Introduction

Ease of Use

With its numerous new and intriguing features, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 was one of the surprise announcements of 2009. If we consider it a successor to the H50 of yesteryear, then we can argue that Sony is showing a rare example of megapixel restraint here; as the new model has the exact same resolution as its immediate forebear. Instead of upping the pixel count, Sony decided to endow the HX1 with a new lens, faster electronics and some truly unique features - and this was more than enough for the camera to make the headlines. No wonder we were eager to get our hands on a production model for a review!

A camera with a 20x zoom will never be shirt pocketable, but the Sony HX1 is actually quite compact and lightweight; definitely smaller and lighter than most DSLRs with a typical 3x kit zoom. Interestingly, this does not really affect handling in a negative way. While people with large hands will find that the little finger of their right hand has a more comfortable place underneath the camera than on the right-hand grip; most users will find the grip quite nice actually. It is ergonomically sculpted and the textured finish provides great purchase for your fingers.

Arguably the most remarkable part of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 is the lens. As mentioned earlier, this is a 20x zoom that spans focal lengths ranging from 5mm to 100mm (28-560mm in old money). While there are a couple of competitors sporting an even more impressive range, this is still nothing to sneeze at - and Sony are even offering a 1.7x add-on teleconverter as an optional accessory; for those who would like to push the telephoto end to an almost incredible 952mm equivalent. The maximum aperture is a fast f/2.8 at the wide end and a more modest, yet perfectly acceptable f/5.2 at the other extreme of the zoom range. The zoom is of course stepped, but feels surprisingly smooth in action. It is quite fast too, especially for the huge focal range it spans.

The lens proudly bears the G designation, originally introduced by Minolta to distinguish their most prestigious lenses from the rest of the pack. Fortunately, it has lived up to our expectations - you can read more about this in the Image Quality section. Putting such a huge zoom on a camera that is intended chiefly for hand-held use would of course be nearly pointless without image stabilisation - thankfully, the feature is on board, under the brand name Optical SteadyShot. From the main shooting menu, you can specify if you want it to be always on or to kick in only when you are actually taking a picture. In the former case, you get a stabilised live image that helps with your composition, while in the latter, you theoretically get more effective stabilisation and definitely less battery drain. The Optical SteadyShot feature can also be switched off completely, for tripod work.

Above the lens is a bulge that resembles a prism hump, although of course there is no pentaprism to be found on the HX1. You can frame your shots using either the rear screen or the electronic viewfinder (EVF). Switching between the two is done by way of a button to the left of the mock prism housing, viewed from the back. I would have preferred Sony to place eye proximity sensors around the viewfinder eyepiece, so that the switch would occur automatically when you lift the camera to your eye, but you can get used to the button too. The EVF itself is crisp and reasonably fluid, but very small. One gets the feeling that this was one of the areas where Sony cut corners in order to keep the price within reasonable limits.

As far as the rear LCD goes, it is a three-inch, 230,400-dot affair that tilts  90 degrees both up- and downward. This makes it more flexible than the one on the A330/A380 DSLRs, which does not tilt that much down, but it's still not quite as great as the vari-angle design of some competitors. Outdoors visibility is quite good; perhaps not the best we have seen, but definitely a lot better than many other screens.

Front	Rear

For its size, the Sony HX1 has quite a lot of external controls. This is most welcome, as these controls provide quick access to the most often used functions. Some ingenious design ideas improve the handling experience further still. The humble-looking thumb wheel  is a case in point: depending on shooting mode, it can be used to alter up to three different settings, e.g. shutter speed, aperture and ISO sensitivity. Its 'secret' is that you can not only rotate it but also press it inwards, and pressing it is how you go from one parameter to the other. Intuitive it may not be - upon picking up the camera for the first time, I spent quite a few minutes looking for an ISO button or menu item in vain -, but once you figure it out, you'll be blessing the designers for their creativity. (OK, it's not the first jog dial in the world, but it's definitely one of the best implementations out there.)

Right above the thumb wheel is the shooting mode dial. At first sight, it looks absolutely conventional, but a closer look reveals a few unique icons. However, let's start with the more traditional stuff. Experienced photographers will be delighted to hear that the Sony HX1 has all the typical P, A, S and M modes, with the P mode even featuring a Program AE Shift function. Exposure compensation is available in the P, S and A modes via the thumb wheel, and works particularly well in tandem with the optional live histogram you can have superimposed over the live image, irrespective of whether you are using the rear LCD or the EVF. Even your picky reviewer finds it hard to criticise anything here, except for the oddity that the top shutter speed is 1/4000 second in S mode, but only 1/2000 in M.

Those who don't like to fiddle with shutter speed and aperture but would still like to communicate to the camera what kind of subject they intend to photograph can choose from 10 different scene modes by turning the mode dial to the SCN position and pressing the MENU button. Alternatively you can trust the scene selection to the camera by picking the intelligent Auto mode. There is also an Easy mode, best used when handing the camera over to someone who isn't familiar with it at all - for in this shooting mode, they can't alter any settings except for the flash mode and the self timer.

And now for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1's novelties. One of these is the Sweep Panorama mode, which 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 of course 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. The catch is that it's 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.

There are two more shooting modes that are new: Hand-held Twilight and Anti Motion Blur. In both of these modes, the camera 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 HX1 will pick a high ISO speed even in this mode.

Movie recording is also accessed via the shooting mode dial. The Sony HX1 can  capture standard-definition VGA, 1280x720-pixel HD and 1440x1080-pixel HD movies, the last of which comes in two flavours, Standard and Fine, which differ in their bit rates. The frame rate is 30fps in all video modes. Sound is recorded via the stereo microphone sitting on the top of the camera, behind the flash. Note that there is no wind filter. A big plus is that you can use the optical zoom while filming.

Pop-up Flash	Top

Like a number of other Sony compacts, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 reproduces the mode dial on the LCD/EVF while changing modes. This proved to be a great help when shooting in the dark.

In front of the mode dial, there are two buttons for focus mode and drive mode selection. For a digicam, the Sony HX1 has a surprisingly comprehensive set of focus modes. Multi AF is best when shooting a subject against a homogeneous background, such as a bird or an airplane in the sky. Center AF is self-explanatory, while Flexible Spot AF allows you to position the active autofocus point almost anywhere in the frame. Ironically, this is much more straightforward to accomplish on the HX1 than on the Sony A330 DSLR we recently reviewed. Just push the button in the middle of the four-way pad once, and then use the arrow buttons to move the AF point around in the frame.

On top of the autofocus options, there is semi manual and full manual focus available too. In both of these modes, you are presented with a superimposed distance scale, and can use the Left and Right buttons to pick a subject distance. The centre of the frame is magnified in both of these modes to aid you with focusing. The difference between the two modes is that in semi manual mode, you set an approximate distance, and the AF system then tries to focus on something that's roughly that far away from the camera. Full manual mode is what it says on the tin: focus is set to the distance you specify. The HX1's approach is less natural than turning a focus ring, but it works. I'd prefer to see more distance markings though.

Pressing the drive mode button brings up a number of options, including single shot, high-, mid- and low-speed continuous and exposure bracketing. Out of these, the high-speed continuous mode is the most remarkable. The camera takes up to 10 full-resolution photos at a frankly astounding 10 frames per second. I had the opportunity to try this feature out at an air show, and the results were spectacular indeed. The fly in the ointment is that once the burst is completed, it takes over fifteen seconds for the camera to clear the buffer, and during this time you cannot take another picture. In the other two continuous shooting modes, the Sony HX1 also takes up to 10 pictures, but at a speed of 5 or 2 frames per second. In bracketing mode, the camera takes 3 shots with different exposures in rapid succession.

There is a customisable button marked with the letter C, which activates the now familiar Smile Shutter by default, but can be reprogrammed to provide quick access to the metering modes or white balance options instead. This is nice, but I would love to see a couple more options, like SteadyShot and DRO settings, both of which are only available via the main shooting menu.

Somewhat surprisingly for a camera in this class, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 does not feature a hot-shoe, so the only way to sync up an external flash with it is to optically slave it to the built-in unit. Speaking of which, it lacks a mechanical button to simply pop it up. As with the Sony A330 DSLR, you need to go into the Flash menu by way of the Right arrow key, choose the required flash mode and exit the Flash menu. The flash will only pop up when you (half-)press the shutter release. If you don't want to use it any more, it is not enough to push it back - you need to re-enter the Flash menu and select the Flash Off option. Otherwise it will pop up again the next time you hit the shutter button.

Battery Compartment	Memory Card Slot

Once an image is captured, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 can display it immediately - but you can't erase it, and the quality is not that great either. In order to properly check focus and / or delete the image, you must enter playback mode via its dedicated button. The image is much crisper and more detailed than in instant postview. As in record mode, you can choose from a variety of display options via the DISP button, including image only, shooting info with or without histogram, at two different brightness levels. As with a number of other Sony compacts we have tested, the post-capture histogram is not always displayed, even when you are in the right display mode. Very often a crossed-out circle will appear where the histogram should be.

One thing I found incomprehensible was that the lens retracts way too soon, just 15 seconds after entering playback mode. This means that if you spend more than 15 seconds reviewing the image you've shot, you will have to reset the zoom to its previous position manually when you re-enter record mode.

The images are captured on Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick PRO Duo cards (there is a 11MB internal memory too, but it only holds two full-res images, so it's not much to fall back on). The HX1 seems to prefer Sony branded cards - it will take third-party memory cards too, but grudgingly. With a Lexar branded Memory Stick PRO Duo card inserted, the HX1, like the H20 we reviewed earlier, would take every opportunity to display the warning, 'This Memory Stick may not record or play', despite the fact that it worked perfectly.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 runs on a proprietary Lithium ion battery that bears the InfoLITHIUM logo. What this means is the camera can display how much recording time is left in minutes, which I found very handy and much more informative than the usual battery indicator.

The connectors include a DC IN socket and a proprietary port that also serves as an HDMI interface (you'll need the supplied HDMI adapter and a separately sold HDMI cable though). On the bottom of the camera, there is a standard tripod socket, which is made of metal but is not aligned with the lens' optical axis. It is too close to the battery/card compartment door, so changing batteries or memory cards is not possible while the camera is on a tripod.

In use, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 proved to be a fun, flexible and generally snappy camera. Shot-to-shot times averaged barely more than a second in single shot mode, and auto-focus was generally zippy too for this class of camera. However, when dealing with really fast-moving subjects, especially in high-speed continuous mode, it was still better to prefocus, anticipate the action and rely on depth of field than to hope that the AF system would be up to the task.

This rounds off our evaluation of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1's handling, features and performance; now let us see how it fared in the image quality department!

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 9.1 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3.5Mb.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 produced images of good quality during the review. The G lens proved surprisingly sharp for an ultrazoom, and at normal subject distances, it is also exceptionally well corrected for geometric  distortion. It is only at extreme close-ups that you can see some barrelling. And the lens is indeed capable of some truly extreme macro performance, filling the frame almost completely with a subject as tiny as a common Compact Flash card.

Chromatic aberrations, while noticeable as purple fringes along contrasty edges, was less of a problem than I expected it to be with a 20x zoom. As far as noise is concerned, there is more of it at base sensitivity than we would have liked to see, but the images remain usable up to ISO 800 (and ISO 1600 is passable with reservations). The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 lets the user define the amount of noise reduction applied, so you have a choice of more noise and less detail smearing or vice versa.

The Hand-held Twilight and Anti Motion Blur modes produce images with less noise but generally less sharpness than a single high-ISO shot. Owing to the unique Sweep Panorama mode, panoramas couldn't be easier to take - but it's a shame that they are of fairly low resolution only. With a maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds, the camera is well suited to night photography, although night shots are somewhat noisier than we'd like.

Noise

The base sensitivity of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 is an unconventional ISO 125, with 200, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 being also selectable. The images aren't perfectly noise free even at the lowest settings, but they are usable up to ISO 800. At ISO 1600, the photos take on a painterly look when viewed at 100% magnification, but they are still more than acceptable for onscreen viewing and small prints. ISO 3200 brings about yet more noise and a massive drop in saturation. Unusually for a compact digicam, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 allows you to set the strength of the noise filtering to one of three levels. The crops below were shot at standard settings.

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 20x zoom lens has a massive focal range, as illustrated by these examples; taken from the same viewpoint at the wide and telephoto end of the optical zoom range.

28mm	560mm

Sharpening

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1's G lens delivers sharp results at most focal lengths, and the photos do not stand up particularly well to further sharpening. Nevertheless you can try applying some unsharp masking in a program like Adobe Photoshop. The crops below represent what you can expect. The right-hand images had some sharpening applied before being Saved for Web - Quality 50.

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

Chromatic Aberrations

For an ultrazoom, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 handled chromatic aberrations very well during the review. The crops below represent the worst case scenarios encountered.

Example 1 (100% Crop)	Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 has an excellent macro mode. The following photograph, which shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card), was taken at 2.4x zoom. As you can see, the card fills the frame almost completely.  Note that there is still some barrle distortion visible in the image - you can't see this at normal subject distances though.

Macro	100% Crop

Flash

These shots of a white ceiling were taken at a subject distance of 1.5m. There is very little light fall-off in the pictures taken without flash, and noticeably more in the flash shots, but it's still above-average performance.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (560mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (560mm)

The flash caused very little red-eye in this test.

Forced On	Forced On (100% Crop)
Auto/Red-eye Reduction	Auto/Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The slowest shutter speed available on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 is 30 seconds, which is very good news if you are seriously interested in night photography. The following photo was taken at a shutter speed of 8 seconds at ISO 125. We have included a 100% crop to show you what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

These examples are 100% crops from two photos taken at 1/15 second at the 560mm equivalent setting. As you can see, the Super Steady Shot image stabilisation system can mean the difference between a sharp and a blurred photo when taking hand held shots at shutter speeds that are critically slow for the focal length used.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti-Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti-Shake On (100% Crop)
1/4th sec / 70mm

Dynamic Range Optimizer

DRO is Sony's solution to bring up the shadows in a photo taken in contrasty light without blowing out the highlights. The available settings are Off, DRO Standard and DRO Plus. These photographs, taken at identical exposure settings, illustrate the difference.

Off	Standard	Advanced

Colour Filters

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 allows you to apply a set of colour filters to your images digitally, and their effect can be previewed live on the monitor or in the electronic viewfinder. The available settings are Off, Red, Green and Blue, plus there is a warming and a cooling filter too.

Off	Blue
Green	Red

High-speed Continuous Shooting

One of the high points of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 is its ability to shoot a burst at up to 10 frames per second. The following series of 6 photographs was shot at 10fps.

Hand-held Twilight Mode

Another standout feature is the Hand-held Twilight mode, in which the camera takes six high-ISO photos in rapid succession, and combines them into a single image. To test this, we took the same shot twice, once with the feature enabled, and once in manual mode at the exact same exposure and ISO settings. The Hand-held Twilight photo turned out to have somewhat less noise, but was noticeably softer too. (The other new mode, Anti Motion Blur, works in a similar fashion.)

Hand-held Twilight Mode	Manual Mode
(100% Crop)	(100% Crop)

Sweep Panorama Mode

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 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. The catch is that the resulting image is of fairly low resolution. Check out some examples below.

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 camera, which were all taken using the 9.1 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 Camera

Isometric View

Isometric View

Isometric View / Pop-up Flash

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Flip-Out LCD Screen

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Battery Compartment

Memory Card Slot

Conclusion

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 is an undeniably fun camera to use. As you can see from our Sample Images we've used it to capture everything from fast-moving aeroplanes to quaint streets and quiet landscapes, fireworks to interiors and more. Having a long zoom on a snappy camera with almost all the controls you desire made for a very pleasant shooting experience - so much so that we were reluctant to give the camera back! Some of its unique features turned out to work really well, including the Sweep Panorama mode that made capturing panoramic images as effortless as it gets. We were a little disappointed at the resolution of these images though.

This does not apply to the 'regular' 9-megapixel photographs we took with the camera, which contain plenty of detail thanks to the lens that proudly bears the prestigious G designation. Surely enough, we would not have minded a little less noise in our images, but honestly, the image quality is more than adequate for most non-professional uses. As far as the HX1's video capabilities are concerned, they are above average, with optical zooming, stabilisation and stereo audio all on board to help you make the movies you have envisioned. A wind filter would have come in handy though.

Performance was good too, with little to criticise about the speed of operation. About the only complaint we have here is that clearing the buffer after a 10-shot burst took way too much time. Shot-to-shot times in the 'regular' single-shot mode were quite good though, at barely more than a second. Autofocus was commendably fast for this class of camera, although prefocusing and anticipating the action worked better with really fast subjects. One thing we found rather incomprehensible was that the camera would retract the lens just 15 seconds after entering playback mode, which slowed down the operation of what is essentially a zippy little digicam. Two other points to criticise about the Sony HX1 are its lack of a RAW mode and a flash hot shoe.

It is rather hard to describe such a complex - yet fairly easy-to-use - camera in just a few paragraphs, and you are encouraged to read our detailed findings in the Ease of Use section of this review. To sum it up, the Sony HX1 is certainly not 'the' perfect camera, but it's one of the best all-rounders we've seen, and as such, it comes Highly Recommended by us.

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

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 from around the web.

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