I am searching for a Digital Camera that will give me pro control but without having to carry extra lenses. I have just found some info on the Sony DSC-D700 which seems to be ideal for me: x5 optical zoom, hot shoe for outboard flash, heaps of manual control. Everything about it looks great except it has only 1.5 megapixels which sems pretty dated now.

Does anyone know if Sony plan to upgrade the pixel resolution with this model. It looks like th perfect camera for my requirements.

John McMillan

-- John McMillan (mcmillan@hcm.vnn.vn), April 09, 2000

Answers

One thing, I have heard is that there seems to be a misconception that more pixels is better. 1.5megapixel cameras will still produce great pictures. I'd say wait for the Mavica FD95. It is a 2megapixel camera and uses a floppy disk adapter to support the Memory sticks. It would also seem to have all the great features of the FD91 and it has a hotshoe among other new features. It is said to come out in may. I would not be suprised if it goes for less than the Cybershot 770

-- david erskine (davide@netquest.com), April 09, 2000.

Hello, I work for Sony and I can say for sure that the new MVCFD95 will be less than the cybershot but won't have more pixels than the DSC-D700. The better choice for a digital camera for now would have to be the cybershot: DSC-F505 (www.sony.ca) It has a built in flash, a X5 optical zoom and of course the ever so popular memory stick feature. If anyone needs more specs check out the website or if anyone needs to order one, make sure you contact me for prices from my SONY STORE in Vancouver, Canada. I'll be glad to help you. regards,

Sebastian Gomez The Sony Store West Vancouver North Park Royal Shopping

-- Sebastian Gomez (dongino@earthlink.net), April 10, 2000.

I have a sony 505, I love it. The lens is fantastic. It doesn't go very wide (38mm equiv), but you can get decent .7x adapters. 5x zoom is great! Low light performance and shutter lag blows, but this is a problem with all digicams in my opinion. Overall image quality is fantastic for the 505. I use slave flash and built in flash with great results indoors, outdoor is supreme. It has a standard 52mm lens thread for filters, an unusual and wonderful feature for a digicam. It does have a fair bit of manual control, but it's not very convenient to get to, you have to go through some menus to tweak shutter and aperture priority for instance. No red eye adjustment, but good white balance/spot metering. It has manual focus ring, also good for a digicam, but good luck trying to manually focus using the LCD. No viewfinder on this camera. Maybe the 700 is better for manual control. The 700 is wayyy more bulky.

-- benoit (foo@bar.com), April 10, 2000.

We have been using the DSC-d770 as our backup sports camera. This little thing does a great job .You pretty much have to prefocus because the auto focus is so slow. But once you get your settings you can freeze most action , i.e.baseballs across the plate and tennis without any problem. the 2x digital setting can give consistent 2nd base shots from the third base line and even home plate action , it is a little more pixelated at this setting but the resolution isn't all that bad. The flash is either nuclear or dim but again if you work with the manual settings you can get a clean exposure. I just received the flash attachment today from Sony it's going back. it's definitely not a true hot shoe attachment and none of the instructions were in english (listening Sony?)We looked at several cameras before we bought this one and settled on it primarily because of the large aperature capablity, needed for indoor sports. all in all we are quite stisfied.

-- Bill Wyss (willy@brodnet.com), April 12, 2000.

We have been using the DSC-D770 as our backup sports camera. This little thing does a great job .You pretty much have to prefocus because the auto focus is so slow. But once you get your settings you can freeze most action , i.e.baseballs across the plate and tennis without any problem. the 2x digital setting can give consistent 2nd base shots from the third base line and even home plate action , it is a little more pixelated at this setting but the resolution isn't all that bad. The flash is either nuclear or dim but again if you work with the manual settings you can get a clean exposure. I just received the flash attachment today from Sony it's going back. it's definitely not a true hot shoe attachment and none of the instructions were in english (listening Sony?)We looked at several cameras before we bought this one and settled on it primarily because of the large aperature capablity, needed for indoor sports. all in all we are quite stisfied.

-- Bill Wyss (willy@brodnet.com), April 12, 2000.