The camera is very light. I included some of the 100 or so shots I took in the sample gallery and they turned out excellent in terms of resolution and color balance. I mainly used it as a point and shoot and really did not have much time to play with all the creative options.

I cannot help but think that if a person had more time and creativity, they could come up with some great award winning shots.

I was especially impressed with the following camera features:
- The intelligent sensing option is very, very good, it recognized exactly what I wanted in terms of exposure.
- I used the panorama feature more than I expected. The people I showed the pictures to were amazed that a camera could even do this. Although not quiet as detailed as HD shots, most people will not even see the difference.
- The night architectural interior and exterior shots were done with very little setup or time, and yet the photos look like they were deliberate and careful.
- The battery was great and lasted the entire trip.

On the negative side, I think Sony could work on a protection cover for the main LCD screen, a person definately needs to apply a clear film protector to guard against damage. I think more detail to extreme weather and dust protection would put this in a class all by itself.

In closing Sony designers did a very beautiful job of putting together a camera that challenges Canon and Nikon $2,000 and $3,000 cameras and a fraction of the cost. I challenge you to go one step further and dust, water, sand, and drop proof this camera to put the icing on the cake of this well engineered and revolutionary camera.

Now to just say where I am coming from, I’ve owned Sony DSC-H1 for the past 4 years, and that camera has been excellent and printed out great 4×6’s and 8×10’s. So I was just looking for a camera that would have HD video and also take at least as good pictures as the H1. The HX1 does the trick, let me tell you. (That “X” makes all the difference!) The color is really nice, the pictures come out very well even at high zooms.

Speaking of zoom, the 20x is amazing! It just keeps bringing objects closer and closer. Comparing them to my old H1 pictures, they are definitely better. Whether they are as good as the SX1 or other similar cameras, I cannot say. As to people who have been comparing this camera to a DSLR, this camera is not a DSLR! It will not take that kind of DSLR quality photo! Go buy a DSLR if you want that.

What this camera does do like a DSLR is have absolutely no shutter delay, (once it is focused) which is great for shooting sports games and such. The burst mode works excellent and really does take 10 a second, though it does take a bit to load them onto the memory card, about 15 seconds probably which doesn’t seem that long when you are actually shooting photos.
The panorama mode works as advertised, and can take some extremely wide shots with the “wide” panorama mode. The quality seems to be pretty good, though sometimes you can see the stitching. At the very least, it is a lot of fun to use.
The low light mode works well, though the pictures do tend to become a bit noisy, so I will not be making any poster size prints of those.

The LCD screen is very large and very nice quality and I am still able to see it even in bright sunlight. It can detach and be moved at basically an angle (up or down) relative to the camera, though it cannot be moved side to side.

The menus are fairly easy to navigate and I think are pretty self explanatory, though there is a manual for explaining each mode if necessary. I actually really like how the menus are laid out.

The HD video is great quality as is the stereo sound that goes along with it (but does tend to have wind noise). The play back on the computer was good and yes there was some image tearing but it did not seem to be nearly as bad as some sample movies I had downloaded. I filmed a lacrosse game and it came out great. The HD video also looks awesome connecting it directly to an HDTV, and that was with me several year old 1080i HDTV so I was not even technically seeing it at full quality. Image tearing is barely noticeable when viewed that way. The pictures themselves also look great when connected directly to an HDTV.

Lastly, as far as I know you can’t put AA’s or that type of battery in the HX1 as it only takes a rechargeable battery pack, (which is good and all for the env.) so this is a problem only if you were say, heading into the mountains for a month. If anyone knows of solutions to this I’d be glad to hear them.

Lastly I recommend turning off the beeping noises. They’re slightly annoying.

So summing up, here’s a quick list of pros and cons:
Pros:
-Great upgrade over previous dsc models, especially if you haven’t got one in awhile
-Excellent zooming capabilities
-Good color
-HD video comes out well, especially on an HDTV
-Large screen
-Easy to navigate menus
-Manual Options
-The “features” such as panorama and low light shooting mode work well
-Seemingly no or very miniscule shutter delay once focused
-Burst mode=awesomeness. Just wait to you hear the “clickclickclickclick”
-Relatively compact for the zoom power, but def won’t fit in your pocket
-You’ll like it if you’ve liked previous DSC/Sony models

Cons:
-Can sometimes see slight stitching in panoramas
-Memory sticks are expensive
-Seems to only take a rechargeable battery pack, no AA option if needed

So yeah, I think it is a great camera-but that’s just me…

Pros:

1.above average shutter lag but definitely faster than the compact and ultra compact P&S digicams
2.Manual settings is a big plus
3. Zoom can be extended up to 32x when shooting on 5 megapixel
4. Optical Stabilization works very well
5. Flash is extremely powerful. You can take pictures in VERY LOW LIGHT situations, and produce a bright crisp pics
6. 10 fps burst mode. There are options for 2, 3, and 5 FPS
7. Anti-blur is superb
8. Clear and crisp pictures when maxing out the zoom
9. Very light and portable
10. Good grip and excellent lens

Cons:

1. Macro is below average. My Panasonic tz3 and Sony T200 takes much better pics on macro mode
2. Lens cap is flimsy
3. Automatic ISO mode does not alway take good pictures
4. You have to wait for 16 seocnds to take another shot when using the 10 fps burst mode
5. LCD screen do not completely swivel
6. It doesn’t do my laundry

I have not tested the HD video so I can’t comment on it. Also, I am very much aware that this is not a dslr so I will not complain that it doesn’t take good pictures like the DSLR’r or as fast. To do so would be idiotic, stupid, and ignorant.

CONCLUSION: Get this camera if you know how to use the manual mode with the proper settings. You will be guaranteed to have excellent pictures. Stay away from this camera if you would only use the automatic mode as it would be such a waste of your hard earned money. I highly recommend Canon, Sony T series, and the newer Panasonic models for the photography-challenged.

For the intermediate to advanced photography enthusiasts, this is an excellent second camera. It is light, portable, and have so many manual settings which would allow you to create amazing photo quality

1- In camera editing. You can change a frown to a smile, a blur to a sharp image. Mix back and white with some color elements in the same picture and shoot with a fish eye lens effect if you want and you don’t need the lens. All this and much more and it’s easy to use.

2- Ten pictures a second. If you have owned a digital camera, you know how slow it can be between pictures when you are trying to catch you granddaughter running about. In low light it takes multiple pictures and combines the best elements of each to give you one good image. In portrait mode it will give you a warning on the screen if the person blinks when the shutter is snapped or will take two picture when set and keep the best one. It will wait to take the picture until someone smiles and much more. The results are stunning the technology amazing.

3- Wide angle to telephoto with a small camera body and lens.

4- Scene selection works like a charm. Backlight, front light, no light, portrait or landscape it sees and selects the best setting and fill flash if needed. The amature can get excellent results in the worst of conditions. Want to do it yourself, switch to manual mode.

Hope this peaks your interest. I could go on for pages, but this is a great camera at a great price. I would recommend it and I have owned some of the best. This camera is fun and it allows you to focus on your subject and forget about the tech stuff.

OK, some additional information. I just returned from a trip to Europe and took over 700 pictures. I have to say as a point and shoot camera, it has given me some of the best pictures I have ever taken.

LOW Light – Again, no tech speak. I found some carved statues in a dark corner of a cathedral. It was so dark I almost walked past them if not for a flash light glimmer from a tour guide. With no flash allowed, I set the camera to low light, steady hand held mode and shot the picture. In this mode the camera shoots 5 fast pictures and the internal processor makes a composite picture from the 5 shots. The results are astounding! The pictures are rendered with natural light and are as clear and sharp as day. I used this feature over and over again with outstanding and dynamic results every time.

Pan Pictures – Given the wide street pictures and tall cathedrals it is very hard to compose pictures with a standard lens and not cut off buildings and towers. The 270 degree pan mode gave me incredible pictures of street scenes and buildings that would have been lost in the translation of single images. Please not that there is some distortion as you pan across the scene in some applications, but the effect is not objectionable and in some cases added to the dynamics of the photo.

In short, this is the best camera I have ever owned for this kind of work providing professional results with little or no effort. Buy one and have a ball…

3 days after I got the camera I used it for a 3-day camping trip. I was impressed with the zoom and macro capabilities. There were only a few occasions when I couldn’t get the lens to focus on a subject: once was a flower that was blowing in the breeze (have the same problem with the S3 IS) another time, while staying on the trail, the zoom was too much to focus where I wanted and the brush kept me from being able to go over and shoot macro.

With that being said, the 10-shots per second is fun to use, but those 10-20 sec. (when writing to the disc) does feel like an eternity…especially when you want to keep shooting a wildlife subject. Indoor shots (outside of automatic setting) take forever, though I did get a really cool low light photo of the inside of our RV with just the rope lights on (had my elbows resting on the table).

Putting the camera in Intelligent Auto Adjustment mode helps. I was standing in the kitchen at home and pointed the camera down a dark hallway and got a phenomenal shot, I also used that setting in my niece’s hospital room as it always looks like twilight time in there (my brother-in-law was impressed with the photos I was able to take).

As for battery life, I always use the viewfinder (except for some macro shots) so that does help give more time. I love seeing how much time is left on the battery – I tried it with the LCD first, made a mental note of remaining time, then switched to viewfinder and gained about 10 min.

If you’re looking for a new digital camera, do your homework online and get a list together, then I highly recommend going to a store and trying out the different cameras you’re looking at first. Check out how the camera feels in your hand, try out the zoom/macro modes and take some test shots. Then you can go back online and order your camera (if you can wait that long :)).

I researched a number of cameras and landed at a review site that previewed this camera. I compared it with some of the competition, noting that the Sony DSC-HX1 has some amazing features such as the hand-held twilight mode, anti-motion blur, sweep panorama mode, 10fps continuous shooting, and rechargeable batteries (would you believe some of the competitors use AA’s). After a lot of reading and debating, I decided on the DSC-HX1.

In regards to the sweep-panorama mode: It works fantastically, both during the day and at night.

The video is smooth and a high enough quality to please the eye. This is, of course, an upgrade for me from 640 x 480 resolution video. As I moved the camera in tight on subjects, zoom or not, I immediately noticed the Optical SteadyShot image stabalization working remarkably to make my video look steady and professional-like. No tripod needed here. I took the DSC-HX1 to a Killers concert where I was far enough away that I need 15-20x zoom if I wanted to get tight shots on the band members. With proper camera holding posture (keeping it tight to my chest and using the digital viewfinder) and the SteadyShot, I was able to pull off some video that would not have been remotely possible with my limmited-zoom, no stability, HP camera.

The image quality is what you would expect from a “bridge-camera.” The camera’s CMOS sensor capture daylight pictures with remarkable vibrance and detail appropriate to this camera’s market. Night shots at ISO 100-200 given appropriate lighting look great. Night shots and darker indoor shots at ISO 400-800 show a degree of noise that you would expect from a sensor of this size. I have often found myself adjusting my aperture and shutter values to allow me to use ISO 400 vice ISO 800 if at all possible. I have not had to use ISO 1600 or 3200 manually yet – so I can’t vouch for them, but I would venture to say they should only be used if it is absolutely necessary.

I have not yet tested the hand-held twilight mode or anti-motion blur modes yet. When I do, I will edit this review.

Battery life is stupendous. It is far superior to my HP camera and I far prefer taking the battery out and plugging it into the wall. The charger for the batter is small enough to fit into the small side pocket of my camera bag. It beats having to carry around a charger.

The articulating LCD screen is bright, clear, and reveals enough detail to make a good judgment of the composition of your photo. Only under direct bright sunlight is it difficult to see. If this is the case, simply switch to the digital viewfinder.

The viewfinder is useful in high-light situations or when keeping the camera close to your chest to maximize your steady shot. I can’t say that it is as good as the viewfinder that you’ll find in a DSLR and as a result, would submit that you only use it if you need to. The good thing is, that you can correct the focus of the image in the viewfinder via an adjustment wheel on the housing.

The burst shot mode is great. At 10, 5, or 2 FPS, you can stop motion in time and catch those special moments. Beware though, that after you’ve released the shutter button of you’ve captured 10 pictures, the camera must pause to write these files from buffer to the memory card. This might be a show stopper for some who are not sure when precisely that special moment will occur. You will have to allow time for the camera to catch up with writing the images to the memory card.

The camera does, of course, weight more than your typical compact, but less than a DSLR. It’s portable enough and weighs little enough that it doesn’t strain the neck when worn for prolonged amounts of time. I’ve worn it for 3-4 hours and felt little discomfort if any.

For the price, I feel it’s a great camera. There are a lot of compact cameras that cost nearly as much and have only half the power, speed, and capability.

All things considered, I think this is a great camera for someone who wants great capability without the bulk and weight of a DSLR, and is willing to work within the confines of the camera itself with few customizing accessories available.

What impressed me about this camera frankly is the HD video capabilities. Speaking to the Dad’s out there, you know the drill. You go on vacation or some event and you want to shoot stills and video. So that means you lug both the still camera & the video camera. You are constantly swapping cameras to get both stills & video and that means you’re also lugging around both power adapters or batteries & related media. You cease to become part of the vacation and become the “official photographer.” You end up behind the camera and not in front of it.

Enter the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX1 9MP, this baby shoots exceptional still photos and also HD video on the same media card (so get a big one). If you set the video to Fine quality, you get gorgeous wonderful HD video you can edit or burn to DVD. And now you have cut your gear in half. I think the camera is applying image stabilization to the video but you still need to hold it pretty steady. It also sports a stereo to capture amazing audio quality.

The camera features are stunning also, the panorama mode is endless fun, the twilight setting is luscious and the “easy mode” is great for when you must reluctantly hand the camera over to someone else to shoot pics. There are plenty of detailed reviews for this camera and all give it a very good score.

Will this rival a dedicated camcorder? Not in features but the image quality is great. If you want gorgeous stills and also the ability to capture a modicum of HD video, this is the camera for you. I took it to the beach last week and it was great to finally carry just 1 camera.

Small note, for the last few models (and this one) Sony has been using this miracle of a battery charger. No longer do you get this huge awkward battery charger & cable nightmare – you get this tiny, “deck of card” sized charger that you put the battery into and plug right into a wall socket. I can’t tell you how great this for travel. Former sony cameras came with this enormous charger and cable that was twice the weight of the camera itself.

The image quality is absolutely excellent and there are more than enough program modes to help you get the ideal image for your shooting conditions. The intelligent mode selection works surprisingly well and is our defacto setting for the camera. I must say that while the panorama setting initially felt like gimmick, it is REALLY cool and works very well. I now look for opportunities to shoot panoramas! There a many more than you think – this feature will change your perspective on shooting images.

The video is high quality, though I’ve been wrapped up in the still image shots since getting the camera a few days ago so I can’t comment fully on this yet.

There are only two significant issues that keep this from being the perfect camera for me. The first is the damn Memory Stick format. What the heck is Sony thinking with this? I realize that corporate greed and ego drive Sony to create their own standards for every thing but this has nearly prevented me from purchasing this excellent product. I have purchased a 4 GB MS Duo Pro and a 8 GB Micro SD with a MS Duo adapter. I have not used the Micro SD with the adapter yet but I’m concerned about speed. We shall see.

The other frustration for me is the speed of writing the 10 shots taken in burst mode to the memory card. It takes 10-15 seconds to write the 10 shots to the card. That seems oddly high to me but I’m sure that they tried to make it as fast as possible.

Overall, the camera is fairly small and light for a “near SLR” experience. I recommend this camera to those who want the super zoom, HD video and image control offered herein.

You must know what type of camera you need before making a purchase. For me, the HX 1 has the perfect package. It has 20x optical zoom (which also works in video mode), perfect for spotting small animals in the Amazon jungle. The innovative hand-held twilight and anti-motion blur modes take 6 burst shots and even out to give a clearer picture. I’ve tried all these modes with maximum zoom and the image qualities were excellent. Even with super-steady-shot in place, I could not achieve the same clarity with my A100 in low light conditions or with motion. I took pictures of monkeys in motion, landscape shots on a wobbly canoe, zoomed into flowers across the river…and the HX1 always delivered. The panoramic mode was really awesome. I took fantastic panormas of Rio de Janeiro and Iguazu Falls, vertically and horizontally. While the resolution is not high and there are glitches if you look closely, I cannot complain because I would not have taken any of those shots if I had to stitch together the panormic image myself. The 10fps burst mode is really cool. It’s true that you have to wait for it to process, but who cares if you can catch something in live action. The HD videos came out very very clear, even on my HDTV. I bought an 8gb memory stick and almost filled up the whole card because it was so much fun to play with all the features of the camera. And the weight really mattered. This camera was so much lighter than what I expected given it’s slew of functions, that I took it everywhere, even on long hikes. Many of the photos that I took would not have existed if I had to lug the SLR because it was just too bulky and heavy.

That being said, this camera does have its shortcomings. It is a high end point-and-shoot, so do not expect it to deliver SLR quality shots. For that, you need a real SLR. All the reviews that said it performs poorly in high ISO setting are true, and the noise is definitely noticeable beyond 800 or so. But again for me, I take mostly daytime outdoor shots, so it didn’t really matter. In the intelligent mode and program modes, you can only choose “no macro” or “automatic macro”. This is kind of annoying when you really need a macro shot of a flower or insect, because the camera sometimes doesn’t know what to focus on (it will automatically focus on the object closest to it, which may not be the desired subject). You can choose manual focus, but it’s a bit of a hassle to keep changing settings, as you cannot really move the lens back and forth like a real SLR lens. Thus, you will have to choose the distance for the camera to focus on, which may seem too long when the butterfly is about to fly away… =)

I give this camera 5 stars because it’s perfect for my needs – namely the 20x zoom, the smaller size compared to DSLRs, the HD video capability (a good HD camcorder will cost upwards of $600), strong battery life (takes up to 380 shots on one charge) and the innovative functions. such as panoramic mode, hand held twilight, and anti-motion blur modes. It does have enough manual functions such as shutter priority or aperature priority modes and manual focus should you choose to use them. All in all, it fits all my needs and I had loads of fun with it.

The HX1 is exactly the camera I need and can afford right now. The photo quality is the best I’ve experienced in years and the HD video is top notch. My previous cameras, the Sony T500 and W290 had very good 720p HD video. The HX1 1080p HD video is noticeably better. After two weeks and weekends of use, here are my pros and cons:

Pros
- Great photo quality
- Full size HDMI cable support. It comes with an adapter so you can use any HDMI cable which is much cheaper than buying a Mini HDMI cable
- Camera feels very solid
- Panorama mode is fun, especially if you print it out
- HD video is fantastic. Stereo sound is great
- Great feel in your hands, comfortable grip
- LCD is nice and big. Swivel screen feature gets used a lot
- Automatic mode gets the perfect shot most of the time
- I love that there are different levels of shooting modes including full manual. I feel this is the perfect trainer before moving to a full SLR
- Camera is very light

Cons
- Camera turns on and off fairly quickly, but not instant (fast enough that I haven’t missed any photo ops though)
- I wish the LCD swiveled to protect the screen. I highly recommend a screen protector as the LCD rubs against your chest when using the neck strap
- Low light performance is better than point and clicks, but it’s no SLR

I feel the HX1 is the perfect camera for those seeking great photos, sharp HD video, and a high zoom for a price more affordable than a full SLR with HD video and high zoom lens. When I visit friends and family, the HDMI cable is so easy to plug in to HDTVs for quick viewings. At home, I connect my pro duo card to the PS3 which reads the data flawlessly.