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I have owned the F828 since 12/30/03, and I just love this camera. I admit there is still a considerable amount of learning for me to do with this camera. The Carl Zeiss T* lens is just incredibly, and the 4-color CCD does seem to render colors better. I am consistently impressed by how eye color and detail is captured by this camera.....by far the best I have seen in a "non D-SLR" digital camera. OK, now onto the niggles....(1) Yes there is some noise from ISO200 and above, but there are others in this boat also, and there is a noise reduction feature in the "twilight" profile. Neat Image software does an acceptable job mitigating the noise in most images. The FujiFilm S-7000 (my previous selection) has a horrible reputation for high ISO noise, and apparently has some real issues trying to autofocus in low-light. Were it not for Howard Creech's appraisal in Epinions, I would have an S-7000 and probably be pretty pissed off. (2) Purple fringing.....stated by so many as being Chromatic Aberration, is most likely due to CCD Blooming. I believe this is CCD Blooming due to overloaded pixel elements dumping onto adjacent pixel elements and you get purple fringe. I have seen night shots of city waterfront areas, and on "auto" there is significant fringing, but in "aperture priority", with a small aperture the purple is very slight. Makes sense......less light entering the lens equals fewer CCD pixel elements overloaded. Also, I recently began using a circular polarizing filter, and this really helps control situations where harsh glare would induce "the fringe". The Carl Zeiss T* lens, while not an "apochromatic lens", has extremely high optical qualities. If there is some chromatic aberration to blame for the purple fringe, the F828 has nearly every other digital camera as company in that department!

I really like this camera, and I feel quite strongly it was the best $919.00 I have ever spent. Sure there are better digital cameras out there, but the F828 offers alot of options for a wide variety of photography situations.

I don't own this camera, but have been researching it online. It seems there is disagreement among reviewers here regarding the alleged chromatic aberration (purple fringing) issue.

The most thorough and objective online review site I know of for digital cameras is Digital Photography Review (www.dpreview.com). As an aid to other consumers concerned about this issue, I offer the following quote from their review of this camera:

"It's a huge pity but the DSC-F828 has a fringing problem. We'll call it 'purple fringing' but it's clearly a combination of chromatic aberrations caused by the interaction of the lens and the microlenses on the sensor and enhanced by a certain amount of blooming which carries the color out further than the original artifact.

While worse at full wide angle and maximum aperture (28 mm equiv., F2.0) it is visible throughout the zoom range and at smaller apertures. It's clearly possible to take images which will never suffer from this effect, it does require either a strong backlight or sunlight reflection to become apparent. The issue really is that in a normal shooting situation you would have no real idea if the image had suffered until you return to your computer and view the image at full size.

It's also possible to reduce the visiblity of these artifacts with careful post-processing, using specific CA reduction tools or simple color replacement filters. However there is no getting away from the fact that these artifacts should not be there."

I've viewed about a dozen sample photos that illustrate this aberration, and I agree with the above assessment. Also, I was not at all impressed with the DSC-F828's noise level in low-light situations given this camera's price point. There is a lot of potential in this model (8MP, Carl Zeiss lens, etc.), but at the end of the day, image quality is what matters most in a camera. Sony has consistently upgraded this camera about every 12 months for the last four years (F505 - Aug '99; F505V - Apr '00; F707 - Aug '01; F717 - Sep '02; F828 - Aug '03). I'm going to hold off until the next iteration which should be due out around August 2004. Hopefully, Sony will address these issues.

I was apprehensive about this camera due to the talk of purple and other 'problems'. I've been using this camera now (july) since May and I've not had any weirdness or problems.
I was close to buying the Rebel-- but I went with the sony---
1. I now use this camera for video & stills-- No juggling two camera-- which is impossible anyway being a mom with 2 kids! result is that I'm taking way more video and more pictures than previously
2. great quality. i do blow up pictures and I needed the 8mp-- I do use the 5mp setting mostly
3. the macro is just awesome. i've taken some great close up pictures with this camera
4. I love the way I can combine media and flip between compact flash and sony stick.

soo-- no problems here =)