Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1

Review Date: October 31st 2005

Features

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 has a 5.1 megapixel, 1/2.5 inch CCD. There are 2 image quality size settings available (Fine and Standard) and 5 image size settings (5M, 3:2, 3M, 1M and VGA), which are recorded as JPEGs. There are no RAW or TIFF formats. The camera's 12x optical zoom lens is equivalent to a 36-432mm lens on a 35mm format camera. There is also a 24x digital zoom should you feel the need to use it. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 has an optical image stabilisation system, called Super Steady Shot by Sony. The camera has 32Mb internal memory and also supports Memory Stick / Memory Stick PRO memory cards. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 is available in silver.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 offers Auto, Program, Shutter-Priority, Aperture-Priority and Manual exposure modes plus 7 different scene modes (Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Portrait, Landscape, Beach, High Speed Shutter and Candle). The maximum aperture is f2.8 (wide) – f3.7 (tele), and the shutter speed range is 30 secs. – 1/2000 sec. There are 4 ISO speeds ranging from 64 to 400 and an Auto option. There are 5 different White Balance presets to choose from (Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash), plus Auto and Custom settings. The camera offers exposure compensation in ± 2 in 1/3 EV stops and auto-exposure bracketing (3 shots). The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 offers 3 different auto-exposure metering options - Multi, Center and Spot.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 has a normal shooting mode, Self-timer, a Burst mode, which allows you take up to 0.8 frames/sec for 9 shots at the 5M Fine setting, and a Multi Burst mode which records 16 frames (image size is reduced to 1M). There are 3 different colour modes on offer - colour, black and white and sepia. The Macro setting allows you to focus on subjects that are as close as 2cms. The camera offers 5 auto-focusing modes - multi, center, spot, flexible spot and manual. You can also one of the 5 focus presets which range from 0.3m to infinity. The built-in flash offers 4 different modes (Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Synchro, No Flash). Flash compensation is also available and there is a red-eye reduction mode and an AF illuminator. Noise reduction is automatically applied to long-exposures. Sharpness, saturation and contrast can each be altered in 3 steps.

To compose your images, you can use the LCD monitor or the electronic viewfinder. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 has a 2.5 inch colour TFT LCD monitor which has 115,000 pixels and which offers 100% scene coverage. The electronic viewfinder also has 115,000 pixels. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 can record movies with sound at 3 different settings - 640 Fine (640x480, 30fps), 640 Standard (640x480, 16.6fps) and 160 (160x112, 8.3fps). Video is recorded in the MPEG1 format. The length of the video is only limited by the size of the memory card that you are using. A histogram is available in both shooting and playback mode. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 supports the DPOF (Digital Print Order Format), Print Image Matching and PictBridge printing standards.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1's dimensions are 107.8 (W) x 91.2 (D) x 81.4 (H) mm, and it weighs 438g without the battery and storage card fitted. The camera is powered by either the supplied 2x AA Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries or 2x ZR6 AA Oxy Nickel Primary Batteries. There is a metal tripod mount in the center of the bottom of the camera. Both wide and telephoto conversion lenses can be fitted via the 58mm filter thread and an adaptor.

Finally, the standard box kit contains 2x AA Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries, Battery Charger, AV Cable, USB Cable, Shoulder Strap, Lens Cap, Lens Adapter Ring, Lens Hood and a CD-ROM containing Sony software. Note that you can only store 12 images at the highest quality setting on the 32Mb internal memory. You will therefore need to invest in some more Memory Sticks to store your images on.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.