The Sony DSC-F717 is a bridge digital camera

Bridge digital camera

Bridge cameras are cameras which fill the niche between the single-lens reflex cameras and the Point-and-shoot camera. They are often comparable in size and weight to the smallest Digital SLRs , but almost all digital bridge cameras lack an optical viewfinder system...

 announced by Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

 in 2002. It features a 5.0 megapixel CCD

Charge-coupled device

A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time...

 sensor (8.80 × 6.60 mm). It has a 38–190 mm equiv. Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens with an aperture

Aperture

In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. The aperture determines how collimated the admitted rays are,...

 of f/2.0-f/2.4 which can be considered as a very fast lens in its class.

Photos taken can be saved as JPEG

JPEG

In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....

 or TIFF. Recording movie clips in MPEG EX/HQX is also possible.

It was made in Japan, uses the Sony infoLITHIUM M-size battery and saves to Memory Sticks.

Special features

• The camera uses a swivel body, good for complicated situations. It can be rotated in 36 degrees angled down (for overhead shooting) or 77 degrees angled upwards.
• The DSC-F717 uses the relatively rare "Hologram AF Assist" which helps the contrast detect AF system to lock AF in low light.
• It also features NightShot and NightFraming which removes the IR filter from the CCD thus making the camera "able to see in the dark" and enabling two infrared LEDs illuminating the scene at short range. Aperture and similar settings are forced to auto and are limited (this might be due to the fact, that it was possible to photograph through thin clothing with an additional IR filter). Because of the limitations it's giving the opportunity to be used in IR photography only partly.