Sony DSC F717 5MP digital camara for $635 + $21.95S/H

[TTM77]

Tell me if this is hot deal and is the store reliable.

Linky

For those who have this, how is the speed? Is it as slow as all other digital camara? Give me the worst thing about the camara. (except the odd shape I already know)

 

[randukar]

FYI

Dell Home
$799.99
- $45 off $400 code
- 10% off (79.90)

= $674

Looks like its $20 more but its a reputable company (dell)

 

[NucEm]

I bought this camera from Dell for $635 with free shipping. I like the camera and I am impressed by the quality of the images it takes. It is a fairly fast camera. You'll want to get a 128 Mb memory stick because 32 Mb is just not enough. Dell offers ScanDisk brand for about $45. You may want to check out some of the reviews on line. Sony dropped the price by $200 so list is closer to $799.

 

[Toddlizzle]

Man, have you used this camera? The shape is one of the BEST things about it. You can rotate the LCD and shoot from any angle...I get a TON of shots I wouldn't be able to get otherwise by shooting over crowds or shooting real low to get my kids. Plus, the design means the tripod socket is perfectly centered with the lens, unlike almost every other digital camera out there, and you can still swivel the LCD when the camera is mounted. The shape is awesome once you spend a little time with it.

I took this picture the other night at about 1:30am during the lightning storm and tornadoes that swept through here. There are very few cameras, if any, that perform nearly as well in low-light situations. I also took this picture of my wife and daughter during a recent snow this spring. Taking such high-contrast pictures is another difficult task for digital cameras, and the F717 excels at this as well. Plus, if you get into infrared photography at all, the F717 is the undisputed king of IR digital photography, thanks to its extreme IR sensitivity and its nightshot mode.

As for the speed, well unless you spend $10,000 on truly pro gear, all digital cameras are slower than film. But this camera is relatively fast. Learn to pre-focus and your snaps will be right on the money.

Obviously I love the camera, so I won't bore you with all the good things about it. The worst thing about it? The size. It's huge and heavy compared to most other digital cameras but that is because it's got that enormous Zeiss 5x lens. The lens is part of the magic though, because it is so large and you can really get that pro photographer look (nice portrait closeups with that huge diffused background).

If this is your only camera, it's maybe too big to take to the amusement park. It's probably not your "go everywhere" camera. I've also got a Sony P72 for that. This is the big boy. But I'm the hit of holidays and family gatherings. Since I started using the Sony F717, I've got everyone telling me I should go into photography. It's made picture taking so much fun, it is truly a fantastic camera.

BTW, just for the record, my pics have been resized (reduced & compressed) and edited to some degree in Photoshop.

 

[RossMAN]

Todd, those are some amazing pictures!!!

How many pics can you fit onto 128MB?

 

[tokyojoe]

Best camera purchase ive ever made.
Love all the special features and the clarity of the pics is mind boggling.
What blew me away was takin nite shots in pitch black (not with nite vision which you could use) with flash, turned total darkness into a picture that looked like a daylight shot.
Highly recommend
Got it at $640
Go dell with free shipping

 

[AUGrad]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Todd, those are some amazing pictures!!!

How many pics can you fit onto 128MB?

In the highest resolution and quality jpeg mode, pics are about 2MB. Typically, I fit about 50-60 pictures on a 128MB stick.

TIFFs are 14MB a piece, and take forever to write to the stick. As a result, I've only taken a handful of TIFFs.

I'd like to see how much faster it would write to a memory stick pro, but haven't gotten my hands on one yet.

 

[TTM77]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Todd, those are some amazing pictures!!!

How many pics can you fit onto 128MB?

It depends on the quality you set. But for this camara, I would say about 2Meg for 1 High quality pic. The thing I don't like is this camara use the memory stick. Stick is so expensive comparing to other media with similar capacity.

For the speed, you know how you have those awsome 0.5 sec moment that you want to take pic of? Most camara would take about 1.5sec to focus, by that time the moment is gone. Is it too much to ask the camara to just take the d*mn pic!!!!

I have a friend who is cute and very camara shy. So I want a fast camara to take her pic before she start to hide, make funny faces, etc... I want to take natural, surprice pic. I want pic other then ppl have to post for it.

 

[Toddlizzle]

I can usually fit about 80 pics on a 128MB Memory Stick. They are about 1.5MB each at the highest quality setting. I filled one stick during the storms last week and got 78 pics.

The speed of this camera is as good or better than anything else out there. You can manually focus for a preset distance if your subject isn't changing distance and bypass the camera's autofocus, which will speed up picture taking considerably. Burst mode takes three pics as fast as is technically possible and then writes them all at once to the memory stick. There are lots of tricks with this camera if speed is your thing.

Price of memory sticks is dropping fast. Staples or Office Depot have 128MB for $39 and you can get better deals on the Internet if you are patient. The cost of memory shouldn't be your primary factor in this decision. Don't get the wrong camera just because the memory is a little cheaper. Make photo quality the main criteria. If you get the wrong camera and your photos aren't as good as they can be, you'll be very disappointed, and thinking you saved $20 on the memory card won't be much consolation.

 

[ExtraMSG]

FWIW, I'd recommending buying the camera at your local Sears and getting a pricematch to either Dell or some other merchant off of pricewatch/mysimon/etc. You'll get it locally (no shipping) + if you get the replacement plan, you can bring in your old camera and get it replaced w/the newer equivalent model! I just did it w/my old F707 a couple of weeks ago and actually got cash back ($70) b/c the price on the newer model was cheaper than what I paid for the 707! Especially worth it if you're hard on your equipment like me.

 

[Toddlizzle]

That's exactly what I did also. Bought an F707 in October 2001 at Sears and traded it two weeks ago for the F717 (they actually offered me a Canon S50 or anything else I wanted, but I stuck with the high-end Sony). With the $70 I got back I bought a new Protection Plan that covers the F717 through 2005! So I'll probably trade for whatever is the current Sony product in December 2005, and it won't cost me a thing. Gotta love Sears!

 

[TTM77]

Originally posted by: Toddlizzle
That's exactly what I did also. Bought an F707 in October 2001 at Sears and traded it two weeks ago for the F717 (they actually offered me a Canon S50 or anything else I wanted, but I stuck with the high-end Sony). With the $70 I got back I bought a new Protection Plan that covers the F717 through 2005! So I'll probably trade for whatever is the current Sony product in December 2005, and it won't cost me a thing. Gotta love Sears!

what happen if they go out of business? or they get bought by other company? Not saying that they will, but who knows.

 

[Toddlizzle]

You gotta be kidding. That's the stupidest reason not to get an extended warranty I've ever heard. Do you know how many extended warranties they've sold on electronics and tools? It's not like (a) Sears is going out of business or (b) that they wouldn't have a plan to handle those customers.

However, to try and provide a serious answer to your question, if Sears were to go out of business, I'd probably drop in with my receipt, trade my F717 for a newer model if one were available, and then ask for a pro-rated refund of the remaining portion of my extended warranty.

 

[Wolverine88]

Not to thread crap, you might consider 5700 or Dimage 7Hi for that money.

I ordered F717 a couple months ago from dell and ritzcamera for less than $600. I still decided to cancel and refuse the order.

Now I got my 5700 from dell and wait for my Dimage 7Hi from Amazon.

F717 has sharper image and better low-light performance.

Feature-wise, 5700 and Dimage 7Hi will give you more artistic-like photos.

my 2 cents.

 

[Toddlizzle]

Originally posted by: Wolverine88
Not to thread crap, you might consider 5700 or Dimage 7Hi for that money.

I ordered F717 a couple months ago from dell and ritzcamera for less than $600. I still decided to cancel and refuse the order.

Now I got my 5700 from dell and wait for my Dimage 7Hi from Amazon.

F717 has sharper image and better low-light performance.

Feature-wise, 5700 and Dimage 7Hi will give you more artistic-like photos.

my 2 cents.

WTF are you talking about? For that artistic look it's all about the glass, and no one has a better lens than the Sony F717. That's how you get those professional-type portraits with that diffused background, and that huge lens is the main thing the Sony's got going for it. I've already posted a couple of my photos and I'd be glad to post a portrait or two if necessary. How about posting some of your photos to compare?

 

[Wolverine88]

http://www.dpreview.com/

before you make any intellectual stmts.

 

[Toddlizzle]

Wolverine, if you're talking to me, I am quite an active forum member and reviewer at DPReview.com.

Let's see some pics!

 

[imported_Mike]

Todd is passionate about his 717. I just got the s85, would have got the 717, but not enough money 4 mp is enough for me anyways

 

[Toddlizzle]

Yeah, I'll admit it. There are probably only two things I've bought in this world that I feel completely satisfied for having purchased. This camera is one, and my TiVo is the other.

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: Toddlizzle
Yeah, I'll admit it. There are probably only two things I've bought in this world that I feel completely satisfied for having purchased. This camera is one, and my TiVo is the other.

hehe, tivo rocks

 

[robsgirl75]

Originally posted by: Toddlizzle
Wolverine, if you're talking to me, I am quite an active forum member and reviewer at DPReview.com.

Let's see some pics!

ditto. i love my f717. when i was looking for a 5mp cam, i was considering either the f717 and the 5700. however, after months of research, i decided to go with the f717. why? i read a lot of complaints regarding the 5700. there were praises about the cam, but the f717 had less complaints and more praises. just my .02

oh, another nice cam is the sony mavica cd400. they have a $100 rebate on it. not sure if it's still going on. i was able to get it for about $450 after rebate.

 

[macsrule]

One thing that sets this camera apart that nobody else offers. It tells you, to the minute, how much battery power is left on its internal rechargeable battery. I get over 3 hours of use on mine with the LCD on and knowing how much time is left allows me to maximize use. Seeing how much time is left on the camera is as important as how many pictures are left. Only Sony has it.

 

[kyutip]

Is Dell still selling F717 at $640 ?

 

[Toddlizzle]

Dell Home
$799.99
- $45 off $400 code
- 10% off (79.90)
-----------------------
= $674 shipped free

 

[TTM77]

Toddlizzle, I already did say that not likely Sears go out of business or get bought. But what I am really asking is, how would they handle if there is incident like this.

And how would you trade in if Sears isn't there anymore? Unless you saying you trade it in when you hear they going out of business.

And again, THIS IS A QUESTION ASKING HOW THE EXTENTION PLAN FROM A COMPANY WOULD HANDLE IF THE COMPANY GO OUT OF BUSINESS OR GET BOUGHT. Not directly relate to Sears alone.