Retro Review: Sony Cyber-Shot F505

Gordon Laing posted his latest retro review of the Sony Cyber-shot F505, which came from an exciting period of time full of experimental point-and-shoot designs. You can watch his full-view review above or get the key points below:

  • Nontraditional camera design is still fresh today
  • Sony worked with Carel Zeiss, which gave them legitimacy
  • Utilized memory stick
  • Grab the barrel with your left hand and tilt the body with your right hand for easy framing
  • Very good for waist-level shooting
  • The twisting mechanism feels great
  • The lens contains a sensor and controls
  • The body contains the main controls, screen, and the memory card
  • Most cameras had 3x optical zooms, while the Sony had 5x, which was equivalent to 38-190mm
  • It would have been nice if the lens started a little wider
  • The zoom is motorized, and it moves smoothly and allows for fine adjustments
  • You can zoom optically while shooting video
  • The aperture is f/2.8-3.4, with f/2.8 covering half the range and f/3.4 the rest
  • There was no magnified focus assist, but there was an indicator icon
  • There is a pop-up flash on the camera and a tripod mount on the optical access
  • The rear screen is 2″ and the only way to compose with a transflective hybrid panel that can use ambient light or a backlight
  • The transflective technology works well if you angle it right
  • The transflective screen saved power
  • There are two JPEG compression options and three resolution options, but no uncompressed option
  • 2.1MP 1/2 CCD sensor that captures a max resolution of 1600×1200 with a typical file size of 500k in best quality
  • Video at 320×240 or 160×120 at 15fps for 5, 10, 15 seconds a clip or a min in the low-resolution mode
  • It was bundled with a 4MP card
  • The battery was charged externally
  • Proprietary USB connector
  • Great camera in 1995 and is still great today
  • The design remained relevant until 2003

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