Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 review
Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 is the company’s latest super-zoom digital camera, sporting 9 Megapixel resolution, a tilting 3in screen and a 20x optical zoom range that’s equivalent to 28-560mm. Announced in March 2009, it becomes the second mainstream compact camera to feature a CMOS sensor, following Canon’s PowerShot SX1 IS. Like that model, this equips the HX1 with both High Definition movies along with impressive continuous shooting capabilities, although there are key differences between both models.
The Sony Cyber-shot HX1 trumps its rival’s 4fps continuous shooting rate with one rated at 10fps. While it’ll only capture ten frames during this burst, and tie the camera up for a while as it writes them to the card, it remains a highly impressive capability – indeed for those ten images, the frame rate matches that of professional sports DSLRs. The HX1 also offers HD video recording, although interestingly its top 1080 mode shoots at 1440x1080 pixels rather than Full HD’s 1920x1080, but stretches it into a 16:9 shape during playback, like the HDV camcorder format.
Ever the gadgeteers, Sony’s also included a sweep-panorama feature on the HX1 which allows you to grab an automatically-stitched panoramic image by simply panning the camera while keeping your finger pressed on the shutter release button. This joins existing technologies like smile, scene and face recognition. Completing the specification are a Sony G lens, full manual exposure control and an HDMI port for connecting to HDTVs. It’s a compelling specification and one that’s priced a little more keenly than its arch rival, the PowerShot SX1 IS. So the big question is how they compare? Find out in our review where we’ll detail the HX1’s unique new features and directly compare the image quality against the SX1 IS, along with a DSLR to see how they measure-up.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 resembles the company’s earlier super-zooms, and like other models in this category, it’s styled like a mini DSLR with a protruding lens barrel, viewfinder head and pronounced grip. Measuring 115x83x92mm, the Cyber-shot HX1 is noticeably narrower than the Canon SX1 IS (indeed by 13mm), and is also 5mm shorter, albeit 5mm deeper.
The HX1 is much lighter than the SX1 IS, weighing-in at 504g to its rival’s 705g when both are fitted with their respective batteries; the extra heft of the Canon is due to its use of four AA batteries. We haven’t come across anyone rejecting the SX1 IS (or its CCD-based twin the SX10 IS) on weight, but if every gram counts then you should pick them up in person and judge for yourself – certainly the Canon is deceptively heavy for its size.
The build quality of both models is roughly the same, although while Canon’s SX1 IS features a taller grip, Sony has wrapped its in a rubber coating; it’s still not as tactile as it could be, but it’s certainly an improvement over the shiny plastic surface of the Canon, and easy to grip in one hand if necessary.
Unlike the Canon SX1 IS, there’s no flash hotshoe on the HX1, only a popup flash which either raises automatically or under instruction from a menu; this bucks the trend of its super-zoom rivals from Canon, Nikon and Panasonic which all require the owner to manually raise the flash by hand. The flash itself is small and quite low, so watch out for potential red-eye; luckily there’s a pre-flash option or auto-reduction when faces are detected. Behind the flash are stereo microphones for the movie mode.
The controls and their layout are similar to earlier Sony super-zooms, like the H9. There’s a four-way rocker on the rear, which like the H9 before it adjusts the Display, flash, self-timer and macro modes when you push up, right, down and left respectively.
The flat thumb wheel of the H9 has however been switched for an ergonomically more traditional dial in the upper right corner; this falls naturally under your thumb and also has a push-action to confirm or switch options. This is used effectively for adjusting exposures. For example in Aperture Priority you’ll see three numbers running along the bottom of the screen which can be adjusted: sensitivity, aperture and exposure compensation. By pushing the thumb wheel in, you can cycle between each setting (highlighted with a larger yellow font), then simply turn the wheel to adjust it. This is quick and easy to operate in practice.
The upper surface is home to a number of buttons including ones dedicated to the focusing and continuous shooting modes, along with a custom button which can be configured to offer quick access to the White Balance, Metering mode or the Smile Shutter feature.
Smile Shutter is the default option and presents a bar on the left side of the screen which measures the subject’s ‘smiliness’. It’s surprisingly effective at doing it too, and fun to watch as the bar rises and falls as their expression changes. Then when the user-selectable trigger point is reached, the camera automatically takes a photo.
Finally, the main mode dial sits on the upper right side of the top surface and we have full details of the options available lower down on this page.
The Cyber-shot HX1 is powered by an NP-FH50 Info Lithium battery back, which like other Info Lithium models from Sony helpfully allows on-screen feedback on how many minutes of charge are remaining – this is a key advantage Sony has over the competition which normally only offer a rough indication of charge with a segmented battery icon. A recharger is supplied and an optional AC adapter available for mains operation. Sony reckons a full charge of the battery will be good for around 195 minutes solid use or approximately 390 images taken using the main screen. Switch to the electronic viewfinder, and these figures increase slightly to 200 minutes or 400 shots. These figures are a little below Canon’s claims for the SX1 IS when fitted with decent NiMH rechargeables.
The battery compartment additionally houses a Memory Stick Duo memory card slot, which like other Sony cameras ties you into the company’s card format; we’d much sooner see an SD slot here, but that’s unlikely to happen on a Sony compact. The metal tripod thread is positioned slightly off-centre, towards the door for the battery compartment; you’ll block this door with the camera mounted on a tripod or bracket.
Two flaps on the left hand side of the body house the ports. Behind a small flap at the top is a DC input for the optional AC adapter, while underneath you’ll find a single larger proprietary connector. Like many other Sony cameras, this port has multiple uses and the HX1 is supplied with a cable which connects here and terminates with both USB and standard TV outputs. The HX1 is also supplied with a dongle which adapts the connector into a standard HDMI port. This is all very flexible, but the day you lose this cable or dongle is the day you’re looking at paying for a branded replacement. We’d much sooner the HX1 and other Sony cameras just employed standard USB, TV and HDMI ports which worked with bog-standard cables.
The optical range is of course the headline feature of any super-zoom camera, and the Cyber-shot HX1 features exactly the same range, both actual and equivalent, to the Canon SX1 IS. Both models (along with the Canon SX10 IS) have 5-100mm zooms which deliver an equivalent range of 28-560mm. This may sound like a huge range, but is actually relatively modest in the 2009 super-zoom stakes, where Nikon’s P90 and the Olympus SP-590UZ boast 26-624mm and 26-676mm respectively. Meanwhile Panasonic’s FZ28 is looking comparatively short with its 27-486mm / 18x range.
To be honest though, most of this is playing a numbers game. All the cameras listed here deliver vast ranges with enormous compositional flexibility, and the difference between them is more subtle than it looks on paper. You can see an example of the HX1’s coverage below, and further examples of how you can use it in our sample images Gallery.
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