its focusing system could focus on something. For a performance, you would not want to put red light on the performers. It would be better if it could have put out light in the invisible spectrum so that it could focus without being a distraction. Otherwise, it's a great camera to learn with and advance.Read full review
There are at least hundreds of new digital cameras of all types on the market right now, with every possible bell & whistle among them, not to mention megapixels galore. So why did I buy an older Sony F717 when I already have an Olympus E-410 dSLR? One word: infrared. The F717 was a fairly high-end camera at its introduction, with a Carl Zeiss lens, multiple shooting modes, the ability to save images in either JPEG or TIFF format, and a unique body style that lets you work from pretty much any angle. And 5 megapixels was nothing to sneeze at. By today's standards, though, it's entry level, and many cameras have excellent optics and movable screens to allow shooting at odd angles. It's the infrared, or IR, that makes this camera still stand out. In Nightshot mode, the camera flips an internal filter out of the way and the camera's sensor records light in the near-infrared range (approximately 750-900nm), which the human eye can't detect. It also uses a pair of small infrared sources around the outer edge of the lens to provide infrared illumination to focus and take pictures in total darkness. Handy for taking pictures when you're literally in the dark, but not what I was after. Landscape images taken in infrared have an otherworldly quality. In black & white IR, the blue sky goes nearly black, and the green of the trees, shrubs, and grass becomes white. A tropical scene can become a wintry wonderland. You can spend a lot on an IR-capable SLR or to convert a normal one. If you just want to check out IR, the F717 is a great starting place at a very reasonable secondhand price. Normal color pictures show that the Carl Zeiss lens is indeed good, and the adjustable angle of the lens comes in handy. Autofocus is fairly snappy, and the zoom can be managed with the typical rocker or using the ring on the outer end of the lens. In JPEG mode, images write to the proprietary Sony Memorystick quickly. However, TIFFs move painfully slowly: 30-40 seconds per image. Naturally, they also fill up the 'stick in a hurry, given their much larger uncompressed size. Sony 'crippled' the NIghtshot mode somewhat after it hit the press that some people were using Sony's IR still & video cameras to shoot pictures through people's clothing. That's right, some fabrics are nearly transparent to IR; so are most sunglasses. Iin Nightshot mode, the aperture is locked at its largest size and the shutter works no faster than 1/60th of a second. In the dark, this won't be a problem. For daylight landscape images, this makes it nearly impossible to get an image that isn't heavily overexposed. The solution: stack a good IR filter (try the Hoya R72) and a neutral density filter to block out most of the light. I use an ND8, but you can stack multiple filters of lower density. The lens takes 58mm filters; I strongly recommend 67mm filters and an adapter ring to avoid vignetting. The image you see in the electronic viewfinder or on the LCD is coming straight from the sensor, so you're seeing the IR image that will be recorded. The images come out green, so you'll want to postprocess with Adobe Photoshop or another photo editor. Whether you convert the image to BW or to a toned image, the results can be both beautiful and eerie. Downsides: This camera's JPEG artifacts are very heavy in IR images. If you print very large, this can be a problem. Writing TIFFs takes FOREVER but the landscape isn't running away. Just get a larger 'stick to hold those big files.Read full review
I've had this camera for several years - there are some 'better' cameras out there these days, but if you can pick up one of these for a good price, it might serve you well. Here are some random things about the camera: It can use the Sony memory stick *pro* (as opposed to the previous f707 model). The pro is faster, and can go to larger sized (non-pro is limited to 128Mb). The lens swivels from the body, which allows you to easily take pictures from interesting angles (high & low). The battery lasts about 2 hours, and tells you exactly how many minutes are left (that's the 'info' part of the 'info-lithium'). You can attach filters & extra lenses to the 58mm threads. The infra-red night-vision mode is pretty neat :) The macro mode works pretty well for extreme close-ups of insects, small items you're wanting to sell on ebay, etc. There are threads on the bottom to mount it on a tripod (or monopod). You can buy a wired remote to plug into the 'acc' hole, to control the zoom, on/off, and snap pictures (this works really wall in combination with a tripod). It has a 'hot shoe' and you can attach an external flash. There are many/many settings & adjustments you can make, or you can use one of several 'auto' modes. The camera takes pretty good pictures in low-light, with no flash (such as concerts) - here are some examples I took of a local performer: http://robslink.com/slideshows/JaclynTurner/index.html Limitations: It only goes up to 5 megapixels (but unless you're making large prints, you don't really need more than 5). It can't take rapid pictures one after another, like some of the new cameras with large built-in memory "buffers". The lcd screen is a bit small, compared to the latest cameras (but that helps save battery life). There was a manufacturing defect on the CCD - you could get it repaired for free before Oct 2007 -- if your camera didn't get fixed before then, your CCD could fail in warm/humid environment (your mileage may vary). Mine did fail (when shooting an outdoor car show on a hot/humid day), and they fixed it for free (before the deadline). ----- August 2008 Update: I'm still using this camera, and it's still working well.Read full review
For taking pictures I really like the F707 & F717 Sony DSC camera's. I purchased my first 707 at a closeout price at one of the big box stores. I enjoyed the ease of use, easy controls, close to where your finger was holding the camera and the joystick is so easy to use. I have purchased 2 others since, both on eBay. Once came as almost new with lots of extra attachments. The 2nd one I was lied to about how it worked. The 707s after having a long life with being used and picked up everyday start losing contact with the memory stick and it just got worse instead of better. I have not been able to find anyone except sony to work on them and when you get their bill, you may as well have bought a new one. I purchased a 717 and have been very happy with it. The same Carl Zeiss lens and uses all the same attachments as my 707s. I just bought a 2nd one for my employee to use. These work great for everyday use in my eBay business. I have used it from time to time for more high res pictures and it works great for that also. I did try the 828 which is the newest in this line of camera's. They changed the controls and I do not like it at all! I sold both of them and went with a 717. I am going to buy several of these so I will have them for years to come.Read full review
I like the options of changing the picture in different light conditions. the Controls are ergonomicly positioned for quick access. I take a lot of scenic photos and the pictures always come out clear and crisp. I don't use the night shots often but it does well in taking pictures, even in extremely dim light. I only give the camera good because the megapixel is its downside with pixel sizes keep going up and cheaper.
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