Introduction

Ease of Use

The DSC-HX9V is Sony's second travel-zoom camera, following last year's HX5 model. Travel-zooms now typically offer at least a 10x or bigger lens in a compact body that you can still fit inside a pocket, with some models upping the ante to a 16x lens. The Sony DSC-HX9V joins the party with a 16x extending optical lens with respectable maximum apertures of f/3.3 at the 24mm wide-angle setting and f/5.9 at the 384mm full telephoto setting.

The HX9V's lens is a real joy to use, with a 16x zoom in such a 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. You won't want to go back to a "standard" 35mm zoom after using the 24mm lens on the DSC-HX9V, or even a 28mm one - 4mm at the wide-angle end really does make a big difference.

Even when set to 384mm, the lens doesn't extend too far from the front of the HX9V, making it look to all intents and purposes like a "normal" compact camera. The combination of the f/3.3 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 your average point-and-shoot. Note that you can't actually turn off the SteadyShot function.

Despite its big zoom lens, the HX9V is still quite a slender camera, measuring just over 3cms at its narrowest point and weighing 245g with the battery and memory card fitted, with a large 3-inch, 921k-dot resolution LCD screen at the rear, much improved on the HX5's 230K dot screen. As you'd expect with a screen of that size on such a small camera, the HX9V has no optical viewfinder to fall back on.

Front	Rear

Providing the means of gripping the camera is a quite substantial textured, rubberised protrusion on the front and a thumb-shaped area on the rear, making the DSC-HX9V easy to get to grips with despite its mostly smooth metal surface. Also located on the front of the HX9V is the centrally located lens and a porthole on the left for the self-timer/AF illuminator. The small and narrow window for the flash on the HX5 has been replaced on this newer model by a pop-up flash unit, which is automatically raised when you select a flash mode.

Press the small lozenge-shaped On/Off button on the shiny silver top plate and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V 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 HX9V's built-in stereo microphone is also located on top of the camera, plus the Custom button which as the name suggests can be customised to access one commonly used setting, such as ISO speed or Exposure Compensation.

A round shooting mode dial with a knurled edge and positive action completes the HX9V'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 HX9V 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 new Superior Auto mode, which places greater emphasis on reducing blur and noise and increasing the dynamic range.

Front	Top

Adding to the HX9V's snapshot simplicity, these features join 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 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 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! The self-portrait options in the self-timer menu 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/3.3 or f/8.0 at 25mm and f/5.9 or f/14 at 384mm) 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 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 High Resolution, with the latter mode successfully stitching together a 42.9 megapixel image - not bad for a humble compact! 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.

For those who like a healthy dose of gimmickry with their gadgets, Sony claims that the HX9V is one of the first of its type (along with three co-announced Cyber-shot siblings) to offer a 3D still image mode - an addition to the now expected 3D Sweep Panorama mode and the 'cheat' of the lenticular print-like Sweep Multi Angle mode, also again featured here. This option doesn't require two lenses and two sensors to produce a stereoscopic image. Instead the Sony takes two consecutive shots from two different vantage positions and combines them for its 3D effect. Like all of its stereoscopic rivals you'll still need a 3D equipped TV to properly view the results.

In the Hand-held Twilight and Anti Motion Blur shooting modes, the DSC-HX9V 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 HX9V will pick a high ISO speed even in this mode.

Front	Side

Backlight Correction HDR is a feature where the HX9V 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. Background Defocus attempts to mimic the sharp subject and out-of-focus background effect that DSLR owners typically enjoy, again shooting two frames in quick succession but this time varying the aperture.

Present and correct is the increasingly ubiquitous ability to shoot High Definition video clips, but unlike its main competitors the HX9V does so at full 1080p HD rather than 1080i or 720p, and also with stereo sound rather than mono. The various options are 1920x1280 or 1440x1280 pixels at 50p or 50i in the AVCHD format, and 1440x1280, 1280x720 or 640x480 pixels at 25fps in the MPEG4 format.

There is full use of the optical zoom during recording so you can really make the most of that 16x 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-HX9V 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 feature that has slowly but surely been finding its way into digital cameras as the technology has got smaller and cheaper to implement, making its debut on last year's HX5 and unsurprisingly being retained by the HX9V. 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 HX9V 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!

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 HX9V'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 HX9V'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, although that's still a substantial improvement on the HX5.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

The Sony HX9V supports TransferJet, a relatively 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-HX9V is dominated by the large 3 inch LCD screen, with the resolution now a much improved 912k dots, fixing one of our main criticisms of the HX5. 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.

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 Continuous Shooting 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.

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 HX9V 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 HX9V also takes up to 10 pictures, but at slower speeds of 5 or 2 frames per second.

The bottom of the Sony HX9V features a standard metal screw thread for attaching it to a tripod which is now more conveniently located in the centre. A plastic cover protects the lithium-ion battery and the removable memory card, with the HX9V supporting the SD / SDHC 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 9 full-resolution still images. The right side of the HX9V has a small metal eyelet for the supplied wrist strap and also the HDMI port underneath a sturdy plastic cover, 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 16 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 4.5Mb.

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX9V 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, good 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 16 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 quite good, 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 versatile 16x 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 Backlight Correction HDR feature dramatically 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-HX9V. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

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 CyberShot DSC-HX9V's 16x zoom lens offers a very versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

24mm	384mm

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 CyberShot DSC-HX9V 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-HX9V 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-HX9V 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 (384mm)	Forced Flash - Telephoto (384mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, both the Forced Flash setting or the Red-Eye Correction option caused a tiny amount of red-eye.

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

Night Shot

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX9V'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 5 seconds at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Background Defocus

Background Defocus attempts to mimic the sharp subject and out-of-focus background effect that DSLR owners typically enjoy, shooting two frames in quick succession and varying the aperture between each one.

Off	On

Backlight Correction HDR

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

In the Hand-held Twilight mode the DSC-HX9V takes six high-ISO photos in rapid succession and combines them into a single image.

Manual Mode (ISO 100, 5 seconds)	Hand-held Twilight Mode (1/13th second)
Manual Mode (100% Crop)	Hand-held Twilight Mode (100% Crop)

Intelligent Sweep Panorama

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V 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, with the new High Resolution mode successfully creating a 40+ megapixel image.

Standard

Wide

High Resolution

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V camera, which were all taken using the 16 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 Camera

Isometric View

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX9V is the best travel-zoom camera that we've reviewed to date, taking on and beating the market-leading Panasonic DMC-TZ20. The HX9V offers a compelling mix of advanced features, excellent still image quality, and a class-leading video mode, all at a price that is competitive with its main rivals.

The move to a 16 megapixel sensor may elicit groans amongst more experienced photographers, but in reality Sony have been able to maintain the excellent image quality that the previous 10 megapixel HX5 offered. The 16 megapixel backlit sensor provides excellent results from ISO 100-800, with only the fastest settings of 1600 and 3200 suffering from too much noise and smearing of fine detail. Chromatic aberrations are well controlled and colours accurate, and the extended 24-384mm lens commendably doesn't suffer from too 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, although I missed the Aperture and Shutter Priority modes that several rivals offer, and only having two possible apertures in Manual mode does somewhat limit what you can achieve. If you don't want to use a tripod, the Hand-held Twilight mode also delivers great results at night, albeit with an increase in noise levels. Sony's ever popular Sweep Panorama mode now offers an impressive 42.9 megapixel high resolution mode, while the Backlight Correction HDR feature dramatically increases the detail in the shadow and highlight areas. Beginners shouldn't be scared off the HX9V either, as Sony's excellent hand-holding Intelligent Auto modes are as effective as the competition's.

In addition to the excellent still images, the Sony HX9V is one of the very few digital compacts to offer full 1080p video recording, gaining the upper hand on its key rivals. You can use the 16x zoom 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.

Add in the 3D Sweep Panoramas and 3D Still Images, amazing 10fps burst shooting mode, 0.1 second auto-focusing and the much improved 921K dot LCD screen, and it's easy to recommend the Sony CyberShot DSC-HX9V above all of its travel-zoom rivals. Essential!

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

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V from around the web.

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