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In a world of boxy digital cameras, Sony's 8-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-F828 is truly unique. Like its predecessor, the 5-megapixel DSC-F717, this camera has the shape of an L, with a massive lens barrel making up one leg, and the chunky body the shorter leg. The two sections are joined by a hefty hinge that lets the lens rotate on a perpendicular axis to the body. The effect is much like cameras with fold-out LCD panels--you can turn the body so that the viewfinder can be seen from nearly any angle, for easier low-angle or overhead shots.
New to the DSC-F828 are a black body--now seemingly obligatory for advanced cameras--and Sony's four-color CCD. (The F828 is the first camera to use this chip, but cameras from other makers will follow soon.) According to Sony, the CCD should record more-accurate blues, blue-greens, and reds--in other words, color that's closer to what the human eye sees. It does this by adding an emerald-green pixel to the standard mix of red, green, and blue pixels.
If the CCD truly can record more-accurate color, however, we did not see it in the images we took. Our image-quality tests, taken with the camera's default, automatic settings, had generally accurate exposures and colors, and with the flash on, the camera did a fine job of reproducing our model's skin tones. However, we were less impressed with the photos of our daylight-balanced, flood-lit still life. Whites were a bit off, and reds and yellows looked muted. We also took some test photos of a green toy frog outdoors in the morning sun, using both JPEG and RAW settings. In both formats, the green looked a little less vibrant than the real thing. In this instance, calibrating the white balance offered no improvement.
On the other hand, image sharpness was where the F828 stood out. Its 8-by-10-inch prints looked sharper than any of those produced by the competing advanced cameras we've tested recently. The camera's 8-megapixel CCD obviously plays a part, with some help from the high-quality Zeiss T* lens.
With its oversize lens, the F828 is too heavy for easy one-handed shooting. But two-handed it feels like an SLR, and in many ways it works like one--right down to its minimal shutter delay. Rather than the usual rocker buttons to control the zoom, this model has a wide ring on the lens barrel. A twist of the wrist moves you from a 28mm focal length (35mm equivalent) to 200mm. The focal length is conveniently marked on the lens barrel--something you rarely see in digital cameras with noninterchangeable lenses.
Changing the camera's other settings is fast, for the most part. This camera has a slew of dedicated control buttons, many located along the lens barrel. Though they are well-labeled, it will take some time using the camera before your fingers automatically find them. But Sony has also adopted a settings-selection system we first saw on Olympus cameras: an on-screen carousel of choices. Turn the selector dial to pick a shutter speed, for example, and a circle of available speeds appears in the LCD. It's a small, but helpful advance.
Advanced photographers may miss a couple of features on the F828. It does not have custom user settings--found in competing cameras from Olympus, Nikon, and Canon--which are useful for quickly setting the camera for different shooting situations. You also can't disable the automatic power-off--a capability that a significant number of digital photographers need, judging by the e-mails messages we receive. Another smaller irritation: You must manually flip a switch to change from the electronic eye-level viewfinder to the LCD panel (many other cameras with both switch automatically).
Upshot: Fast, powerful, and enjoyable to use, this camera should please advanced shooters, as long as they can live without refinements like user settings and the ability to disable the camera's auto power-off.
Tracey Capen
