The 5-megapixel DSC-F717's big lens barrel weighs down what is an otherwise excellent camera. In addition to the high resolution and the 5X optical zoom, the F717 delivers extensive creative options and a solid set of manual controls.
High-quality images and responsive performance top off a package that should appeal to photography enthusiasts, especially those switching to digital from 35mm SLRs.
The SLR-inspired styling of the DSC-F717 immediately distinguishes it from the pack. A mammoth, cylindrical lens barrel adjoins the smaller camera body at a right angle to form an L-shaped profile. But there is a good reason for the bulk: the barrel houses a Carl Zeiss 5X optical zoom lens with a fast f2.0 aperture. Still, this camera's sheer size and 680 gram weight hurt its ergonomics a bit.
With controls scattered over practically every free surface on the camera body, we never quite figured out an entirely comfortable way to hold the F717 for quick snapshooting. Notably, the zoom control is located on the lens barrel and placed for access with the left hand. Whether you consider this location a plus or a minus depends upon your ambidexterity.
If you know what you're doing, the DSC-F717 offers plenty of creative freedom. For example, you can independently control the aperture and the shutter (along with aperture- and shutter- priority AE modes), which earns a consumer digicam extra points. This perk almost escaped our attention at first, though--we were too distracted by the pseudomanual focus-adjust knob and the fully manual focus ring on the lens itself. In addition to the manual-focus option, you also get Sony's unique Hologram AF function, which beams a dancing, red laser light onto your subject.
The camera also has a pop-up flash on the lens barrel; a hotshoe attachment for an external flash; an electronic, through-the-lens eyepiece viewfinder with diopter adjustment that has no annoying parallax shift in close-ups; a histogram display to help you avoid improperly exposed pictures; and more. Traditional photographers may find the electronic viewfinder disorienting since it has a small update lag. But the ability to accurately frame the image through the viewfinder far outweighs the disconcerting feeling.
Plus, Sony incorporates a special nighttime mode to improve color quality and to help you more easily compose pictures for hard-to-focus scenes such as night skyline shots.
Other niceties include a rechargeable InfoLithium battery that displays remaining life in minutes; MPEG-video recording with audio; uncompressed TIFF capture; and a fairly generous 32MB of Memory Stick media. We suggest upgrading to a larger Memory Stick if you plan to do most of your shooting at the maximum 5-megapixel resolution.
The DSC-F717 was no slouch in our performance tests. At just less than two seconds, power-up to first-shot time is surprisingly short. Shutter lag isn't quite instantaneous--less than half a second--but it's so close that we had trouble clocking it. Shot-to-shot time at full 5-megapixel resolution came in at less than two seconds as long as we used compression; as with many cameras in this class, you'll experience far longer delays with uncompressed TIFF files. As long as you stick with JPEGs, you'll have no trouble snapping off several candids in a row.
The autofocus worked like a charm in nearly all our shots. Notably, the laser-assisted Holograph AF generated consistently good results, even in extremely low light. This feature let us down only when we tried using the autotimer for a self-portrait--we didn't have enough time to hit the button and get into the desired pose before the laser finished flashing.
Metering with and without the flash is uniformly good; at worst, exposures required only minimal tweaking with image-editing software. The F717's low-light performance deserves special mention. We did most of our low-light tests using the lowest ISO setting of 100, which typically yields the least noise as long as you can use a slow shutter speed. This Cyber Shot proved very flexible under such conditions, producing pictures without excessive grain even when we relied solely on ambient illumination.
The long life of the DSC-F717's included lithium-ion battery doesn't surprise us: It lasted for well more than three hours under heavy shooting with the relatively power-hungry LCD turned on.
The DSC-F717 continues to impress when you view your images at full size. Two pictures stand out as examples of the camera's capabilities: a snapshot of a colorful-costumed raver under the fluorescent lights of a New York subway car and a photo of a musical performance in a hall lit by only the multicolored stage spotlights. In both cases, we shot without flash and used a fairly slow shutter speed. Not only did the subway shot come out richly detailed and well focused--despite very slight motion blurring imposed by the slow shutter--but the white balance worked beautifully even though we relied on the camera's automatic white balance.
As for outdoor photography in natural sunlight, it's no surprise that the DSC-F717 does a good job. The automatic white balance is worth mentioning again, though, as the shots weren't plagued by the blueness that bright sunlight can often inflict on digital photos.
Sony DSC-F717
Company: Sony Australia
Price: AU$2,599
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 13 7669
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