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| Sony DSC-F717 Digital Camera [5MP 5xOptical] |
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A Joy to Use
Ive been through several digital cameras over the last three years, and have found none entirely satisfactory. This Sony comes very close to being exactly what Ive been looking for. I am a professional photographer and use digital capture as a back up to film-based cameras.It is well made, with a reassuring feel to it. Lens quality is superb and the camera-despite its rather odd ergonomics, is a joy to handle and use. The swivelling lens design makes it possible to use the camera in a "Waist level finder" manner: great for candids and portraits-it takes you out from behind the camera. Being able manually to zoom the lens, rather than relying on a switch to do it inspires confidence in this particular dinosaur. For my taste, the camera has all the bells and whistles Im ever likely to need [and a few that Im not: neg art, solarising, sepia toning etc]. Performance is good, with a slight but predicatble shutter lag being my biggest gripe. The camera is supplied with a relatively low capacity Memory Stick: I had to get a few 128mb to feel confident I had sufficient capacity for longer trips. One niggle-the manual gives 0 deg C as the minimum operating temperature: if true, this is going to cause me some problems in mountaineering photography. The manual itself is well laid out, clear and helpful. It does help to have an occasional re-read in the first few weeks, as you trip up over new features. Annoyingly, nowhere is the JPEG compression level actually specified-you can work it out yourself, and a chart usefully shows optimum file sizes for different output sizes. In summary? A well made, well designed and well executed camera with more than adequate features and a stunning lens at a very reasonable price...
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The best (F707) just got better!
This must be one of the best digital cameras you can get under £1500. Thanks to its versatile Carl Zeiss lense, the 717 takes excellent photos at night, in bright light, moving objects (needs high shutter speed - this baby does up to 1/2000 sec!), zoom, etc.The autofocus mode proved to be very reliable. Ive not had any blur shots despite trying a great number of different shots. But if you want to do things manually, theres always the manual focus function. Looking at the images blown up in Photoshop, its clear that the F717 deals very well with noise. Resolution is among the best and it seems to me that it even beats the previous model (F707). Cons? Perhaps the only weakness is the memory stick. They dont come in very large sizes (max 128MB per stick) and, compared to the latest competition, their writing speed isnt all that fantastic anymore.
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Perfect for the computer games artist
I am a semi professional digital photographer. Although my experience in digital cameras is not terribly great, yet, I needed something which would give me a lot possibilities as my abilities grew.Working with computer games development I need this camera to take high resolution shots for textures, as well as provide me with movie clips for rotoscoping when animating. I absolutely love this camera. I keep finding new and useful features, and I imagine that will continue for quite a while. The battery is almost impossible to run down, so it is perfect for gathering reference materials on longer outings. The lens is top notch and gives you picture quality second to none in this price range. Five stars from me for a product without any things to really bother you.
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I bought this camera as an upgrade from a very basic (non Sony) model and am very impressed with it. Picture quality is excellent, even on the 640x480 image size and using this mode, the standard memory stick holds in the region of 240 images.
Being a would be photographer for many years, and almost struggling with coming to terms with the fact that producing anything like acceptable quality pictures lay fairly and squarly in the hands of the local photo processing plant, digital photography is a godsend. Even with the Nikon F90x SLR and .. 
This is my first digital camera, having come from an SLR background. First impressions of the P71 itself are very positive. Without looking at the manual too much I was able to point and shoot basically straight away with good results eacxh time.
Obvoiusly an extra battery and memory stick is graet to have for the Sony P5. The case is good quality and its front pocket is large enough to contain a few memory sticks, the spare battery and the shoulder strap. The quality of the case is good - it has a nice feel to it. However the P5 camera does.. 
Just bought this camera the other day and it does exactly what it says on the box. The pictures are fantastic and thankfully Amazon included a 64mb card with it (the 8mb card ran of space after half an hour! - You cant help snapping those pictures).