San Diego, Calif. – The megapixel race, considered dormant if not passe among vendors, was reignited with Sony’s announcement of an 8-megapixel digital camera aimed at the advanced amateur.
The DSC-F828 is a member of Sony’s F-series of enthusiast cameras and is the first digital camera to incorporate Sony’s recently announced four-color filter CCD technology and Real Imaging Processor.
Sony’s new sensor adds an emerald-colored pixel to the traditional red, green, blue filter pattern, which the company says produces color fidelity that is closer to human color perception. The camera’s new Real Imaging Processor then converts the four-color signal back into an ideal RGB color space with a linear matrix system.
Other than a new sensor, the F828 sports Carl Zeiss T* optics with a 7x optical zoom and manual zoom control. The camera accepts CompactFlash Type I and II, Microdrive and/or Memory Stick PRO flash media.
A five-area multi-point auto focus evaluates five separate areas of the frame and focuses on the subject, displaying the selected focus point, or the user can manually choose any of the five points.
For shooting at night or in low light environments the camera features a NightShot infrared system that allows the camera to capture infrared images in total darkness at a distance of up to 15 feet. A NightFraming system illuminates the subject for proper framing, focuses with Sony’s Hologram AF illuminator and then lights the scene with the appropriate amount of flash.
The F828 can also record video at 640 by 480 resolution at 30 frames per second to the capacity of the memory card.
The Cyber-shot DSC-F828 will be available in mid-November for a suggested price of about $1,200. Sony’s other F-series camera, the DSC-F717 model will continue to be available at about $800.
