Sony 828 review Digital Camera Shopper (UK)

urban75 said:

There's a comprehensive eight page review of the Sony 828 in this
month's Digital Camera Shopper.

Here's some snippets:

"the 828's responsiveness is generally very good indeed. The start
up time is barely a second - it feels uncannily fast compared to
its other high end rivals.."

"Overall though, the F828 offers usefully superior image quality
than all of its main competitors. The Minolta A1 can't match its
detail rendition or the optical speed of its lens.."

"Noise? What noise?"

"The Sony's big bugbear is magenta fringing. Whenever you've got
bright highlights meeting dark detail. it's there"

"In our hands the F828 produced a cracking set of shots, with great
contrast, saturation and visual crispness"

Final Verdict: 4/5
Features: 5/5
Performance 4/5
Build Quality: 5/5
Ease of Use 4/5
Value for money: 3/5

And - by coincidence - there's a four page 'digital darkroom'
walk-through feature in the same mag, showing you how to get rid of
chromatic aberration!

Click to expand...

Olga Johnson said:

Heheheh... What can I say, urban75?

Not enough controversy to elicit replies.

Click to expand...

urban75 said:

There's a comprehensive eight page review of the Sony 828 in this
month's Digital Camera Shopper.

Here's some snippets:

"the 828's responsiveness is generally very good indeed. The start
up time is barely a second - it feels uncannily fast compared to
its other high end rivals.."

"Overall though, the F828 offers usefully superior image quality
than all of its main competitors. The Minolta A1 can't match its
detail rendition or the optical speed of its lens.."

"Noise? What noise?"

"The Sony's big bugbear is magenta fringing. Whenever you've got
bright highlights meeting dark detail. it's there"

"In our hands the F828 produced a cracking set of shots, with great
contrast, saturation and visual crispness"

Final Verdict: 4/5
Features: 5/5
Performance 4/5
Build Quality: 5/5
Ease of Use 4/5
Value for money: 3/5

And - by coincidence - there's a four page 'digital darkroom'
walk-through feature in the same mag, showing you how to get rid of
chromatic aberration!

Click to expand...

NCE said:

Thanks,
NCE

urban75 said:

There's a comprehensive eight page review of the Sony 828 in this
month's Digital Camera Shopper.

Here's some snippets:

"the 828's responsiveness is generally very good indeed. The start
up time is barely a second - it feels uncannily fast compared to
its other high end rivals.."

"Overall though, the F828 offers usefully superior image quality
than all of its main competitors. The Minolta A1 can't match its
detail rendition or the optical speed of its lens.."

"Noise? What noise?"

"The Sony's big bugbear is magenta fringing. Whenever you've got
bright highlights meeting dark detail. it's there"

"In our hands the F828 produced a cracking set of shots, with great
contrast, saturation and visual crispness"

Final Verdict: 4/5
Features: 5/5
Performance 4/5
Build Quality: 5/5
Ease of Use 4/5
Value for money: 3/5

And - by coincidence - there's a four page 'digital darkroom'
walk-through feature in the same mag, showing you how to get rid of
chromatic aberration!

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

NCE said:

Ha! My bad. It's a magzine.
Just ignore me and I'll go away...

Click to expand...

urban75 said:

NCE said:

Ha! My bad. It's a magzine.
Just ignore me and I'll go away...

Click to expand...

No problem!

I'm afraid the review's too long type in manually, and their
website doesn't include the review at the moment
( http://www.dcmag.co.uk/ )

Here's a few more snippets:

"the manual zooming control reminds you how slow conventional
switches are. It's smooth and fast"

"The mode dial is excellent: the switch action first rate"

"The LCD quality is excellent"

IMage definition:
The Sony's 8Mp CCD is sharp, producing a great impression of fine
detail. It's a step forward rather than a major breakthrough,
however"

Magenta fringing
All digital cameras suffer from highlight edges... but the Sony
suffers more than most"

Colour Saturation
The 828 produced very colourful, saturated shots. Colours are
accurate and the camera's innate contrast produces images with real
'punch'.

Click to expand...

Michael Sumaquial said:

Very nice to hear such complimentary review of my f828. Wish I
could get a hold of the mag or weblink on the review.

Click to expand...

urban75 said:

It's a good buy, but only for those with no desire to build a
larger system".

And that's about right, in my book: the 828 won't outrun a Canon
300D, but for those who aren't interested in carting around a bulky
camera or fiddling about with interchangeable lens, the Sony is
about as good as it gets - especially if you've grown to love the
movie/swivel body features.

Click to expand...

urban75 said:

Michael Sumaquial said:

Very nice to hear such complimentary review of my f828. Wish I
could get a hold of the mag or weblink on the review.

Click to expand...

The publishers are futurenet.co.uk - maybe you could contact them
for a copy?

Anyway, seeing as people are appreciating my efforts, I'll finish
off with the conclusion to the review, which I think is very fair:

"This is one heck of a camera, but at one heck of a price. A year
ago it might have swept all before it, but now the Sony faces being
undercut by real digital SLRs with better viewfinders, faster AF
and greater versatility.

It's a good buy, but only for those with no desire to build a
larger system".

And that's about right, in my book: the 828 won't outrun a Canon
300D, but for those who aren't interested in carting around a bulky
camera or fiddling about with interchangeable lens, the Sony is
about as good as it gets - especially if you've grown to love the
movie/swivel body features.

I'm still using a 717 and may well be tempted to invest in an 828
shortly - no matter how much the trolls howl around here!

Click to expand...