Sony Cyber-Shot DSCHX1 Digital Camera – Black (9.1MP 20x Optical Zoom) 3.0″ LCD combines all the benefits of a digital compact camera with features that you’d expect from a DSLR. Lightning–fast shooting and powerful creative options are all at your fingertips with Sony exclusives like the Exmor CMOS sensor and Sweep Panorama. Add to that the camera’s advanced shooting features, including a 28mm wide angle Sony G lens with 20x optical zoom, and manual controls to fine tune your vision, and you’re fully equipped to take high-quality images, every time.
Whether you’ve got a breathtaking landscape, spontaneous social gathering or fast–moving action in your viewfinder, the HX1 has the power and flexibility to ensure that the result is effortlessly professional. And with a body that’s light and compact, it fits comfortably into a weekend bag, making it the perfect travel companion.
Helpful consumer’s review
I ordered this camera from Simply Electronics through Amazon and was very pleased with the service as it arrived one week later.
The camera on the whole is excellent and a huge step up from anything I’ve used to date.
The camera is small enough to fit into a small bag (not pocket) yet big enough to be comfortable to hold and operate (even for someone with big, clumsy hands). The menu system is pretty good as well (though I
have nothing to compare it against).
The panorama feature was the main selling point and I’ve not been disappointed. The standard setting gives an image approx 5000×1000 pixels but you can achieve a pleasing 5000×2000 image by rotating the
camera 90 degrees and using wide mode (I don’t think I shall use the wide horizonal setting which gives a picture about 7000×1000 pixels). I’m very happy with both modes and the pictures are simply stunning (definitely not through any skill that I possess). Not sure how I’m going to get these extra wide shots printed yet though.
Using the panorama feature vertically for buildings is not very good at all and on the couple of occassions I’ve tried it the straight lines are visibly warped. I may try this from further away but initial impressions are not good.
The response time is pretty good. If you hold the button half way (to focus) then the picture is taken very quickly upon pressing it fully. It does take a second to write the image to card so you have to wait for that but to compensate there is burst mode which can take up to 10 frames in one second. You can take up to a maximum of 10 shots before the camera has to write them to card (which takes about 1.5 seconds per picture). I would have liked to be able to take a small number of shots when I press the button without having to wait for the last one to be written but cannot so I shall live with that.
Before I bought the camera I thought the zoom was overkill but I’ve used it a couple of times and it does a very good job.
My main real gripe is that you cannot attach filters to the lens (something I had “assumed” you would be able to do). Post-processing in GIMP has sorted out most problems but this is a crazy omission.
The only other minor quibble that I have is that even though I have a genuine 8GB Sony memory card (which I purchased through Amazon) I get a message “This Memory Stick may not record or play” every time I turn on the camera and I get an error message whenever I try to format it. I have had no problems actually saving pictures to the card but the message is annoying.
Despite these two last points I’m extremely happy with the camera and the pictures that it has produced.
