DSC-F88: A Review of One of Sony's Latest 5MP Digicams

Final Words

The Sony DSC-F88 offers quite a bit to its users. It has a sleek and solid metallic design with a lens that can rotate up to 300 degrees. With its 3x optical zoom and 5MP image size, it proves to be a versatile and powerful little camera. The exposure modes range from Auto to Manual with several Scene modes for specific situations. The camera also has an AF-assist lamp and live histogram.

During our review, we discovered several strengths of the DSC-F88. We found it to have pretty good line resolution for a 5MP compact camera. It also proved itself to be very fast both in startup and shot-to-shot times. The battery life on this camera is incredible for a compact camera. Overall, we were impressed with the F88's color reproduction as well. Like most current digicams, the F88 showed a slight yellowish cast when set to Auto WB in Tungsten lighting. However, when set to Incandescent, the color was pretty accurate. In our daylight WB samples, the F88 showed very accurate color reproduction. This camera showed very impressive noise control in low-light/long exposure scenarios. We also found the camera to have fairly intuitive menu layout.

Like most cameras, there are some things to complain about as well. With respect to image quality, we are concerned with a slight blurring that occurred towards the edges of some of our sample pictures. Although it was not extreme, it is something to be aware of. The F88 also had a slow shot-to-shot w/flash time of ~7 seconds. It's a shame how long it takes the flash to recycle, considering the general speediness of this camera. Also, the camera offers a fully manual mode, but no aperture or shutter priority modes. A few other things that might concern some users are the lack of a manual WB, the relatively short flash range, and the "so-so" movie mode. In the end, it really comes down to your own preferences for a digicam. We think that the DSC-F88 offers a pretty good performance in a stylish compact body.

Pros	Cons
Good line resolution Decent color reproduction Fast Startup Time Fast Shot to Shot time Great battery life Live histogram AF-assist lamp Effective noise reduction In-camera movie splicing Intuitive menus	Occasional blurring towards edges Slow Shot to Shot w/Flash Time No Aperture or Shutter priority mode No manual WB Short flash range Mediocre movie mode

Thanks again to Newegg.com for loaning us the Sony DSC-F88 to be reviewed.