Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5 Review

April 6, 2010 | Mark Goldstein | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star Half rating star

Introduction

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5 is a feature-packed compact digital camera, offering a 10x, 25-250mm zoom lens, 10.1 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, built-in GPS tracking complete with a compass and full 1080i high-definition video recording with stereo sound and HDMI output. Other key features of the Sony HX5 travel-zoom camera include the new Intelligent Sweep Panorama mode, which now compensates for moving objects, a 3 inch LCD screen, 10fps burst shooting mode at full resolution, ISO range of 125-3200, Optical SteadyShot with new Active Mode which cuts camera-shake while you're shooting handheld HD video, Intelligent Auto, Program and full Manual shooting modes, and support for both Memory Stick PRO Duo and Secure Digital cards. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5 is available in black and gold for £329.99 / $349.99.

Ease of Use

The DSC-HX5 is Sony's first entry into the increasingly popular travel-zoom sector, which typically offers a 10x or bigger zoom lens in a compact camera that you can still fit inside a pocket. Panasonic started the trend a couple of years ago with the debut of the market-dominating TZ-series, but they've since been joined by offerings from Samsung, Nikon, Casio and now Sony, who have seemingly stuffed virtually all of their competitors' main features into the new HX5. It really does read like a traveller's wish-list, with even a Manual shooting mode included, something that took Panasonic three generations to finally offer on the recent DMC-TZ10 and TZ8 cameras.

The Sony DSC-HX5 has a conventional 10x extending optical lens with respectable maximum apertures of f/3.5 at the 25mm wide-angle setting and f/5.5 at full telephoto. The HX5's lens is a joy to use, with a 10x zoom in such a small package making this camera more adaptable than you might first think, with everything from ultra-wide landscapes to candid long-distance portraits within easy reach. The 25mm focal length provides an entirely new wide angle of view that can only increase your creativity. You won't want to go back to a "standard" 35mm zoom after using the 25mm lens on the DSC-HX5, or even a 28mm one - 3mm at the wide-angle end really does make a big difference. Even when set to 250mm, the lens doesn't extend too far from the front of the HX5, making it look to all intents and purposes like a "normal" compact camera. Also, the combination of the f/3.5 aperture, effective optical image stabilizer and maximum ISO speed of 3200 makes this camera well suited to hand-held low-light photography. Sony has fitted a dual image stabilisation mechanism in the shape of both optical SteadyShot and an ISO range that extends up to ISO 3200. If not quite class leading, it's better than you'll find on an average point-and-shoot - you can see some examples on the Image Quality page. Note that you can't actually turn off the SteadyShot function.

Despite its big zoom lens, the HX5 is still quite a slender camera, measuring less than 3cms at its narrowest point and weighing 200g with the battery and memory card fitted, with a large 3-inch, 230k-dot resolution LCD screen at the rear. As you'd expect with a screen of that size on such a small camera, the HX5 has no optical viewfinder to fall back on. Providing the means of gripping the camera is a slightly indented vertical channel on the front and a similar thumb-shaped indentation on the rear, making the DSC-HX5 easy to get to grips with despite its smooth metal surface. Also located on the front of the HX5 is the lens, a small and narrow window for the flash and a porthole on the far right for the self-timer/AF illuminator.

Press the small round On/Off button on the shiny silver top plate and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5 quickly readies itself for action in a just over a second. The adequately sized shutter-release button has a definite halfway point, determining focus and exposure with a bleep of affirmation, focus points highlighted as green rectangles on the LCD. Go on to take the shot and the JPEG images are committed to memory in a single second, the screen momentarily blanking out and then displaying the captured image before the user can go on to take a second shot. The shutter release button is encircled by a responsive forefinger-operated push/pull rocker zoom lever, with the camera taking around four seconds to zoom from wide-angle to full telephoto. The HX5's built-in stereo microphone is also located on top of the camera, plus a tiny but handily placed button for turning on the various Burst modes, including that headline-grabbing 10fps mode.

Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5 Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5
Front Rear

Pressing the drive mode button brings up two options, single or burst, with high-, mid- and low-speed continuous options then available in the Menu system. Out of these, the high-speed continuous mode is the most remarkable. The HX5 takes up to 10 full-resolution photos at a frankly astounding 10 frames per second, which is faster than most compact cameras and indeed most DSLRs too. The only fly in the ointment is that once the burst is completed, it takes over fifteen seconds for the camera to clear the buffer, during which you cannot take another picture. In the other two continuous shooting modes, the Sony HX5 also takes up to 10 pictures, but at slower speeds of 5 or 2 frames per second.

A round shooting mode dial with a knurled edge and positive action completes the HX5's top-plate, letting you quickly switch between the various shooting modes that are on offer. Sony has included Intelligent Auto scene recognition, which works in virtually identical fashion to the intelligent auto modes of Panasonic's and Canon's compact ranges. Simply point the HX5 at a scene or subject and the camera analyses it and automatically chooses one of 11 pre-optimised settings to best suit. For complete beginners, there's also the Easy shooting mode, which employs the same intelligent auto scene recognition system, but also reduces the number of features available to a few key ones and simplifies the display with bigger text and icons.

Adding to its snapshot simplicity, these features join enhanced face recognition and smile shutter functionality on board, the former mode biasing human faces in the frame and the latter mode firing the shutter when it detects a smiling subject. The enhanced Face Detection system automatically adjusts the focus, exposure and white balance for people in the frame, and can even be set to distinguish between children and adults. Smile Detection, which is toggled on and off by pressing left on the navigation pad, offers three self-explanatory options, Big, Normal and Slight. Used in conjunction, the Face and Smile Detection systems do result in more hits than misses, especially in contrasty lighting conditions, although all those smiling faces could ultimately freak you out a little! New for the HX5 are the self-portrait options in the self-timer menu, which work by automatically taking the shot with a two second delay after either one or two people have entered the frame.

In addition to the regular Program mode, which provides the full range of camera options and additionally allows you to change settings like the ISO speed and metering, is the welcome inclusion of a fully Manual mode that lets you independently set the aperture and shutter speed, which will instantly appeal to the more experienced photographer. The range of apertures on offer is unfortunately rather limited to just two settings at either end of the lens (f/3.5 or f/8.0 at 25mm and f/5.5 or f/13 at 300mm) with the camera employing a built-in Neutral Density filer, but the ability to choose from 30 - 1/1600th second shutter speeds and set both the aperture and shutter speed if you wish opens up a lot of creative potential. Sadly there are no Aperture or Shutter priority modes, which would have narrowed the skill gap between Program and Manual, and there's no support for the RAW file format either, which would really have been the icing on the cake for serious photographers looking for a backup-pocket camera to their DSLR.

The improved and renamed Intelligent Sweep Panorama mode lets you capture a panoramic image very easily without the use of a tripod. All you need to decide is whether you would like to start from left or right, top or bottom. Then press and hold down the shutter release while doing a "sweep" with the camera in hand. Exposure compensation is available before you start the sweep, but the exposure is fixed once you depress the shutter button. After you are done with the sweeping, the camera does all the processing required, and presents you with a finished panoramic image.

Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5 Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5
Front Side

The main catch is that the final panorama is of relatively low resolution: the shorter side is invariably 1080 pixels, whereas the longer side is 4912 pixels for a 'standard' panorama, and 7152 pixels for a 'wide' one. Note also that if you do the sweeping too slowly, or you let go of the shutter release button too early, the panorama will be truncated. The major area of improvement on the HX5 relates to moving objects in the frame. The standard Sweep Panorama mode always recorded people and anything that moved as several ghost outlines, which meant that you could really only record static, empty scenes. The HX5 seems to have solved this problem completely, with all of our test panoramas including just one instance of the moving object.

In the Hand-held Twilight and Anti Motion Blur shooting modes, the DSC-HX5 takes six shots in a rapid sequence, typically at a high sensitivity setting and a (relatively) fast shutter speed, and then combines them into a single image that has somewhat less noise than a single shot taken at the same ISO and exposure settings. In my experience, the difference between the two modes is that in Anti Motion Blur mode, the camera is more willing to pick a really high ISO setting like ISO 1600 to maintain a fast shutter speed, whereas in Hand-held Twilight mode, it will only go as high as absolutely necessary to avoid camera shake at the chosen focal length. If light levels are truly low, however, the HX5 will pick a high ISO speed even in this mode.

Backlight Correction HDR is a brand new feature where the HX5 automatically shoots two frames quick succession, varying the exposure for each one then combining them to create a single image with the most detail possible in both the shadows and highlights. You can see from the example on the Image Quality page that this feature produces a photo with noticeably more dynamic range than one taken using one of the standard shooting modes, but at the same time without replicating the often "false" look of many HDR programs. Note that you should mount the camera on a tripod to avoid any unwanted camera-shake, and we were disappointed that you can only turn Backlight Correction HDR on or off, with no options for varying the intensity of the effect.

Present and correct is the increasingly ubiquitous ability to shoot High Definition video clips, but unlike most competitors the HX5 does so at full 1080i HD rather than 720p, and also with stereo sound rather than mono. The various options are 1920x1280 or 1440x1280 pixels at 30fps in the AVCHD format, and 1440x1280, 1280x720 or 640x480 pixels at 30fps in the MPEG4 format. There is full use of the optical zoom during recording so you can really make the most of that 25-250mm focal range, plus the ability to change the EV level, white balance, and metering options and turn on either standard SteadyShot or the new Active Mode mode, which provides up to 10x more effectiveness with no side-effects. There's also a direct HDMI output from the camera, useful for playing back your footage on a HDTV set, although sadly there's no HDMI cable supplied in the box. The dedicated Movie button on the rear of the DSC-HX5 allows you to start recording a movie with a single push of a button, and then stop recording by pressing the same button - a lot more intuitive than having to select the movie mode then press the shutter button, as on most compacts. You can also activate the movie mode via the Shooting Mode dial.

GPS is a brand new feature for Sony compacts, and also one that has slowly but surely been finding its way into digital cameras as the technology has got smaller and cheaper to implement. This potentially allows you to seamlessly geo-tag your photos (latitude and longitude co-ordinates are stored in the EXIF data) and then sort and display them using geo-friendly websites such as Google Earth and Google Maps or the supplied Picture Motion Browser PC software. The HX5 also uses the GPS to keep the camera time accurate, and even has a built-in compass that shows shows which direction you were pointing when the picture was taken!

Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5 Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5
Memory Card Slot Battery Compartment

The GPS function can be manually turned on or off and the current GPS status is displayed as a small icon on the LCD screen. Three bars appear next to the icon when the GPS has synced with one or more satellites, which unfortunately takes a few minutes from powering on the camera. Thankfully once it's synced, the HX5's GPS receiver works a lot better than most other GPS-capable cameras that we've reviewed, saving accurate positioning information for the majority of the images that we shot in built-up central London, making this camera much more useful for urban photographers. The main downside of the HX5's GPS is the subsequent drain on battery life, with the camera only managing just over 225 shots with GPS turned on instead of the 300 that it can manage without.

The Sony HX5 is one of the first cameras on the market to support TransferJet, a new wireless transfer protocol that's supported by most of the major manufacturers. TransferJet allows you to very quickly (up to 375 Mbps) and easily copy images between two compatible devices - Sony recently showed us a neat docking station that instantly transferred files from camera to picture frame just by resting the camera on the station, with no need to pair the two devices. There are a few limitations - TransferJet is reliant on using a compatible Sony Memory Stick, which as you'd probably expect are more expensive than the standard ones, and the receiving device must also be compatible with this relatively new protocol.

The rear of the DSC-HX5 is dominated by the large 3 inch LCD screen, although the resolution is a rather disappointingly average 230K dots, resulting in a slightly grainy display that's out of step with the rest of the camera. To the right of the screen is the one-touch movie record button and a small button for playing back your images. Users have the ability to dip in and out of created folders of images or the calendar view, view thumbnails, select slideshows and choose transitional effects and accompanying music, or delete shots. Press the shutter button halfway and you're helpfully catapulted back into capture mode. And that's basically it. With a press of the Menu button in playback, users have access to a few in-camera retouching effects, including the ability to crop and sharpen an image and apply red-eye correction.

Underneath the Playback button is a traditional round navigation pad which you can use to navigate through menus and options, in conjunction with the small button in the middle which activates whatever it is you've chosen. The four directions on the navigation pad also provide a quick way of setting the Display, Flash, Timer and Smile Shutter options. Finally, there are buttons for the camera's menu system and for deleting images underneath the navigation pad. The menu button accesses most of the camera's main functions - image size, burst settings, bracketing, exposure compensation, ISO, white balance, focus mode, metering, smile detection, and face detection - plus an icon at the bottom to open the four Settings menus. The latter includes the ability to deactivate the camera's 'bleep' that otherwise sounds at every button press, choose the movie format and activate red-eye reduction if required.

The bottom of the Sony HX5 features a standard metal screw thread for attaching it to a tripod which is rather inconveniently located in the corner. Alongside this is the HDMI port, then a plastic cover that protects the lithium-ion battery that provides a respectable life of 300 shots and the removable memory card, with Sony now supporting the SD / SDHC format in addition to their own proprietary Pro Duo Memory Stick format that they have persisted with for so long. There's also a hardly worth it 11MB internal memory to fall back on which can store 9 full-resolution still images. The right side of the HX5 has a tiny eyelet for the supplied wrist strap, while there are no controls on the left side (looking from the rear).

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 4.5Mb.

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5 produced images of very good quality during the review period. This camera handled noise very well, not becoming obvious until the relatively slow speed of ISO 800 and then becoming progressively worse at the fastest settings of ISO 1600 and 3200 - still, not bad for such a small image sensor.

Chromatic aberrations were in evidence but were well-controlled, with some limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The 10 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, as you can't change the in-camera sharpening level.

Macro performance is quite good, allowing you to focus as close as 5cms away from the subject. Commendably barrel distortion is well controlled even at the 25mm wide-angle focal length. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure.

Anti-shake works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds allows the cameras to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.

The new Backlight Correction HDR feature dramtically increases the detail in the shadow and highlight areas, although we miss being able to choose just how much correction is applied. Both the Hand-held Twilight mode and Sweep Panorama modes work as advertised, making it simple to take hand-held low-light and wide-vista shots.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 125 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5's 10x zoom lens offers a versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

25mm

250mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are just a little soft and ideally benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can't change the in-camera sharpening level.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

   

Chromatic Aberrations

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5 handled chromatic aberrations well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5 allows you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot

100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5 are Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Syncro, No Flash, with a Red-eye Reduction option in the Main menu. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Suppressed Flash - Wide Angle (25mm)

Forced Flash - Wide Angle (25mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64
   

Suppressed Flash - Telephoto (250mm)

Forced Flash - Telephoto (250mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Forced Flash setting or the Red-Eye Correction option caused any red-eye.

Forced Flash

Forced Flash (100% Crop)
   

Red-eye Reduction

Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night Shot

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds in the Manual mode, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 25 seconds at ISO 125. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot

Night Shot (100% Crop)

Backlight Correction HDR Mode

DRO is Sony's solution for improving shadow and highlight detail in photos taken in contrasty light, significantly increasing the image's dynamic range. The examples show the rather dramatic effect of turning this feature on.

Off

On

Hand-held Twilight Mode

In the Hand-held Twilight mode the DSC-HX5 takes six high-ISO photos in rapid succession and combines them into a single image. To test this, I took the same shot twice, once with the feature enabled, and once in either Program or Manual mode.

Program Mode Hand-held Twilight Mode
(100% Crop) (100% Crop)
   
Manual Mode (ISO 125, 25 seconds) Hand-held Twilight Mode (1/8th second)
(100% Crop) (100% Crop)

Intelligent Sweep Panorama Mode

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5 allows you to take panoramic images very easily, by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching and now even successfully compensates for moving subjects. The main catch is that the resulting image is of fairly low resolution. Check out some examples below - note the absence of any "ghosting" effects around the moving people in the second shot.

 

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5 camera, which were all taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

This is a sample video from the Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5 camera at the highest quality setting of 1280x720 pixels at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 16 second movie is 23.8Mb in size.

Product Images

Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Front of the Camera

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Isometric View

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Isometric View

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Rear of the Camera

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Rear of the Camera / Manual Mode

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Top of the Camera

 

Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Bottom of the Camera

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Side of the Camera

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Side of the Camera

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Front of the Camera

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Front of the Camera

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Memory Card Slot

 
Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

Sony may be new to the travel-zoom game, but they've certainly made a bold entrance with the CyberShot DSC-HX5, which offers virtually all of the key features that several of its rivals collectively offer, wrapped-up in an easy-to-use package with an eminently sensible 10 megapixel sensor. We're struggling to think of a first-generation product that gets so much right and so little wrong as the DSC-HX5. It may not have the bigger 14x zoom, high-resolution LCD screen or more megapixels that its key rivals offer, but it does combine an awful lot of well-chosen wish-list features that instantly propel it to the status of serious contender for the travel-zoom crown.

The 10 megapixel backlit sensor provides excellent results from ISO 125-800, with only the fastest settings of 1600 and 3200 suffering from too much noise and smearing of fine detail. Chromatic aberrations were well controlled and colours accurate, and the 25-250mm lens commendably didn't suffer from much distortion at either end of the zoom range. The Manual mode lets you set a shutter speed of up to 30 seconds for effective night-time shooting, and if you don't want to use a tripod, the Hand-held Twilight mode delivers great results. Sony's ever popular Sweep Panorama mode now copes admirably with moving subjects, while the new Backlight Correction HDR feature dramatically increases the detail in the shadow and highlight areas.

In addition to the excellent still images, the Sony GX5 is one of the few digital compacts to offer full 1080i video recording, gaining the upper hand on its rivals. You can use the 10xzoom during recording, sound is stereo rather than mono, and the AVCHD format ensures that file sizes don't get out of control. The built-in GPS also works well, unobtrusively and reliably recording your every movement, although the camera takes a few minutes to sync with one or more satellites and the battery life is reduced by around 25% if you leave it constantly switched on.

The addition of a fully Manual shooting mode is very welcome, although I missed the Aperture and Shutter Priority modes that several rivals offer, and only offering two possible apertures does somewhat limit what you can achieve. Beginners shouldn't be scared off the HX5 either, as Sony's excellent hand-holding Intelligent Auto mode is as effective as the competition's, with an even more straight-forward Easy mode available for complete point-and-shoot novices.

And we haven't even mentioned the frankly astonishing 10fps burst shooting mode, welcome support for Secure Digital as well as Sony's own format, and a price-tag that while not cheap is at least on a par with the other main contenders. In short, the Sony CyberShot DSC-HX5 is an excellent camera with no major flaws that's easily deserving of our Highly Recommended award.

4.5 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4.5
Features 5
Ease-of-use 4.5
Image quality 4.5
Value for money 4

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5 from around the web.

trustedreviews.com »

Like most of its peers the HX5 is designed more for practicality than for style, but it's still a good looking camera, and is available in black or silver. It has an all-metal body which is rather box-like, but which has a rounded grip moulded into the right-hand end making it very comfortable to hold. It's quite small by long-zoom compact standards, measuring 102.9 x 57.7 x 28.9mm and weighing 200g including battery and memory card.
Read the full review »

cameralabs.com »

Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-HX5 is the company's first truly pocketable super-zoom camera. Announced in January 2010 it features a 10x optical zoom with impressive wide-angle capabilities, Full HD video recording, very fast continuous shooting, a built-in GPS receiver which records your position, altitude, compass heading and local time onto images, and a 10 Megapixel CMOS sensor which claims great low light performance. Sony's earlier Cyber-shot DSC-H20 may have also sported a 10x zoom, but it wasn't anywhere near as small, nor did it share the HX5's impressive array of additional features.
Read the full review »

dcresource.com »

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V ($349) is a compact ultra zoom camera with several features that differentiate it from most of its competitors. They include a back-illuminated CMOS sensor, which promises better-than-average low light performance and super-fast continuous shooting, plus a built-in GPS, unique sweep panorama feature, and 1080i HD movie recording. That's on top of the 10X, 25 - 250 mm Sony "G" zoom lens, optical image stabilization, 3-inch LCD, limited manual controls, HDMI output, and support for both Memory Stick Duo and SD/SDHC memory cards.
Read the full review »

Specifications

Lens

Optical Zoom

10x

Precision Digital Zoom

Approx.20x(Total)

Smart Zoom

up to 57x (with VGA)

F

3.5-5.5

Focal Length (f= mm)

4.25-42.5

Focal Length (f=35mm conversion)

25-250

Macro (cm)

iAuto(W:Approx.5cm(0.16') to Infinity, T:Approx.100cm(3.28') to Infinity)

Filter Diameter (mm)

NO

Conversion Lens compatibility

NO

NightShot

NO

NightFraming

NO

Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens

NO

Sony G

YES

Image Sensory

CCD Type

Exmor R CMOS sensor

Size (Inches)

1/2.4 type(7.59mm)

Camera

Effective Pixels (Mega Pixels)

Approx. 10.2

Bionz Processor

YES

Face Detection

YES

Smile Shutter

YES

ClearRAW NR

YES

Auto Focus Method (Single)

NO

Auto Focus Method (Monitoring)

NO

Auto Focus Method (Intelligent)

NO

Auto Focus Method (Continuous)

NO

Auto Focus Area (Multi Point)

9 points (Under Face Undetected)

Auto Focus Area (Centre weighted)

YES

Auto Focus Area (Spot)

YES

Auto Focus Area (Flexible Spot)

NO

Manual Focus

NO

Focus Preset

NO

Focus Preset (m)

NO

Aperture Auto Mode

YES

Aperture Priority Mode

NO

ApertureManual Mode

YES

Shutter Speed Auto Mode (sec)

iAuto(2" - 1/1,600) / Program Auto(1" - 1/1,600)/Manual(30"-1/1600)

NR Slow Shutter

YES

Hand Shake Alert

YES

Exposure Control

+/- 2.0EV, 1/ 3 EV step

White Balance

Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent1, Fluorescent2, Fluorescent3, Incandescent, Flash, One Push, One Push Set

Automatic White Balance

YES

Light Metering (Multi Pattern)

YES

Light Metering (Centre weighted)

YES

Light Metering (Spot)

YES

Sharpness Setting

NO

Saturation Setting

NO

Contrast Setting

NO

ISO Sensitivity (REI)

Auto / 125 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200

Scene Selection

8 modes (Twilight / Twilight Portrait / Twilight using a tripod / Backlight / Backlight Porttait / Landscape / Macro / Portrait )

AF Illuminator

YES

Flash Mode

Auto / Flash On / Slow Syncro / Flash Off

Distance limitations using Flash (m)

ISO Auto: Approx.0.25-Approx.3.8m(Approx.0.82'-Approx.12.5')(W) / Approx.1.0Approx.2.6m(Approx.3.281'-Approx.8.53')(T), ISO3200: up to Approx.7.6m(Approx24.9)(W) / Approx.5.2m(Approx17.1')(T)

Pre-flash

YES

Red-eye Reduction

YES

Auto Daylight Synchronized Flash

YES

Super SteadyShot

Super SteadyShot capability

NO

SteadyShot capability

NO

Optical SteadyShot capability

YES

Auto Focus System

AF Illuminator

YES

Built-In-Flash

Flash Mode

Auto / Flash On / Slow Syncro / Flash Off

Red-Eye Reduction

YES

Auto Daylight Synchronized Flash

YES

LCD/ Viewfinder

LCD Screen Size (inches)

7.5cm / 3"

LCD Total Dots Number

230.400

LCD Monitor Type

TFT

Auto Bright Monitoring

YES

Optical Viewfinder

NO

Electrical Viewfinder

NO

Recording

Recording Media

Memory Stick™ Duo(still only), Memory Stick PRO Duo™(Mark2 only for movie). Memory Stick PRO Duo™ High Speed (Still only and no Speed Advantage), Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™ (No Speed Advantage),

Recording Media II

SD/SDHC Memory Card(Class4 or Higher for movie), Internal memory (45MB)

Recording Format

JPEG

Memory Stick™ Pro Interface

Parallel

DCF (Design rule for Camera File System)

YES

DPOF (Digital Print Order Format)

YES

Burst Mode (shots)

Approx.10 fps(10 shots)

Burst Interval (approximately sec)

0.1 sec.(10 shots)

Still Image size (14 Mega 4320 x 3240)

NO

Still Image size (13 Mega 4224 x 3168)

NO

Still Image size (12 Mega 4000 x 3000)

NO

Still Image size (10 Mega 3648 x 2736)

YES

Still Image size (9.0 Mega, 3456 x 2592)

NO

Still Image size (8.0 Mega, 3264 x 2448)

NO

Still Image size (7.2 Mega 3072 x 2304)

NO

Still Image size (5.0 Mega, 2592 x 1944)

YES

Still Image size (3.1 Mega, 2048 x 1536)

YES

Still Image size (VGA, 640 x 480)

YES

Still Image size (16:9 mode, 1920 x 1080)

YES

Still Image size (16:9 mode, 3648 x 2056)

YES

Still Image size (3:2 mode, 4000 x 2672)

NO

Still Image size (3:2 mode 3648 x 2432)

NO

Still Image size (3:2 mode 3456 x 2304)

NO

Panorama

7.152 x 1.080(270deg) / 4.912 x 1.080(185deg) / 4.912 x 1.920(185deg) / 3.424 x 1.920(129deg)

Moving Image Size (1280x720 30fps Fine Approx.9Mbps)

NO

Moving Image Size (1280x720 30fps Standard Approx.6Mbps)

NO

Moving Image Size (640x480 30fps Approx.3Mbps)

NO

Moving Image Size (320x240 30fps)

NO

Moving Image Size (AVCHD 1920 x 1080(50i, Interlace) Approx.17Mbps(Averagebit-rate))

YES

Moving Image Size (AVCHD 1440 x 1080(50i, Interlace) Approx.9Mbps(Averagebit-rate))

YES

Moving Image Size (MP4/AVI 1440 x 1080 Approx.25fps Progressive) Approx.12Mbps(Averagebit-rate))

YES

Moving Image Size (MP4/AVI 1280 x 720 Approx.25fps Progressive) Approx.6Mbps(Averagebit-rate))

YES

Moving Image Size (MP4/AVI 640 x 480 Approx.25fps Progressive) Approx.3Mbps(Averagebit-rate))

YES

Playback/ Edit

HD (High Definition) Playback

YES

Slideshow Playback

YES

Slideshow with Music

YES

Trimming

YES

Resize

NO

Playback Zoom

YES

Divide (MPEG)

NO

Cue & Review (MPEG)

YES

Index Playback

YES

Image Rotation

YES

Auto Image Rotation

YES

General

Battery Remaining Indicator

YES

Histogram Indicator

YES

Exposure Warning Indicator

YES

Disk / Memory Stick remaining indicator

YES

PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol)

YES

Print Image Matching

YES

PictBridge

YES

Shop Front Mode

YES

Start up time (approximately sec)

2

Menu Language

English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, Croatian, Romanian, Bulgarian

Jacks

Multi use Terminal with HD

YES

Multi use Terminal

YES

AV Out

YES

USB 2.0 Hi-Speed

YES

Power/ Others

Battery System

Lithium G

Supplied Battery

NP-BG1

Stamina (battery life) with the supplied battery(s) in normal shooting condition

310 shots, 155min (CIPA standard with LCD screen on)

Battery for Clock

Manganese-Lithium (MS614SE)

Weight (g)

Approx. 170g (6.0oz.)

Weight with Accessories (g)

Approx. 200g (7.1oz.)

SuppliedSoftware

Picture Motion Browser Ver.5.0(Windows only)

Supplied Accessories

Rechargeable Battery Pack(NP-BG1), Battery Charger, Multi Connector Cable, Power Cord, Wrist Strap, CD-ROM, HDMI adaptor

Dimensions

Width (mm)

102.9

Height (mm)

57.7

Depth (mm)

28.9

Your Comments

Loading comments…