My heart truly goes out to you. I can truthfully say I have taken better pictures with a 6 year old ultrazoom, my old Oly C-700.
Neil, I am not trying to start anything here, the poor quality of those images speaks volumes. I know what it's like to spend a bunch of $$$ and not be happy. I have lenses here that I spent over $1000 on that I seldom use. They have issues. From one photographer to another, I sincerely hope Sony manages to keep it's customers happy.
Here's the part that gets me sick, it can be done right in an affordable digicam. Here's proof. A pic I took with my new 8mP toy, a Fuji F40fd. Just for fun I increased the saturation in-camera.
8mP, ISO 100
And a few full size crops
Please excuse the excessive sharpening. I haven't processed digicam images in a long time. is this as good as what I get from a DSLR? Absolutely not. The full size crops demonstrate that
digital look that most digicams exhibit.
The point is that I spent $240 for this little wonder at Costco, and the camera performs as advertised.
Of course my little Fuji only has a 3X zoom.
Any zoom is a compromise. The larger the zoom ratio, the greater the compromise. This is the case with all lenses. A quality lens is optomized for a single focal length. A zoom is manufactured with compromises in mind.
Which explains why a quality zoom costs a fortune.
I do not own a zoom that goes from 40mm (or whatever) out to over 400mm (or whatever). A lens like this is loaded with compromises. For me to go from 40-400 I need three zoom lenses.
So the lens compromise has a bit to do with it. But we have seen stunning images captured with ultrazooms, so it can be done. IMO good bokeh is the first casualty of zoom lenses. Image stabilization also hurts background quality.
Certainly the lens has something to do with it, but only to a point. Compression and NR take a situation that is already loaded with IQ compromises and make it worse.
I sincerely hope Sony resolves this issue. In fact, not just Sony, but all manufacturers who sell cameras with problems like these.
I can't wait to buy a ultrazoom that really cuts the mustard. Honestly, after my little Fuji, I believe that it is possible to make a camera that really cuts it. At 8 X 10, when the little Fuji is shooting in nice light and is in it's comfort zone, I can not tell the difference between the F40 ($240) and a 20D with 17-40L ($2200). So when I go out shooting and the light is there, I'm leaving the DSLR home.
I would love to say the same thing about ultrazooms. If I can shoot an ultrazoom and it compares to a DSLR at 8 X 10, then I'll be leaving the DSLR and heavy lenses at home much more frequently.
I'm sorry for making this a
me thing when it's clearly not, but I really want to see you guys happy. I know that you may find that hard to believe, thus the long explanation of
what's in it for me .
--
rich
http://www.iceninephotography.com 
