Ab Work Outs: Sony DSCF717 5MP Digital Still Camera w/ 5x Optical Zoom Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My wife finally let me upgrade from my 707, so now we have one 717 and one 707 and go out shooting at least once a week. I love this camera, it is almost everything I hoped for as an upgrade from the 707.
It is much faster than the 707, though still weak with action shots.You can nail predictable events like a bird in flight, but when wild dolphins come up to your sailboat, expect to miss two out of three shots.If you do need to shoot action, hit menu and one of the record modes is "burst 3" three rapid shots one after another, you might get lucky that way.
The "A" and "S" and settings to enhance depth of field and shutter speed do not seem to give good results. Likewise, The new scene selections (twilight, landscape and portrait) seem limited, though I have had some fun with portrait when I am dealing with a messy background.However, for best results, I just leave it on the green camera icon, that seems to perform the best.One BIG problem though, the camera is only two months old and all the markings have worn off the mode dial making it hard to set up in a hurry, shame on Sony for that!
The 717 shoots well in intense light situations, the beach at 1 PM is no problem, except that the light is harsh, if you are going to shoot in snow or at the beach, think about getting the lens hood and ND filter accessories.
We dropped $500.00 or so on the Sony wide angle lens, that was a mistake, it weighs so much it appears to hurt the camera and like all wide angles, eats light.On the bright side, there is less distortion than I have ever seen in a WA.
The 717 doesn't handle subtle transparent sky light, a muted sunset, or rainbow can be lost. I still haven't scored a double rainbow with a digital, I can see both, the cameras can only see one of them.
They have moved some of the control buttons from the 707 positions; moving zoom was a mistake, it really is better to have the zoom control as the farthest out control on the lens so you can find it without taking your eyes off your subject.On the plus side the focus switch is in a deeper indent, this keeps you from switching into manual mode accidentally.
The auto popup flash is really noisy and vigorous and it has caused me to miss a few shots as it slams into place.Red eye reduction as usual doesn't work so well, but that is why God invented photoshop.
Moving to some of the really positive features:
The macro mode for closeups is a marvel. I need to do some tripod scientific tests, but it seems like the 707 out performs the 717 in macro.But we are still nailing great closeups of dew on flowers and the like and the 717's speed lets you freeze a bee on a flower or a hummingbird.
The way it handles light on water is just spectacular. It can also handle shooting the sky through trees and similar shots that confound simple cameras.
Like the 707, the combination of movable lens and ability to work with finder or lcd screen really gives you flexability when shooting things taller than you are. I got a "Senators Only" parking sign on Parliament Hill Ottawa that was about 8' up by holding the camera above my head and aiming through the lcd.I was trying to get a shot of a wierd bug face to face the other day so I laid the lens on the floor, and turned the finder screen to face me.Love it!
The range of the zoom is all you can ask of a single lens, yes you do lose a bit of resolution at full digital zoom, but it can still nail a seaplane landing in Vancouver harbor and has enough pixels left to print a nice 8.5 x 11.
It interfaces with both my Mac 10.2 and Windows XP Pro with no problem in either case. The XP software is actually a bit more efficient than iPhoto.
I will close with some final tips:
My wife got me this little nylon Ex Officio bag to tie to the strap. That is a much more efficient in an active shoot than the memory stick wallet.
If the subject moves, as soon as you start framing, teach yourself to push the shutter button half way down, that cuts a lot of the delay out of a shot.
Don't buy a memory stick less than 128M, I think my wife's 707 came with a 16M, now *that* is funny.
If you have never tried one of these web based photo storage and printers like Amazon.com's photo services or Image station, they are great for situations like shooting a family reunion. Just send the URL to everyone and they can order all the prints they want. Remember the days of looking for the negative with picture 5 on roll 9? I love my 717 and I am never going back to film.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Sony DSCF717 5MP Digital Still Camera w/ 5x Optical Zoom

Product Description:
Accurately realistic photos are captured using this digital camera that has a 5.0 effective CCD and 5.2 gross pixel count. The included 16MB Memory Stick<< media stores your shots that can be easily downloaded using the USB interface. A Carl ZeissM-^Y Vario Sonnar lens with 5x Optical/10x Digital zoom captures the essence of each shot with clarity and precision accuracy. For consistently great shots even in low or no light conditions try using the built-in NightFinderM-^Y system.