Introduction

Ease of Use

Sony’s new Cyber-shot DSC-H200 takes its design cues from an entry-level DSLR or bridge camera, rather than a smaller travel-zoom. It’s a camera to be worn around the neck, slung over a shoulder - with strap provided for both purposes - or tucked in a suitable bag. The handgrip is large enough to squeeze three fingers comfortably around, and when loaded with four standard AA batteries and an SD or Memory Stick Pro Duo card, it weighs 530g, which helps to provide a steadier hold when shooting towards the telephoto end of the zoom. To further help prevent blurred shots in such circumstances and in low light, Sony has also provided optical ‘SteadyShot’ image stabilization.

The build and finish is of good quality, with the all-black matt finish to the body and various DSLR-like dials and controls on initial inspection lending it an impression of being a ‘serious’ enthusiasts’ model. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200's relatively compact size also means that locating the right control is never a stretch for forefinger or thumb. Most of the features you want to access are literally at your fingertip, which of course makes for speedier overall operation. Overall dimensions are 122.9x83.2x87.2mm.

The front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 is dominated by the Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens, here boasting a maximum aperture of f/3.1 and a focal range the equivalent of a ultra-wide angle 24mm to 633mm in 35mm film terms - suggesting serious ‘poke’ at the telephoto end and real suitability for those paparazzi style candid portraits at full zoom, as well as of course landscapes and group portraits at the wider end. The lens also offers the advantage of built-in anti shake, essential on this style of camera. We also get an AF assist/self time lamp porthole top left of the lens when viewing the camera front on.

Front	Rear

The top plate of the camera extends the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200’s sophisticated look and feel, with a chunky stereo microphone sitting just behind the otherwise hidden pop-up flash. To the right of this, when looking down at the camera as you grip it in both hands, is the narrow lozenge shaped on/off button, with an embedded lamp that glows green when the camera is switched on, or orange if the battery is low and the unit is being recharged. Incidentally we don’t get a separate mains charger here. We get a mains lead, adapter and plug instead, meaning that the lithium ion pack is charged in-camera. When your battery is down, so is the camera therefore.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 takes roughly two seconds to power up, lens extending a little beyond its protective housing to arrive at maximum wideangle setting while the image on the rear LCD pops into life. While slower than an actual DSLR, that’s respectable for this class of bridge camera, or super-zoom.

The camera is commendably swift to determine focus and exposure, with the AF point/s highlighted in green on screen almost the instant your finger presses down on the shutter release button and finds the half-way point. Press down fully to take the shot and a full resolution 20 megapixel JPEG is committed to removable media card in just over three seconds. Face detection/selection and tracking focus are also offered here as standard features, activated or de-activated via a press of the unmarked button at the centre of the Sony’s backplate command pad.

Front	Side

Keep a forefinger on the zoom lever that encircles the shutter release button and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 powers through its 26x optical zoom range from wide angle to telephoto in about five seconds. Continue holding down the lever and it will continue zooming digitally to a 52x equivalent setting. If this option is taken the camera deploys the fantastically named Pixel Super Resolution technology that automatically enhances imagery to avoid the usual blocky appearance of conventional digital zooms.

Next to the power button is a raised, ridged-edged shooting mode button with an action that is just stiff enough to prevent the user accidentally slipping from one setting to the next in the thick of it. There are 6 options on this dial. We get the creative options of program and manual mode settings (but sadly no shutter priority or aperture priority modes) plus Sony’s now ubiquitous Sweep Panorama function, whereby the user pans through an arc as directed by the on-screen arrows - the resulting elongated shot automatically stitched together in camera. It’s both very effective and very easy to use.

Also on the dial is a dedicated High Definition video mode for up to 1280x720 pixels clips at 30 frames per second progressive capture. Rather strangely for an entry-level camera, there's no dedicated video record button on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200, instead relying on choosing the Video mode on the dial and then pressing the shutter button to begin recording. A press of menu when in video mode summons up a variety of options for adjusting the video resolution and frame rate, and also switch from intelligent auto video recording to applying picture effects, as we more usually can with stills photography. There’s also the ability to set exposure compensation and white balance. Another bonus is that full use of the optical zoom is provided in movie mode, as is automatic focus adjustment if you alter framing or swap subjects mid sequence.

Pop-up Flash	Top

Scene modes are up next and there are 11 user selectable options on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200, covering everything from the usual portraits to shooting landscapes by night and even handheld; pet, beach, snow and fireworks mode round out the more usual suspects. Rounding off the shooting mode options is the scene and subject recognizing and thereby automatically adjusting Intelligent Auto mode.

With the shutter release button and the zoom lever that encircles it comfortably sloping forward at the top of the handgrip, that’s it for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200’s minimalist top plate.

The rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 is dominated by the 3-inch, 460k dot resolution LCD screen. In terms of controls the back of the camera looks slightly sparse mainly due to the small dimensions of the actual buttons, though in fact most of the essentials are here. A dedicated playback button sits to the right of the LCD screen, alongside the textured thumb-grip.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Beneath is the Menu button, a press of which summons a toolbar. This appears ranged to the left hand side of the screen. It’s here that we have access to most of the camera’s shooting and setup options - surprisingly missing a function reset button but otherwise offering all the regulars - and the in-camera help guide, even though a dedicated button marked with a question mark is additionally provided for such a purpose.

A familiar four-way control pad at the bottom right of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200’s backplate features options for controlling the rear display, flash settings (with red eye reduction turned on or off via the menu screens), self timer (two or 10 seconds) plus turning on the Smile Shutter. Completing the rear of the is a dual Help/Delete button.

On either flank of the camera is a lug for attaching the provided shoulder strap, while on the left hand flank there is a flip-open door protecting the camera’s AV Out / USB port. Incidentally battery life of the four AA cells inserted in the base of the handgrip is around 350 shots, although that obviously depends on the quality of the AA batteries that you use. Finally a metal screw thread is located dead centre of the camera's base plate.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 produced images of fairly good quality during the review period. It didn't handle noise that well, becoming all too obvious at ISO 400, and then becoming progressively worse at the faster settings of ISO 800 and 1600, and finally the unusable ISO 3200 setting.

Chromatic aberrations were in evidence but were well-controlled, with some limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The 20 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, or you can increase the in-camera sharpening level.

Macro performance is poor, only allowing you to focus as close as 20cm away from the subject. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure. The maximum shutter speed of 2 seconds doesn't allow the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.

The DRO feature dramatically increases the detail in the shadow and highlight areas, there's a handful of creative Picture Effects on offer, while the Sweep Panorama mode makes it simple to take wide-vista shots.

Noise

There are 7 ISO settings available on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (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 Cyber-shot DSC-H200's 26x zoom lens offers a very versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

24mm	633mm

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. Alternatively you can change the in-camera sharpening level.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 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.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 allows you to focus on a subject that is 20cms 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	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 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 (24mm)	Forced Flash - Wide Angle (24mm)
Suppressed Flash - Telephoto (633mm)	Forced Flash - Telephoto (633mm)

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

Forced Flash	Forced Flash (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200's maximum shutter speed is 2 seconds, which isn't great great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 2 seconds at ISO 80.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Dynamic Range Optimisation (DRO)

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 below show the effect of turning this feature on.

Off	Standard
Plus

Picture Effects

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 offers a range of 4 creative Picture Effects.

Off	Toy Camera
Pop Color	Partial Color
Soft High-Key

Intelligent Sweep Panorama

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 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 even successfully compensates for moving subjects.

Standard

Wide

360

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 camera, which were all taken using the 20.1 megapixel JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 / Pop-up Flash

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 / Image Displayed

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 / Turned On

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 / Menu

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 / Settings Menu

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 / In-Camera Guide

Top of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Bottom of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 is an affordable, if rather unexciting, super-zoom camera that we'd be happy to recommend as a budget option, if it wasn't for the so-so image quality. Sadly, with only a usable ISO range of 80-400 due to noise artifacts, this is not a camera for low-light shooting, something that's accentuated further when using the extreme reaches of the focal range.

In daylight we were able to achieve sharp results shooting handheld with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200, but once the light levels fall, it's tricky to keep the subject in focus, unless you use a high ISO speed and accept that your images will be very noisy. Video quality is also disappointingly limited to 720p, rather than full 1080 HD as most cameras' seem to offer these days.

Build quality is surprisingly good considering the modest asking price, but as you'd expect the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 doesn't have too many bells and whistles in terms of features - you'd need to spend a lot more on the company's HX-series super-zooms to get the latest technologies. For some users, this might actually be a plus pint, as the H200 is at least refreshingly simple to use for beginners. Although Program and Manual modes are on offer, power users will be put off by the limited aperture range and the over-simplified control layout.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200's biggest selling-point is undoubtedly its price-tag - £179 / $249 for a 26x zoom from a big-name manufacturer is good value, despite the camera's other short-comings. If you can't afford to splash out a lot more on an advanced model, then the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 does at least offer a long zoom in a well-built and simple-to-use body.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	3.5
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	3
Value for money	4

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Listed below are some of the rivals of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 from around the web.

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