The best digital cam I've seen for under $1000

I did two solid months of research before settling on a new digital camera, and I finally settled on the Sony 717. I must say it exceeded my expectations both in quality of photo and in the number of features it had. It does well in all the important areas, and it has a small enough shutter lag I no long miss any shots. There is also a burst mode which allows for taking multiple one after the other (and then it stops to save them all).

This camera has some neat things its competitors (like the Dimage or G3) simply didn't have. I won't list them all but here are just a few things which prompted me to choose the Sony and which made me glad I did.

BATTERY -- Some complain about the battery being proprietary but it's so wonderful you forget about that; it's an Infolithium battery giving you an exact number of minutes left. Unlike my old camera, an Olympus Camedia, I can go a whole day shooting and still not run out of batteries even with the LCD on.

LENS -- Admittedly the camera is oddshaped and I ignored it as an option due to it's ugly appearance, but it more than makes up for it in performance. The Carl Zeiss optics are absolutely wonderful and the 5X optional zoom is both fast and great quality.

NIGHTSHOT -- This is a great Sony feature which can be set to work in 1 of 2 ways. It uses Infared to illuminate the scene at night. This allows for focusing on the objects when it's too dark to see them. Nightview takes a regular photo and only uses the infared nightvision for focusing. Nightshot actually takes an infared-based photo (no flash required) which is poor in color but great for taking photos of animals at night for example.

VIEWFINDER -- This may seem like a trivial thing to mention but there is actually a lag for some reason on other similar cameras (those equipped with a LCD not optical viewfinder). The Sony one had little or no lag and didn't bother my eyes. Also unlike one of the other cameras in its class, the lens did not block the viewfinder at all.

MACRO -- Extreme closeups come out very well. I've had luck taking photos of things just an inch or two away. The only flaw this camera has is the flash shadow (mentioned below).

ZOOM/ FOCUS RING -- Switchable between controlling zoom or between doing the manual focusing, this neat ring reminds me of the focus rings on the lens of my 35mm SLR camera. It works well and responds quickly.

VIEW MODE (checkerboard) -- In playback mode, the camera has a neat checkerboard button which shows you the images in sets. This makes it so much easier to find and review a photo when you have dozens in memory.

There are of course a few drawbacks to the camera, but without a doubt it's the best camera in its class. Here are the things I feel Sony should improve on:

FLASH SHADOW -- the popup flash does cast a shadow when doing closeups (as in objects a few inches from the camera), although this is not a problem with normal photography. Work-around is either to move away a foot or two (and use optical zoom) or slip on an external flash.

PRICE -- I paid about $900 on sale at Circuit City which of course is alot of money for a "toy". The camera is reasonably priced for its class and prices should drop over time. Beware of really cheap F717's... they're probably gray-market and have no warranty!

ODD SHAPE / ERGONOMICS -- Yes this camera is ugly. It's basically one huge lens with a little rectangle behind it for the viewfinder/battery/etc. It took a little getting used to but after a bit the unusual size and weighting didn't bother me anymore.


Overall I am very pleased with the camera and although it wasn't cheap I don't regret getting it. I use it daily to shoot everything from nature to family events to fast moving animals to scenery out of the window of a moving car.