The DSC-F55 has a builtin demo mode that is accessed from the Setup
menu and can be displayed on a TV screen for use in the camera store
or to give a first-time user a visual "walk around" the camera features.
This is the message displayed on the LCD everytime you turn the camera
on. It lets you know visually whether or not you have the correct time
and date stored in memory and gives you something to watch as the
hardware "boots up."
It also shows you that yours truly is a real nightowl. Yes!
I'm hard at work at 1:35am in the morning, preparing this report
for you.
This is a Still image record screen with the status information displayed
across the top and the menu options along the bottom. Here you see a
battery that's half used with 30 min remaining, the flash is set to always
fire, image resolution is 1600x1200 in Fine quality, we've shot six
shots and there isn't much room left on that 4MB MemoryStick.
The File menu lets you format the MemoryStick, set the file numbering for
sequential numbering, set the image size or quality and pick the desired
recording mode.
This is the Camera menu options during Still recording where you can
manually override the white balance, flash level or exposure values.
This is a typical MPEG Movie onscreen display during the recording
process. Here we see the overlay info telling us that we're ready
to capture a 5-second clip in 320x240 resolution.
You can capture either a small (160x112) MPEG size for email or use the
larger (320x240) for more detailed recordings to be played back on
your computer or TV screen.
While in the Movie mode this is the menu for selecting the length of
the recording: 5, 10 or 15 seconds.
A typical playback image with the menu overlayed across the bottom.
You use the Index option move forwards or backwards through your images.
And you can also selectively delete any image.
To quickly view your stored images there is the usual thumbnail preview
to pick any image for fullscreen playback or deletion.
During playback you can zoom-in to the picture up to 5X magnification
and then scroll around using the 4-way jog switch. This lets you
see even small details on the 2" LCD screen.
Steve's Conclusion
The DSC-F55 is a great little pocket-sized camera that takes excellent
pictures thanks in part to its Zeiss lens and Sony's 2-megapixel imager.
It is adorned with Sony's latest hybrid LCD screen that is quite useable
in the direct sunlight but it's still handicapped by the lack of an optical
viewfinder. The LCD is best viewed outdoors when the sun is directly
striking the panel but I found many times when I was not at the right
angle and it was difficult to see.
I'm not really a fan of fixed focal length (non zoom) lenses as they are
usually too wide. The Zeiss lens used on the F55 is a good compromise
as far as the field of view is concerned. It is wide but not too wide.
It produces extremely sharp pictures, rivaling those of the Nikon 950
which seems to be the standard by which others are compared. Color
balance and saturation is also good and even though Sony uses a lot of
compression, even on the Fine mode images, the F55's pictures are
top notch.
The F55 uses the same 2" hybrid LCD and 1/2-inch CCD imager as the Sony
F505 and they both use the MemoryStick as their storage media. The one
thing they didn't put on the F55 was a USB port and it is desperately
needed, the serial port is rediculously slow for downloading 2-megapixel
images. Sony is determined to use these new MemorySticks in as many
products as possible so we might as well get used to seeing them on
their new digicams. It's kind of like SmartMedia Take Two -- right now
you can only get MemorySticks in 4MB or 8MB sizes although the higher
capacity 16MB, 32MB and 64MB cards have been announced.
The camera is powered by one of Sony's 3.6v InfoLITHIUM batteries and gives
you fairly good runtime in spite of the fact that the LCD must be used all
of the time. The amount of battery power remaining is constantly displayed
on the LCD screen so you always know how much picture-taking time you have
left. Included is a rapid charger and a battery eliminator to power the
camera directly from an AC source. This is handy as the camera spends a
good deal of time tethered to the computer during those slow, serial port
downloads.
The MPEG movie feature is nice to make email-able little clips to send to
your friends but I'd prefer to use a dedicated camcorder to make movies.
Recently we've seen a trend with the new digicams and camcorders to enable
the users to be able to do both still and motion pictures but I haven't
seen one yet that does it right. Either it's a still camera that makes
small, over-compressed movies or it's a camcorder that only makes grainy,
VGA-sized images. Oh well, someday they'll get it right.
I think this camera will serve you well if you take most of your pictures
indoors. It fails in the role of an outdoor camera due to the lack of a
zoom lens and an optical viewfinder. You can't follow rapid-moving
subjects with a camera that's held out in front of you, it just isn't
natural. The F55 is highly portable due to its small size and the metal
case makes it very durable. Of course the bottom line is always image
quality and Sony's DSC-F55 delivers a high quality image that's easily
capable of being printed up to 8x10". Exposure was nearly perfect everytime
whether it was flash or available light and the macro mode lets you
grab shots of things as close as an inch or two away.
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