Introduction
Again, we delve into Sony land and again it is with a vintage, early 2000’s digital camera. Back when the camera makers were trying out some new designs, this is one of the first unique examples that I came across.
The F828 is highly recommended for various reasons and one is the unique body style and the other is the REAL picture control that utilizes the “RGBE” array with the “E” which stands for Emerald. Sony claims that this extra color array provides for a way to get more realistic colors. Did we find this to be true?
We will look at all this and more as we review the Sony F828 with its 7-51mm (28-200mm field of view) lens and 8mp 2/3″ sensor.
Disclaimer – sample images represent was is possible to get from this specific camera and lenses used. The images are not straight from camera JPG and have most likely been post processed in Lightroom or other software to get them to the vision I wanted.
Tech Stuff
Body
Picking up this body, you feel the quality construction right off the bat. There is some plastic here, but I could not find any creaking or flexing of consequence anywhere. I mean, I can make the plastic creak, but I need to really grip with a bit of force. The weight feels substantial but not overly heavy – giving the impression of robustness and quality.
Power switch is on the top of the camera, around the mode dial which is a bit of a different take…but is easily activated with the thumb of the right hand. There are buttons around the left side of the body as well as on the back.
Now, the unique feature of the camera is that instead of just the rear LCD being adjustable the whole camera is hinged and the lens section rotates up and down.
In a way this is actually pretty ingenious because if you want to do a low angle shot, you just apply pressure to the lens and it adjusts. You don’t have to remove your hand from the lens, adjust the screen, then put your hand back.
Some may think that this is a point of failure, and it could be, but honestly it feels so well built that I’m not even going to worry about it. I mean, it lasted 20 years and it still functions as intended.
Body shape wise, instead of the lens being centered to the body, it is offset to the left and the EVF is more rangefinder-esque and far left behind the lens.
On the top next to the mode dial is a small LCD screen for exposure and shooting info.
The buttons on the body are sufficient to give you all the shooting options you’d need. No menu diving is needed once you get it set up for normal shooting conditions…and after that, I go into the setup menu to format the CF/Memory Stick after a session.
Dials. There are only 2 dials on the camera, a top mode dial and one on the back by your thumb. Both easy to find and utilize for their intended purposes.
Buttons. There are a lot of buttons.
On the top plate, just behind the shutter release is the white balance and exposure comp button. The top LCD backlight button is there as well.
On the back, under the LCD screen, there is a switch to toggle between the EVF and the LCD. Display button, delay timer, zoom and back button.
On the left side, there is a switch to go between auto focus and manual focus mode and another switch for opening the flash. Buttons are flash comp, metering, macro focus mode, drive/bracketing and a nightshot/nightframing mode.
The front of the camera has no buttons at all.
Shutter Release – The shutter release is super light to focus and you can definitely feel the point at which you hit the barrier to trip the shutter. Not a lot of pressure is required to get the shutter to trip.
Rear LCD – Honestly, it is not that bad. I would not say it is great and I would not trust it for proper exposure or focus…but you can turn the histogram on and that does work well enough.
Another bonus is that I was shooting this in the the daytime and the rear LCD was easy to see at all times in the sunlight. That is an issue for a lot of these cameras of this era – early 2000’s.
Flash
This camera does have a built in flash. It sits on top of the lens section in front of the hot shoe.
Viewfinder
The viewfinder is pretty equivalent to the rear LCD in usage.
Weather Sealing
Honestly not sure about the weather sealing on this camera, but given it’s status at the time, it probably has none…but I do not intend on bringing this into a downpour. I doubt a light rain would affect it, but please make your own decisions on how you treat your gear.
Lens
At 7-51mm on the 2/3″ sensor, you have a lens with a field of view of 28-200mm. On top of that, it is a bright, Zeiss designed lens starting at f/2 and ending at f/2.8!
Usable wide open as well! Gets sharper as you stop down just a little bit.
Going from 28mm to 200 is less than a quarter turn.
Macro mode is very good too, you can get quite close to your subjects.
The lens is not motorized, so adjusting for focal length is analog! No power zoom here! This also helps with startup times because no power zoom or initial adjustment of the zoom lens is one less thing to be a barrier in getting your first image from a cold power up.
Performance
Overall System Performance
Released in 2003, the F828 fires up pretty quick!
Everything works and works fast! Getting into the menus, no problem. Power up, quick and ready to shoot.
Autofocus
AF Point Selector
Compared to a modern camera, one may consider this AF “pokey”. It is as it racks back and forth a little before settling in and locking on…but it’s not all that bad.
There is a thumb stick on the back top of the camera right above the rear LCD. It works great for moving the focus points around!
All in all, even if it is not the fastest, in the conditions I was shooting, the AF was consistent and accurate.
Continuous
More testing here is needed, but given the AF-S performance, I doubt I would be happy with any kind of tracking on this camera.
Manual Focus
I will use manual focus on occasion, but usually only with adapted manual focus lenses or at times when the subject may be obscured by a foreground element.
Manual focus ring is located to the rear of the lens, behind the manual zoom ring.
Battery and Battery Life
This camera shares batteries with the Sony R1! This is great as I then can share between them if needed. When out and about, even in the cold Ohio winter – I rarely needed a second battery…but it never hurts to have it!
Stabilization (IBIS/AS)
This camera does not have any stabilization of any kind. Since it uses a leaf shutter in the lens there is low to no chance of shutter shock, but slower shutter speeds should be taken into consideration. The f/2-2.8 lens will help keep the ISO down and the shutter speed up, though for a while.
Ergonomics
For me, the size of a camera is important. There is a point of diminishing returns on size. You can only go so small before the controls are hard to reach and the camera is difficult to hold.
Feel in The Hand
I already mentioned that the camera feels solid. If a camera is too small it is hard to get to the buttons that are on the camera body. This camera feels very good to me for what it is. The grip is a bit small, but with the size of the lenses I’m using with it and the everyday carry nature of the camera, it does not feel too bad.
I can get to the buttons and dials pretty easily.
My whole hand fits the grip well, no fear of fingers falling off the bottom. You can get a positive grip on the camera for sure ,even with gloves!
Image Quality
Here is where the differences in the Sony come to play.
The RGBE sensor array, as outlined in the Introduction of this review is, along with the tilting lens/body a standout feature.
The RGBE is utilized when the picture control is set to REAL for JPG output. Shooting RAW or Standard does not use the “E” section. All the JPG images in this review were shot with the REAL picture control.
I can state that I do see a more accurate reproduction of colors as well as a more subtle, almost “pastel” like color palette. You can further saturate or add contrast in post if you like.
Yes, this is a CCD sensor camera, so pushing much beyond ISO 400 with this sensor size will really start to show the limitations of the day.
Overall though, I can see why a lot of people, and include me in that stable now, really like the JPG output of this camera.
As with all these vintage cameras, shooting RAW and using modern post processing software can give you a bit more than the JPG engine has to offer, especially in regards to noise reduction and image sharpening.
Just be aware that even with fast, modern CF cards – you’ll still be a few seconds in waiting for the image to save and the camera ready for the next shot.
Final Thoughts
Amongst the early digital bridge or compact cameras, Sony tried to stand out with the RGBE processing array. I think they did succeed there. I’d say that the unique way of having the lens and body tilt would be another, but at that time, Nikon, Ricoh and others were also offering a similar body style. Still, it was fun to see the designs go in a different direction.
If the price is right and you are willing to accept the limitations of a camera from this early era, I think most will be happy to use it and exploit the uniqueness of the camera.
Final Verdict = Recommended!
Some additional things to point out:
histogram – There is one and I would recommend using it more than relying on the LCD image.
Some additional images for your viewing pleasure!
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