I've probably stirred up enough trouble in the Sony forum, don't
you think?
Anyway, it's time for me to come back fully to the Canon camp. The
following is a message I just posted in the Sony Talk Forum
concerning my decision to stay with the G2 and to return the F707
to Sears:
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I've been pretty quiet for the last week, because I've been trying
to get consistent results from the F707 I bought at Sears and have
been comparing my results with other galleries on this forum. I'm
just not liking what I'm seeing. It's been frustrating, and the few
posts I've made in the last week have probably shown that
frustration.
Not only that, but in head-to-head comparisons with the G2, I may
not get the same level of detail in portraits with the Canon, I've
found the G2 to be fairly effortless in getting quality shots.
That's important to me with active children that I'm trying to take
photos of and enjoy their company at the same time.
It's hard to tell how this story would have ended if the random
blue syndrome hadn't appeared... RBS, that's my acronym (with
apologies to Ulysses), as I still say it isn't a flaw just confined
to the flash. Maybe I would have kept it, maybe not. The F707 had
some things I liked, but there was still plenty that I did not...
especially when compared to the G2 that I also owned.
I'll miss the following:
1. I warmed to the EVF, though I still think it looks like a VCR
viewfinder
2. Loved the fast startup time
3. Enjoyed the nightframing (though somewhat gimmicky, IMO)
4. Has a better "shutter click" sound
5. Location of the tripod mount
6. Long battery life
7. Loved the longer zoom, and will miss that the most!
8. Last shot preview with the left arrow button
9. Longer movies
10. The laser focus... my kids really love that
11. Quick one-button manual white balance
12. 5MP instead of 4
13. A usable ISO 400 (if it's really ISO 400)
But there are still some things I don't like:
1. Memory sticks... too small and expensive
2. The "green auto mode" seems to only choose shutter speeds of
1/30 and above, and you have to set SCN mode for longer exposures
(will newbies figure this out?)
3. Way too many keystrokes to delete an image... given the smaller
size of the memory sticks, this is essential.
4. Preview of images take too long to load (and holding shutter
button gives a low-quality preview)
5. Zoom button is upside down and inconvenient... no chance of
one-handed operation like the G2.
6. The goofy Sony colors (mostly green and red)... IMO, no excuse
for that.
7. The flash... there's NOTHING to love about the F707 flash (more
below)
8. The camera strap keeps getting twisted because the connectors
swivel 180 degrees (OK, so I'm picky, but that bugs me)
9. My wife thinks it's ugly
10. The CA is still more pronounced
11. The worst implementation of Auto White Balance that I've
experienced on a digicam... and not enough white balance presets
12. No saturation control (in-camera)
13. A constantly smudged LCD.
14. Noisy shadows
15. Blue everywhere
Then there were the G2 features that I didn't think I could live
without:
1. RAW format
2. Chris Breeze's Downloader Program
3. The microdrive (can you say "sweet"?)
4. The tilt-swivel LCD
5. The IR remote
6. The 420EX flash and the hotshoe
7. Multiple focus zones
8. Colors that are correct and white balance that works (for the
most part)
9. Almost no noise
About that flash situation... the blue-shift isn't near as bad as
the fact that all photos must be done at full aperture with the
flash. For me, that's deadly. The HVL-F1000 flash makes the Vivitar
283 look like a BMW. The cold shoe left me... well, cold. And then
there's the blue shift that appears mostly with the flash, but in
daylight, too.
The kicker for me was when I took both cameras to a "Team Building"
event at work for my employees. With the G2, I just kept happily
snapping away, and managed to fire off over 200 pictures with the
internal flash without thinking of running out of space. With the
F707, I had two 128 meg sticks and constantly worried of running
out of memory. In fact, I did run out before the day was done, and
that was bad.
Then looking at the pictures revealed more... the G2 shots were
nearly all perfectly exposed. The F707 shots were not nearly as
good... over 3/4 had some sort of blue-shift, and the detail
difference wasn't as noticable as when I had lots of time. In fact,
I got more out of focus shots with the F707, and the colors really
bothered me more than I thought they would.
The G2 shots I uploaded to the Internet with no editing, and the
F707 shots required me to edit nearly every one... which took me
over two hours.
Then there was my overall feeling that I developed about the two
cameras. The G2 makes me feel confident that I'll get an acceptable
shot or maybe even an exceptional one, from time-to-time. There's
nothing that really irks me about the camera.
The F707 I knew had more of a chance of an exceptional shot, but
produced a greater number of unacceptable ones. Not only that, but
the obvious flaws in the camera ended up making it a love-hate
relationship for me. It's kinda like that first dent in your new
car... you get a sick feeling, and no matter how hard you try, your
eye keeps going to the flaw.
Finally, I don't think I could bring myself to rewarding Sony with
my dollars, my confidence they'd address the problem, or my
patience. As I've said before, this camera may be ahead of its
time, but that shows in many ways that aren't very appealing. I'll
give a look at the next model, but by then, I expect other
manufacturers to have surpassed the bar that Sony raised and then
dropped.
Most here won't be surprised with my choice, and some will say I
made my decision before I started. I know I can't convince them,
but I really wanted to like this camera. I really feel like I gave
it an open-minded shot, though some will disagree... but it IS my
choice in the end.
I do want to hang around after this goes back. I've developed an
affection for many of you, and I'm wanting to see if Sony addresses
your concerns with this camera. And I'll always be looking at your
photos while thinking what might have been.
Thanks, everyone!
Bryan
