Introduction

Ease of Use

Sony's new Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V is virtually identical to the HX50V model that it replaces, so a lot of the comments that we made in our review of that camera apply equally to the new HX6V. The Sony DSC-HX60V's defining feature is a 30x, 24-720mm extending optical lens with respectable enough maximum apertures of f/3.5 at the 24mm wide-angle setting and f/6.3 at the 720mm full telephoto setting. The HX60V's lens is a real joy to use, with a 30x zoom in such a relatively small package making this camera incredibly adaptable, with everything from ultra-wide landscapes to candid long-distance portraits within easy reach. The 24mm focal length provides an entirely new wide angle of view that can only increase your creativity.

When set to 720mm, the lens does admittedly extend quite a long way from the front of the HX60V, but for the most part it look to all intents and purposes like a "normal" compact camera. If that's not long enough for you, then the Clear Zoom function effectively digitally doubles the zoom range, using Sony's Pixel Super Resolution Technology to increase the magnification. The combination of the f/3.5 aperture, effective optical image stabilizer and maximum ISO speed of 12,800 makes this camera well suited to hand-held low-light photography, not to mention the wealth of dedicated shooting modes. Sony has fitted a dual image stabilisation mechanism in the shape of both optical SteadyShot and an ISO range that extends up to ISO 12,800, much better than you'll find on your average point-and-shoot. Note that as with other recent Cyber-shots, you can't actually turn off the SteadyShot function, Sony assuming that it's better turned on permanently.

Despite its big zoom lens, the HX60V is still a fairly slender camera, measuring nearly 4cms at its narrowest point and weighing 272g with the battery and memory card fitted, with a large 3-inch, 921k-dot resolution LCD screen at the rear. As you'd expect with a screen of that size on such a small camera, the HX60V has no optical viewfinder to fall back on in brighter lighting conditions.

Providing the means of gripping the camera is a substantial textured, rubberised protrusion on the front and a small thumb-shaped lozenge on the rear, making the DSC-HX60V easy to get to grips with despite its mostly smooth recycled plastic surface. Also located on the front of the HX60V is the lens and a porthole on the left for the self-timer/AF illuminator. There's a clever folding pop-up flash unit on top of the camera which is automatically raised when you select a flash mode.

Front	Rear

Press the small On/Off button on the top plate and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V quickly readies itself for action in a just over a second. The adequately sized shutter-release button has a definite halfway point, very quickly determining focus and exposure with a bleep of affirmation even in low-light, focus points highlighted as green rectangles on the LCD. Go on to take the shot and the JPEG images are committed to memory in less than a 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 five seconds to zoom from wide-angle to full telephoto. The HX60V's twin built-in stereo microphones are also located on top of the camera, either side of the Multi Interface Shoe. Sheltered underneath the housing at the front of the hot-shoe we find a number of connector pins that allow users to mount a range of proprietary Sony accessories, which is why the company calls this accessory port a 'Multi Interface Shoe.' It can be used for attaching one of a range of accessories, including a more powerful flash, an electronic viewfinder (FDA-EV1MK), and even an optical viewfinder (FDA-V1K).

Sony have usefully included an Exposure Compensation dial on the top of the HX60V, which makes it very easy to quickly change this key setting. It has a positive clicking action and stays in place even when stored in a pocket or bag. A round shooting mode dial with a knurled edge and positive action is also found on the HX60V'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 HX60V at a scene or subject and the camera analyses it and automatically chooses one of 11 pre-optimised settings to best suit. There's also the Superior Auto mode, which places greater emphasis on reducing blur and noise and increasing the dynamic range.

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 Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority and Manual modes, which will instantly appeal to the more experienced photographer. 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's still no support for the RAW file format, which would really have been the icing on the cake for serious photographers looking for a backup pocket camera to their DSLR.

Front	Top

The 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. There are three modes, Standard, Wide and 360 degrees. Note that if you do the sweeping too slowly, or you let go of the shutter release button too early, the panorama will be truncated.

Present and correct is the increasingly ubiquitous ability to shoot High Definition video clips. The HX60V does so at full 1080p HD rather than 1080i or 720p, and also with stereo sound rather than mono. The various options are 1920x1280 pixels at 50p or 50i and 1440x1280 at 50i in the AVCHD format, and 1440x1280, 1280x720 or 640x480 pixels at 25fps in the MPEG4 format. During video recording you can take a 15 megapixel still image by pressing the shutter button, or alternatively grab a still from your video footage during playback.

There is full use of the 30x optical zoom during recording so you can really make the most of that massive focal range, plus the ability to change the EV level, white balance, and metering options and turn on either standard SteadyShot or the 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-HX60V allows you to start recording a movie with a single push of a button, and then stop recording by pressing the same button. You can also activate the movie mode with adjustable settings via the Shooting Mode dial.

Pop-up Flash	Side

Built-in GPS 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 HX60V also uses the GPS to keep the camera time accurate and can plot your progress using the GPS Log Recording function even if the camera is turned off.

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. The main downside of the HX60V's GPS is the subsequent drain on battery life, with the camera only managing just over 300 shots with GPS turned on instead of the 400 that it can manage without.

The HX60V also offers built-in wi-fi connectivity. You can wirelessly transfer your photos to a smartphone or tablet that's running the free PlayMemories Mobile app, or directly to a networked PC for easier backup. You can also view on a DLNA-compatible TV via a wireless router, or send them straight from the camera a TV that supports Wi-Fi Direct. Finally, you can take control of the camera using your smartphone (fire the shutter, set the self-timer and operate the zoom), handy for including yourself in the frame or even more remote shooting.

The rear of the DSC-HX60V is dominated by the large 3 inch LCD screen, with the resolution a satisfyingly high-res 912k dots. To the right of the screen is the useful 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.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Also on the rear is the new Function button, which depending on the current shooting mode provides quicker access to up to 12 of the camera's key settings. You can also customise this menu to suit your needs. 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, the Photo Creativity interface and Continuous Shooting/Timer options. The Photo Creativity tool makes it easier for beginners to change the colour, brightness, vividness and Picture effect modes, with changes previewed in real time on the LCD screen.

Finally, there are buttons for the camera's menu system and for deleting images underneath the navigation pad. A press of the former opens a number of shooting and setup folders, with white text on a black background aiding visibility. The seven shooting folders allow users to select image size, ratio and quality, plus features like SteadyShot, long exposure and high ISO noise reduction - all in fact activated as a default. The Settings folder allows you to tweak the HX60V to your way of working, while the other four folders contain the various Wi-fi, Applications, Playback, and Setup options.

The navigation pad also doubles up as a control ring that's used to set the aperture and shutter speed in the creative shooting modes, amongst other things. The ring is a little small and over-sensitive, and having to press the tiny central button to toggle between the ISO speed, shutter speed and aperture quickly becomes a bit tiresome, but the ability to take full control of the HX60V is still very welcome.

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 HX60V 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 HX60V also takes up to 10 pictures, but at slower speeds of 5 or 2 frames per second.

The bottom of the Sony HX60V features a standard metal screw thread for attaching it to a tripod which is conveniently located in the centre. A plastic cover protects the lithium-ion battery and the removable memory card, with the HX60V supporting the SD / SDHC / SDXC format in addition to Sony's own proprietary Pro Duo Memory Stick format. There's also a hardly worth it 11MB internal memory to fall back on which can store 7 full-resolution still images. Completing the bottom of the HX60V is an unprotected the HDMI port. The right side of the HX60V has a small metal eyelet for the supplied wrist strap and also the Multi Terminal port for using a remote controller underneath a sturdy plastic cover, while there are no controls on the left side except for a hole for the built-in microphone (looking from the rear).

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 6Mb.

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX60V produced images of good quality during the review period. It handled noise fairly well, with a little noise appearing at the relatively slow speed of ISO 400 and then becoming progressively worse at the faster settings of ISO 800 and 1600. The fastest settings of ISO3200-12,8000 all suffer from a loss of fine detail, so much so that we wouldn't use any of them unless absolutely neccesary.

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 excellent, allowing you to focus as close as 5cms away from the subject. Commendably barrel distortion is well controlled even at the 24mm wide-angle focal length of the incredibly versatile 30x zoom lens. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure. The maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds allows the cameras to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.

The effective Dynamic Range Optimizer function extracts more detail from the shadow and highlight areas in an image, without introducing any unwanted noise or other artifacts. The High Dynamic Range mode combines two shots taken at different exposures to produce one image with greater dynamic range than a single image would produce. It only works for JPEGs and for still subjects, but does produce some very effective results. There's a good range of Color Modes and Picture Effects on offer, while the Sweep Panorama mode makes it simple to take wide-vista shots.

Noise

There are 9 ISO settings available on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V. 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)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)
ISO 12800 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V's 30x zoom lens offers a very versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

24mm	720mm

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-HX60V 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-HX60V 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	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V 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 (720mm)	Forced Flash - Telephoto (720mm)

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-HX60V'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 8 seconds at ISO 80.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Dynamic Range Optimizer

D-Range Optimiser (DRO) is Sony's solution to improve shadow detail in photos taken in contrasty light.

Off	LV1
LV2	LV3
LV4	LV5

High Dynamic Range

High Dynamic Range Optimiser (HDR) is Sony's solution for capturing more contrast than a single exposure can handle by combining two exposures into one image.

Off	1.0EV
2.0EV	3.0EV
4.0EV	5.0EV
6.0EV

Creative Styles

There are seven Creative Style preset effects that you can use to change the look of your images.

Standard	Vivid
Portrait	Landscape
Sunset	Black and White
Sepia

Picture Effects

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V offers an extensive range of thirteen creative Picture Effects.

Off	Toy Camera
Pop Color	Posterization
Retro	Soft High-key
Partial Color (Red)	High Contrast Mono
Soft Focus	HDR Painting
Rich-tone Mono	Miniature
Watercolor	Illustration

Intelligent Sweep Panorama

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V 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-HX60V camera, which were all taken using the 20.4 megapixel Fine 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-HX60V

Front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V / Lens Extended

Front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V / Flash Raised

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V / Image Displayed

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V / Turned On

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V / Main Menu

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V / Main Menu

Rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V / Function Menu

Top of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Bottom of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Side of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V is a very incremental update of last year's HX300 model, principally adding a faster Bionz X processor, revamped menu system and NFC connectivity. While they're all nice to have, the lack of prosumer features like a built-in EVF, RAW support, lens control ring and a touchscreen interface leads us to recommend the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 instead, especially as that camera has the edge when it comes to image quality.

The HX60V's 20 megapixel sensor provides excellent results from ISO 100-400, but noise is already starting to appear at ISO 800 and the faster settings of 1600 and 3200 suffer from more noise and smearing of fine detail. You should ignore 6400 and 12800 completely unless there's really no alternative.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V offers one of the longest focal lengths of any travel-zoom camera on the market, with the 30x optic providing enough width and reach for virtually any photographic situation that you'll encounter. If you're considering a bridge-style super-zoom, we'd suggest taking a look at a travel-zoom like the HX400V instead, as it still offers a very versatile focal range whilst fitting into a coat pocket, and avoids the issues of trying to keep the camera steady enough to take sharp shots at the more extreme zoom settings.

In summary, while the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V remains a good travel-zoom camera, it doesn't offer enough new features for 2014 to keep up with some of its better specified and better performing main rivals.

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

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60V.

Specifications

Your Comments