Regarding the new Sony DSC-F828 eight mega pixel camera... I just bought one two weeks ago.
After reading many, many highly in-depth reviews, I still decided that it was the one for me.
Other 8 mp cameras I was seriously considering were the Nikon 8700 (slower lens & slower response), Nikon D70 (great DSLR but no movable screen like the Sony), Olympus 8080 (nice but limited zoom range with adaptors, also it was not as secure in the hand as the Sony).
What sold me on the Sony was...
* Fantastic moving back (the lens pivots separately from the camera back) allowing all of the controls to always be in view. This is wonderful for waist-level or overhead picture taking.
* Very fast Zeiss T* lens (F2.0 - 2.
. All the others started at either 2.8 or 3.5.
* Fairly fast turn on & good response time (for a digicam).
* Great menu system... very straight forward & easy to set up & use plus is very readable with nice fonts.
* Laser focusing in complete darknss (no one else does this).
* Night Shot & Night Framing in complete darkness (again no one else does this).
* Has one of the longest battery life's of any digicam.
* The best feel in the hand of any digicam on the market.
* It simply has the best overall layout of any current digicam on the market.
* It simply has the best overall feature set of any current digicam on the market.
Yes, I know about the so-called image quality problem with the 828 but it is not with image quality, sharpness, color, saturation or anything else that effects the actual picture quality. It relates to the same thing that virtually all 8 mp cameras are currently experiencing; that is purple fringing around very bright lights (I have yet to actually see it happen in some 500 images that I have taken so far).
The other problem with all of the new 8 mp digicams is related to noise at higher ISO settings. Yes, that is a problem at all ISO's from 200 & above but there is a software solution that completely removes all the noise without touching any of the image elements & that is a program called Noise Ninja. It simply works!.
So just why do the 8 mp digicams have purple fringing & noise problems? The answer is fairly simple, Sony, Nikon, Olympus & others have pushed the 2/3 CCD photocell to its limits.
I have written a document on the subject & here is a portion of it...
What Is Digital Noise...
* It is all the noise generated by the camera electronics plus the signal to noise ratio coming from the CCD photo cell itself.
* The end results are very visible amounts of noise on the final image. This can be so bad at the higher ISO settings in some cases as to make the image totally useless as no photo editing software can get rid of noise over a certain level.
How Is Photo Cell Noise Generated?
* All photocells relay on the number of light photons hitting each pixel of a photocell to produce a voltage that can be sent to the camera electronics to be processed as an image.
* The more photons that hit a pixel the higher the voltage and hence the higher the signal to the base noise level (S/N) of the photocell.
* The 8 mega pixel 2/3 CCD cells have only 2.3 microns of area per pixel for light photons to strike... very small indeed. This is why all the current crop of 2/3 8 MP cameras exhibit a high noise problem at any ISO setting above 100.
* Most Pro level DSLR camera ISO's start at 200 and go up to 1600 with 800 generally providing a fairly clean noise free image. This means that cameras with a large photo cell provide 2 - 4 additional F stops over all consumer digicams. In other words, the pro camera can get that low light shot that the consumer camera can not. It also means the pro camera is ideal for any fast action such as sports or auto racing. Few, if any, consumer cameras even have a sports mode because they are too slow to respond to fast movement.
* Add the photo cell noise to the cameras electronics noise and you can sometimes end up with a very bad image that is full of noise.
How do I get rid of the noise?
* Use a lower ISO speed setting (ISO is similar to film camera ISO or the old ASA settings).
* Put more light on the subject thereby providing more photons of light on each pixel of the photo cell.
* Most better photo editing software will take out most noise. However, there is a limit to removing existing noise. Many (if not all) cheaper consumer point & shoot and most mid priced prosumer cameras all exhibit a problem with noise at any ISO setting other then the lowest one or two settings. Photo editing software usually can not resolve the noise problem if the original was shot with a high ISO setting.
* Upgrade to a better camera with a larger photo cell. Remember... larger photo cells have more area per pixel to gather more light photons which in turns produces a higher voltage & a much better S/N ratio hence a much cleaner image.
Sooo... The bottom line is I knew what I was buying into with the Sony 828 but it is one lovely camera & I know how to get around the noise problem (with noise Ninja).
Sony also has a very broad selection of extremely high grade accessories for the 828 & I bought most of them. I also bought three additional lenses for the 828 that lets me go from 12.5mm all the way to 400mm which covers all my requirements. I paid about 1 ½ times more for the accessories then I did for the camera.
I really love this camera.
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Topic: OT: Santa Fe, New Mexico (Read 3682 times)