Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F828

After my experience of sony products... video cameras that have broken down after a couple of years, and the above mentioned cameras i have now decided to never buy a sony product again despite always being under the influence that sony was the best.

An excellent camera from a great brand that takes superb portrait pictures and video clips at 30fps are also good. This is the best looking camera I have had and is more than sufficient for taking all types of pictures in all kinds of weather.

As an introduction to SLR camera's, the Sony CyberShot DSC-F828 digital camera is the best! It is a bit expensive and a little heavy, but it has low shutter delay, so there is a minimal time delay when taking shots.

Battery life is very good indeed, and despite LCD screens being power hungry, the batteries just go on and on. It also has a Sony memory slot and a Compact Flash slot, but Sony accessories are not cheap, ie. memory cards, lenses and batteries.

I have had my DSC-F828 for almost 2 months and I am dead pleased I bought it. I initially wanted to purchase the Canon D300 DSLR but you have to factor in the cost of 2 lenses. Should the 2 lenses have a maximum aperture of 2.0-2.3 (as the 828 has), the total package will cost almost as much as a small car.

Also, when travelling, I would rather have a camera which does not weigh a ton and take up all the space in my bag. The 828 is not big or heavy when compared to DSLR and 2 equivalent lenses.

It is so convenient having a camera with the equivalent lens of 28 - 200mm.

This camera has received some bad reviews which you should not pay so much attention to. Instead go down the shops and try it out for yourself. This is one GOOD camera!!!

There is a lot of image noise with the SONY DSC-F828 Digital Camera. When I view an image with grays at high mag there are lots of colored pixels - even at ISO 64. Higher ISO's have really ugly noise. I've heard it is because they crammed 8M pixels onto a small CCD chip. My Olympus D40 and C2020Z were much better for noise. Also those cameras seemed to have very great depth of field for a given focal length and aperture - so much so that I wondered if this was a quality to expect of all digital cameras - perhaps because of the shorter focal length of the lens. This Sony has turned that idea on it's head because there is so little depth of field even at f/8 and wide angle. And with such a beautiful lens why is the minimum aperture f/8?? But here is what really gets me. There are three auto focus modes. In one of these there is a small spot ( a frame in the finder ) that can be steered anywhere in the frame to indicate the area of focus interest. Yesterday I was set up in the forest with a tripod to photograph a trilium flower. I carefully bracketed the center of the flower with the focus spot and used a remote release to take the picture - being careful to wait for calm air, aperture was f/8. It looked okay on the little screen but on the computer the flower was fuzzy and the leaf just behind it was in focus. What's up with this??!!! Also the very expensive wired remote has several functions for use on camcorders but the only thing that works with this model is shutter release and power on/off - yet Sony sells it as an accessory for the 828. I also bought an expensive Sony closeup lens sold the same way, on the web site as an accessory for this camera. It was advertised to provide greater working distance for macro shots. The 828 does macros to 13/16" in wide angle but can only get to 23" at max tele. Well with this expnseive closeup lens the maximum distance from the subject in tele mode is about 12" - what about the range between 12" and 23". Well I guess you cover that by changing focal lengths with the zoom to get what you want. Hum bug. On the other hand while out in the woods I tripped while jumping a gully and involuntarily threw the camera about 12 feet to a dirty landing. It must have missed all the rocks because it was a bit dusty but was unmarked and works fine.