Customer Reviews

Sony DSC-F828 8MP Digital Camera with 7x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I have seen the reports of purple fringing and noise. Here is what I've found. At high ISO settings (above 200) there is alot of noise (big suprise). I usally use the program mode and keep the ISO at 64 and my photos look great.

I have not had the problem with purple fringing. I have tried and tried but I can't reproduce the problem.

Is it as good as a $3,000.00 digital SLR? No, even though that's what it is constantly compaired to. The digital SLR that comes close in price is the EOS Digital Rebel. But by the time you buy a couple of lenses you are in the $1,500.00 range, that's 50% more and no you can't take a short video with the EOS. And the DSC-F828 color reproduction is better than the Canon.

Is it better that other cameras in it's class? YES! I had a Fuji S7000 and had to return it, the photo quality and focusing problems were horrible. If you want to see purple fringing and noise look at a Fuji S7000 photo!

The DSC-F828 takes crisp clear photos under all lighting conditions. It's Auto-focus is super fast and accurate. The camera body is solid. The lens has great range and the macro works great. The camera is EASY to use. You can use the infrared setting to take pictures in the dark without flash (yes they have noise) Or you can use the night framing to take a normal flash photo in the dark and they look great.

Why 4 stars and not 5? The only drawback is that there is no black&white setting. I like to see what a photo is going to look like in black & white when I'm shooting. And the tech support is weak. I emailed tech support to see if they are going to do a firmware update and suggested a b&w setting. I like to use an IR72 infrared filter. And they gave me a lame response. "We aren't going to add new chips to the camera." Tech support should know the difference between software and hardware.

If your going to freak out about a little noise or you want to blow-up a photo to a poster size you can use Neat Image to remove any noise, and it's free for non-commercial use.

The Sony F828 is an outstanding product for its price/quality/capability relationship. I have used all kinds of professional and semi-professional digital cameras over the years. Go ahead and compare it to a product 5 times its price and it will obviously come short. It does not replace a professional product, but for an ambitious amateur photographer and computer expert like me, who knows how to deal with the intricacies of a digital image, this is as good as it gets.

The camera is solid, easy to use, identical in operation to all Sonys and works like an normal SLR. The image quality is outstanding, when you know how to use it and where the limits of CCD capturing are. If you have to work a lot in very low light conditions there is no substitute for highly sensitive film material.

I flash everything and while the in-built flash is good, I would recommend to buy the HVL-F32X which is an excellent product and add-on. Learn to use the flash in every situation, even in bright sunlight to add clarity and to brighten the foreground against the background glare. I have used the flash for macro-photography and being able to shot with a hundred different camera and flash settings and then immediately check the outcome on my notebook is just incredible.

I have used the ability to shoot a series of 7 images and it is simply stunning. This is the first time I have seen this work really well in a digital non-pro camera. I series-shoot everything now, then just delete the rubbish. With the CF and Sony slot you can have up to 2GB of images, in highest resolution this is 500 pictures! You do need 50 shots for ONE great photo.

The zoom lens is excellent too and the camera is very pleasant and professional to hold. It has a great balance. The digital viewfinder as well as the LCD work perfectly. Color quality is typical Sony high-end quality and the color-tone is easily adjusted to your preference. One of the best features is the battery stamina (also typical Sony). With the standard battery I get 3 hours of continous use even when I use the flash.

Overall, this is the first camera that truly substitues my previous high-end SLR set.

After a long wait, this camera finally shipped before Christmas. The color is great, a high quality lens, the camera is fast, and EIGHT megapixels, well that's just AWESOME! The 7x optical is also plus. I pondered purchasing a Canon 10d until I read about Sony's 8mp f828 due out in November. Despite the delay (and it's already on back order again) it was definitely worth the wait. At $999.00 it is an incredible value. At this time, you can't get close to 8 megapixels at this price. The body has a nice feel and is comfortable to hold.

I planned on purchasing a digital SLR, but I did not want to get locked in to only 6mp just yet, when eight was around the "affordable" corner.

I was using a nikon 5700, but returned it - focus was painfully slow and lens started to make a grinding noise when zoomed out. It also had way too much noise. The lens was qualtiy great along with the zoom, but it didn't make up for the negative aspects of this camera.

The color on this camera is remarkable. As a graphic designer, I work with professional photos and Photoshop a great deal. We all know that Photoshop is a huge plus in the digital darkroom, but it DEFINITELY helps to start with sharp photos with a lot of pixels and great color.

For the non-professional to consider: often digital photos have too much noise and not enough pixel information - something even Photoshop currently can't do miracles with. I often hear consumers comment they don't need five, six or more pixels, because they won't be making such large prints these cameras offer. However, after a photo is cropped of unnecessary background, your image needs still needs a lot of pixels to enlarge that portion. That is a problem with 4mp and below. Five is acceptable, six really good. Eight -awesome! In the next two years we'll all want 11mp or more, but you currently have to shell out $8,000 just for the camera body!

There is also low noise with the f828, a problem with many other digital cameras. I absolutely love it! The color is so true to life. Beautiful! You can photograph fast-moving children and pets with wonderful results and get great indoor shots as well, an area the other cameras in this price range generally fall short. This camera truly sets a new standard, and considering it's very reasonable price tag, definitely worth it!!!

I have owned my 828 about a year now and I have been amazed at the bashing this camera has and still does take. Even to the point of 828 online clubs devoted to the pictures and defense of this amazing camera! And yes this camera is amazing. As I have stated in my other reviews I sell cameras for BestBuy as well as work as a professional photographer so I will give you the straight and narrow on this camera. Ready? The fringe thing-I have taken about 2000 pictures with my 828 and in only one of them was I able to reproduce the famed purple fringing effect, this was using a long shutter exsposure on a city street at night, 1999 other shots in as many situations and not a trace. I even tried pointing the camera directly at the lights in the the bestbuy store (you know what those look like!) and guess what? "Nada" I just got a great picture of the bestbuy ceiling. So the conclusion on fringe? Get over it, it is such a rare occurance that it hardly warrants concearn. Noise: here is where a tend to agree with most critics your pics will get mad noisy at the 800 ISO setting, but few digital cameras wont, hell even Canon's 20D starts losing luster at a 800 ISO setting and that camera will go all the way upto 3200!! So turn down the ISO and take your pictures or learn to use photoshop or something and fix them. I mean this is a DIGITAL camera right? The thing these bozos don't tell you is that removing ISO noise from an image is an extremely easy thing to do, again, get over it. Having addressed the two main gripes about the 828 what are you left with? Lets start with the four color CCD. I have said this before and I'm saying it now: The 828 has the best color of ANY digital camera out there today! If your into outdoor pics, close ups, night shots (turn that ISO down) your pictures and thier color will be amazing! By the way touching on low light pics and the 828, I do alot of long exsposure shots with the 828 and they are always top notch! Battery life on the 828 is an impressive 240-300 minutes on a full charge! (no kidding)The Lense- the biggest part of the camera and the biggest attraction if you like focusing your camera yourself (with a little digital help). The lense is a Ziess made with little to no barrel distortion (flower lense hood is included! BONUS!!) and quite versitile as far as the focal ranges it will cover, this also brings me to the cameras construction, this baby is heavy but damn! it sure feels good! The 828 is the 2nd largest in its class, so if your into pocket toys you best be looking at Casio or HP cameras (sorry that was mean) The 828 is really a SLR camera with a lense on it you can't take off. End of story. The body reminds me of my Sony F-707 wich I loved ( probably the best 5MP camera ever made) The tilting body is a Godsend for the pro and joe shmoe alike! The eye piece is among the best out there and id diopter adjustable, the LCD screen is a little small 1.8 inches but is extrememly clear and sharp so it works for me. The 828 like its little brother the V3 shoots on Memory stick as well as Compact flash type I & II, and unlike the V3 the 828 can use micro-drives (I have a 4 gig in mine) All the controls on the camera are well placed and easy to master even for the beginner. However I found i got slightly better pictures in the "P" mode than in full auto, but a novice should always start in the auto mode. The 828 boasts the same range of shutter speeds and apatures as the DSC-V3 (see my review) wich as I have said before I think is a sane selection of ranges! All your options are useable so play, play, play!! The scene modes are pretty run of the mill: Landscape, night shot, low light portrait, snow, tropical sun, and candle light. The white balancing features are pretty dead bang but watch out for the blues- I leave mine set to auto unless im shooting outside then I'm pretty safe. Sonys X-32 flash and this camera are a match made in heaven but thanks to the ACC port your old one will work too, but I can't stress enough the benefit of Sony's. Sony still has the on board crop feature. (other cameras do this but only Sony lets you determine the resolution of the cropped image!I have just barely touched on the features and capabilities of this camera ( I don't want to use up all of amazons web space) so let me leave you with these thoughts. Currently I own and run the following digital cameras: F-828, DSC-V3, Nikon 8700, and the Nikon 8800, all four of these are eceptionally high rated cameras, out of all the 828 remains my right hand camera. I will say in all honestly this is not an easy camera to use, It will make you think about your shots, make you work for them. This is NOT a point and shoot camera, it was never meant to be (people who love this camera will tell you this) So why all the bad press? Well, with this camera Sony made an awful lot of professionals toys run of the mill, this camera broke down alot of technology barriers (still does in fact)So alot of people went on the offensive looking for the fly in the ointment, wich can be found with any camera on the market today. So why the fuss? this is a genuine technology breakthru people, the real deal, and there ain't no going back. I apologize for the lack of technical data in this review I love this damn camera so much I tend to spend more time defending it than specing it out! But the proof is in the pictures so with that I'll rest my case. Because the strongest feature of the 828 is the most important one "the pictures are fantastic!!" If you want an easy to use camera, move on. If you like to fuss with things and tinker or play with your camera, have fun with your camera, create with your camera then add this puppy to your shopping cart. cause this is your beast.I have heard Sony is working on a successor to the 828 I can only hope it is half the camera! Bottom line... don't believe the hype or sour grapes folks this is the state-of-the art and has been for nearly 2 years. Thanks for reading, good luck in pictures!!

Ive been doing photography for nearly 10 years. It paid my bills at one point but now its more of an active hobby. Ive also given advice to many people as to what type of camera to buy. I have yet to have someone come back disappointed.
I prefer film to digital but digital is cheaper. I didnt want a DSLR ( didnt want to pay 2k for one ). So I started looking at the 8M batch. I did a lot of research and read reviews at just about every site. In the end I went with the sony and I havent been disappointed.


THE GOOD:
- The pictures are crisp, colors strong and the lens and focusing are fast.
- The 7x zoom range is versatile. The 28mm wide angle is especially welcome to us landscape photographers.
- The macro ( close up ) is jaw dropping. You can get close enough to get the texture on a dollar bill.
- The night framing function is amazing for taking pictures in little to no light at all.
- The scroll button and 'joystick' for menu functions are fabulous and the menus easy to navigate.
- The LCD and viewfinder and bright and clear.
- The manual zoom lens is a VERY welcome relief from nasty electronic zooms.
- The twistable camera body is fabulous if you need to shoot from waist level or at an angle above your head.
- The camera feels fabulous in the hands ( and looks darn sexy ).

All in all, the camera is wonderful for an experienced user. An amateur could benefit from learning on this camera as its very user friendly. The seasoned user will be right at home. The professional photographer might consider this a back up camera.


THE BAD:
- CA/Purple Fringe
- Noise above ISO 200

Yes, as youve heard these do exist. However, they can be prevented and or eliminated afterward.
The purple fringe usually happens with big apertures. The 828 has f2 so its going to happen more often. This however, has been blown out of proportion. The PF will very rarely be a serious issue. Stopping down your aperture can reduce it. If that isnt an option you can greatly reduce/eliminate it in post processing ( photoshop ).
The high noise at the upper iso's is a common problem in film as well as digital. Unless you are shooting 400+ you wont even notice it on a 4x6 print or on screen. Keep your iso low unless you need to capture something at high speed. There are also several wonderful post-processing programs that can reduce/eliminate the noise.
Dont believe the hype about these two problems. A little knowledge goes a long way.


FINAL THOUGHTS
An amazing camera that will produce amazing pictures and prints. Its very user friendly.
I cant stress enough: This is NOT a digital slr. Anyone getting this camera expecting it to be will be disappointed. For the rest of us, its a wonderful addition to your camera family.

I have been using this camera extensively for two weeks, although it belongs to a friend. I suppose that may make me more objective than someone who actually owns one, because I don't have to rationalize having made a $1000 investment. I wanted very much to like this camera, and there are certain things that I love about it. However, there is no way that I could use this as my primary camera.

First, the good. It is absolutely the coolest lens I have ever seen, particularly on a digital camera. The zoom covers almost any shooting situation I would need, from landscape, to portraits, to sports. The fact that you can zoom by turning a ring makes it far superior to the "fly by wire" zooms so common on digital cameras.

The user interface is great. It is far better than other digital cameras I have owned by Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Ricoh. I was able to use just about every cool feature without ever looking at the owner's manual. It is very intuitive. It is much easier to use than a Nikon film camera as well.

Mechanically, the camera is a gem. It feels about as rugged as my Nikon F5 (although it probably isn't.) It is incredibly solid.

It is also very fast, both in the time it takes to turn on and off, and also in terms of delay when you push the shutter. For all intents and purposes, there are no delays at all, except sometimes when writing an image to storage, but even that is faster than on most other cameras. It is just a very responsive camera.

Battery life is great. I never ran low, and only charged it occasionally.

The movie mode is great. Easy to use, and good quality images and sound. It wouldn't totally replace a video camera, but it would be fine for occasional use.

Now, the bad. All the negative things you may have read about purple fringing are true. It is not difficult to find a scene where this shows up in an unacceptable way.

The white balance is really off in many scenes I've photographed. Snow looks medium grey. I know that I could probably do better on this if I read the manual, or post processed in Photoshop, but it is disturbing that with the default settings, it records scenes so inaccurately.

It is not a great camera for available light. I was not able to handhold it for shots that could esily be done with my Olympus 5050. I think it is partly because of the aperature, and partly because it is an extremely long camera, where any movement is exaggerated.

In side by side comparisons, some of the images from my 5 megapixel Olympus are superior to the 8 megapixel Sony 828 images, in terms of color and sharpness.

Sony is really on to something here, and it is possible that some of these problems could be fixed in a future version. But I am not planning to buy one of these now.

The weird thing is that now the bar has been set very high for what I would want from a user interface and lens. So even if I found a camera with better image quality (which wouldn't be hard), it would not compare favorably to the Sony in other dimensions. This two week testing period makes me want to wait a while for Sony to fix the issues with the 828, or for other companies to catch up to Sony in terms of other features.

This is the end-all, be-all of cameras and when I saw it on Amazon for $454, I jumped on it and purchased other accessories.

I got the accessories, and an email saying my order for the camera had been cancelled. It turned out that the order was forwarded to USAPhotoNation, not Amazon. It wasn't a zShops order, it was Amazon's own internal order.

After looking more in depth, USAPhotoNation does this. Sells cheap, cancells, gets you to call, and they try to sell you overpriced accessories. Aparently there was some problem with part 2 and they just cancelled the order.

Amazon was not willing to work out a deal or compensation regarding the price they promised and for which they accepted money. I did get a full refund on the camera, but I still have the accessories which I wouldn't have purchased in a split order.

As for the camera itself, it has a great optical zoom, takes pictures in low-low light, supports compact flash as well as memory stick pro, has a manual focus ring, and otherwise does all of the things that all of the other sony DSCs do combined into one. It is a bit bulky, but it's well worth it if you're serious about photos.

There are some reports of purple streaks, but this is generally lense flair. A $30 filter kit will increase the crispness in odd lighting and will also protect your lense from dirt.

The camera is a bit bulky, but this is to be expected with a decent optical system. It's great for those of us with bigger hands as you can get a really good grip on it.

So, I highly recommend this camera, but I highly recommend against using Amazon to purchase it. Go to your local camera or electronics shop and pick one up there.

My wife and I have been shooting the Sony system for several years. We shoot professionally for a conference brochure print publication, inside shooting, no staged shots, using the artificial lighting in the hotel meeting rooms. We also do trade stock shots primarily of landscape scenes in Hawaii, so we push cameras pretty hard. The 707 was fun, but slow, almost unusable for brochure work, the 717 was a big improvement and the 828 is truly awesome. The colors are great, the operating system is fast, you will never lose a shot even with indoor sports, the shooting modes help you adapt to any situation. The 8 Mega Pixel (MP) means you can take a full body shot and if you find you need a head shot instead you have plenty of resolution. Sony has really worked on the layout of buttons and that is a major improvement, no more accidental white balance disasters. And the control modes wheel appears to be more robust ( I touched the 717 wheel with some suntan lotion on my hand and it removed all the painted modes ).

The 828 is my favorite digital and with 8 MP I can get the speed to print of digital with every bit of the quality of 35mm film at this point. My wife prefers the Canon EOS-10D with the 828 as her second favorite and to be sure you can put some very fast lenses on that Canon body.

My advice to you if you are considering buying is to avoid anything on the low end, if you get less than 5 MP your shots are not worth printing. Don't scrimp on memory sticks either, you would be amazed at how fast you go through a 128M memory stick shooting 8 MP shots and we won't even talk about TIFF mode.

And if you invest the money in an 828, really push it. Read your manual and see what this critter is capable of. Play with the nightshot mode, it really works! Some of my favorite shots are from a shark tank with nightshot, it looks like I was actually swimming with the beasts. Try to catch something fast like a bird with the burstmode; what a great way to fill a memory stick with a single button push. Play with the AE lock, it really takes a picture with dificult lighting over the top.

These are great days to be alive, who would have ever guessed we would have tools like the Sony 828 at a sub 1k pricepoint? Now, I can dream about the 929 30 MP so I can do digital medium format work!

I just received the F828 from Amazon the day before Christmas. What a wonderful surprise gift when I didn't expect it for another month. The camera I own I would compare this to is the Coolpix 5700 and there truly is no comparison. Virtually no shutter lag with the F828. Can't believe how quickly it writes to my old CF card. Love the fact I didn't have to buy a memory stick. First Sony that will record on a microdrive or a cf card. Color is awesome. Even when shooting some Christmas photos and probably needed a flash or tripod sense some of the photos were blurry being hand held at a slow shutter speed, the color was absolutely awesome just set on auto white balance. The camera feels wonderful in my hands. Bigger than my 5700 but feels more stable and not too heavy. Love the mechanical zoom. I love the 100 degree rotating body. Haven't even had a chance to take bigger than a 5 megapixel photo yet but so far I love this camera. I just played around with night framing and shot outside in the dark and the photo looked like daylight. My Coolpix 5700 is going up for sale.

Before I relate my tale about buying this camera through Amazon (ultimately, I did not, not for lack of effort on my part) let me detail some of what I think is terrific about this camera.

I had a DSC-F717 and that camera took remarkable photos. It was intuitive and pretty (silver!) and the buttons were all in the right places. In short order, I felt like a pro taking pictures with it and the results were really good (if you want, email me and I'll link you to some pictures. The only problem with F717 was it was a little cheap in construction so when it began turning on and off randomly (some problem in the hinge I think) it was time to look for a new camera.

Since all my accessories are Sony (from the F717) it was natural to look to Sony for solutions. The F828 was the next level and the changes they made appear stunning.

Gone is the silver. It is now a serious textured black. No one who looks at this camera wonders if its a toy. They may wonder if its a weapon of some kind but it feels good in the hand. It balances much better than the F717 and the key layout, although I'm still getting used to it, makes a little more sense. No more using software purely to delete pictures. There's a button for that. Same thing for White Balance. WB is the most important feature I've ever found on a digital camera and very few people use it. I use it before EVERY shot. Before on the F717, I had to look for a button among a nest of buttons. Now, its right on top right near the shutter.

Next among cool reasons to like this camera is the holographic AF. This (like the F717) camera prjects a visible grid of laser light to detail the subject being photographed. The focus is tight and pretty. I haven't had a chance to play with depth of field but if its like the F717, it will be a strong suit.

It is also very fast. I can now take pictures about as quickly as I hit the shutter. On the F717, it took time.

The only negatives so far is that the camera is heavy. It balances well in the hand, but I have to find a way to carry it thats a little more comfortable. It will work out. I bought the bag (which I'll review separately and that I did buy on Amazon) and it fits into it well, but there's no pocket to hold the charger. Ah well, gotta charge at home and carry batteries.

Last, I'd like to relate my experience in purchasing the camera.

Amazon listed the camera as $454. This was listed in its main price, not through a reseller, auction or Amazon shop. I clicked buy, checked the pricing and hit Submit Order. Surprise! It was a third party reseller named USAPhotonation.com. I got a confirmation that said (pasted) "we're writing to confirm your purchase of the following item from USA Photo
Nation: 1 of Sony DSC-F828 8MP Digital Camera with 7x Optical Zoom [Camera](available to ship by 28-October-2004)
Amazon Payments has charged your credit card (DELETED) for this
purchase, and the funds have been credited to USA Photo Nation."

Having checked out resellerratings.com (http://www.resellerratings.com/seller8278.html ) I basically saw that this company seemed to be a bunch of crooks. Out of a rating of 1 to 10 (10 being the best possible) they scored a .64 as rated by 43 people. I wrote Amazon who reassured me. On Amazon there were no ratings. Apparently I was the first time they'd ever been referred business by Amazon.

After a flurry of email exchanges between Amazon and myself, a few fired off to USA Photo Nation, which they never bothered to answer and over 2 hours on hold at their customer service number, they informed me that my order was cancelled and I could expect a refund, which I did get.

Amazon seemed to wash their hands of it. I got my money back and the next best price on another camera was north of $900 and they weren't going to supply a camera at the price I was confirmed (by them) because, they said, it was the reseller who didn't deliver the product. I, on the other hand, had NO idea I was dealing with a reseller and would never have used that particular reseller after viewing their online ratings.

I bought the camera at a Best Buy. I paid over double what Amazon assured me was the price and I'm pleased with my purchase. I'm a little angry at Amazon however. I've done a lot of business with them over the years and I think their relationship with the reseller does not absolve them of their responsibility to provide what they confirm has been purchased.

So, for my review, this is a great camera, one that is heavier duty than my F717 and much faster. But if you are thinking about buying it through Amazon, I'd advise caution. Make sure it isn't a reseller or if it is, that they have reasonable rating for delivering on time what they promise.