Sony DSC-F707

[drdan]

I have had the Sony 717 since last summer. I've taken about 6500 pictures with it since July and reallly, really like it. It does have some flaws as some reviews have beat to death.

It is a light comfortable camera that fits and balances perfectly in my hand and I can easily change zoom and exposure by feel without ever moving my eye from the viewfinder. It is pretty easy to get amazingly clear, beautiful photos with the auto settings and has a lot of capability for manual or semi-manual settings. For night shots I really like the shutter priority mode in which I can set shutter speed and let the auto exposure controls work around that. I can take 3-4 pictures at 20 different shutter speeds in 10 minutes or so and almost always end up with at least a few usuable pics.

BIGGEST PRO: Very fast autofocus and write time. I can take pictures almost as fast as I can center the picture and press the shuter release. This is a much more important feature than I thought and a tremendous help taking action and grandkid shots.

BIGGEST CON: Neither the electronic viewfinder or the LCD screen give me enough detail to get much use out of the otherwise excellent manual focus. Some of that is my "over 40 eyes" and it's more usuable with reading glasses but still I usually don't bother. Some people probably can use it fine. The auto focus is usually good and by taking a lot of pics with the auto focus spot in slightly different places you can usually end up with what you want.

As some reviews have said it does give some photos that are too "cool" looking. I have found that adding a tiny amount of red and yellow in editing mostly overcomes that and the pictures are very attractive despite that minor flaw.

This camera is selling for $595 at a very reputable online store currently and even with the 828 out it is well worth considering.

 

[drdan]

Most of the 717 pics are not really very cool looking, just under certain conditions.