Sony DSC-F717

Read countless reviews to find a camera that excels in the 3 areas I was most interested in: 1. Low light and flash conditions, 2. No-light, night shots, and 3. Battery life. Although this model is 2 years old now, it still takes excellent flash and night shots with incredible color. And the re-chargeable battery seems to last forever, with about 350 minutes of use on a full charge. When fully charged, you really don't ever have to worry about the battery for a full day (or night) of picture taking.

For indoor flash pictures, the camera emits a laser/hologram on the subject, determines the distance from the camera, and adjusts the strength of the flash accordingly. You rarely get over/under exposed flash pictures.

And it really excels with night shots, with it's SCENE mode. Just get a tripod, and you'll have some of the best, most colorful and sharp night shots produced from a non-pro SLR camera. Shutter priority mode allows you to "tweak" your night shots by making incremental adjustments in shutter speed, which controls the amount of light getting through. And see in the LCD preview screen how each adjustment in shutter speed affects the picture.

And Sony provides a full array of accessories for the camera (those don't come cheap though).

Would love to find a newer model (Sony or not) that has similar or better features, with maybe a few more megapixels.

Newer Sony models support different memory types, more megapixels, and more features.

EZgoin15
Chicago, IL