Sony DSC F1

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
2+ Years

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5,
3 votes

Summary:
This was my first digital camera (just ordered a Canon S20) and I'll never go back to film. With all its weaknesses, it did turn out good snapshots. The small size made it easy to carry everywhere for impromtu shots and convinced me to buy another small digicam (S20). It was a bit expensive at full price (I bought refurbished on the web for $300). In its day, it was state of the art, but today you can get much better cameras.

Strengths:
Small (easily pocketable), silent, swivel lens comes in very handy, excellent active matrix screen, decent photos

Weaknesses:
Doesn't deal well with strong contrasts (e.g., direct sun), flash usually overexposes, no zoom, battery needs requent recharging, slow serial connection, no removeable memory, just 640x480.

Similar Products Used:
None

Customer Service:
It's never given me a problem, so I haven't had to find out.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5,
2 votes

Summary:
The Sony DSC-F1 is one of the best small 640x480 res digital cams on the market. Sony lives up to its leadership role in the consumer electronics market. Picture quality has been consistent except under low light situations where the flash dosen't help much. Other then that the DSC-F1 has been a solid performer in all situations that I have used it. Auto controls work fine, but manual is the best when you want to get just the right effect. Bundled software it not bad, but needs an update. A strong photo editor would top the cake.All in all a fun little camera that has just enough image quality for the consumer.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5,
1 votes

Summary:
I wrote a couple of days ago about poor technical support. I have now found it to be very true. I called at various place that i was told to do. My camera is not yet a year old. I was finally referred to a place that would look at my camera. The cost for them to look at the camera is 99.00 dollars. I should have realized this as sony apparently loves giving their repairs to a chosen few. This is the reason i have never purchased a Sony tv again. We only had one place we could take it to and they charged $50.00 just to walk in the door. I will get this camera fixed as my wife paid a pretty penny for it and i hate to let it sit there. I will think twice before ever buying Sony. I thought they had gotten away from this kind of repair service.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

Summary:
We've had the DSC-F1 for over a year and we love it. It's small enough that we actually take it everywhere and get pictures we would miss with our 35mm camera.The quality of the photos is OK. Resolution limits you to small printed pictures, (3.5 x 5). We have started transferring our photos to videotape, instead of printing them all out. It's a fun way to see the images, our kids love watching the videos, and the on-screen quality is excellent.We have found several minor problems. As some others have mentioned, the flash is very strong. You can adjust the brightness, though, and I often use a small piece of Kleenex over the flash (as I do with my 35mm camera flash, too) to soften the shadows.The battery life is relatively short, if you use it continuously... about 25 minutes. But, honestly, we have only found this to be a problem once or twice.My last complaint is the dials are plastic and easily broken if dropped. (Ours broke when it fell out of my pocket).We have had a fabulous time with this camera - it's loaded with bells and whistles that make it fun to use. It's tiny size makes it totally portable.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

Summary:
I bought this camera for my husband for Christmas last year. He simply loved it till he started having problems. First it would say he had no space left when he only had taken a few pictures, then It would not let him take anymore pictures. He figured i must be the battery. So we ordered another. It was not the battery. On the place where the picture shows, i cannot remember the name of that part, there is a little green light at the right bottom and in the middle at the bottom there is a little golden star. I called Sony and got the main office i guess only to talk to people who has no sense of humor and are very dead pan. They gave me another number to call and this has answering machines. I stayed on the phone for about one half hour and never got to talk to a human. I think the camera when working is great but the technical support is non existant.