Consumer Reviews

Before I had this camera, I had a point and shoot compact – the Hewlett-Packard R607. After time, I noticed that I desired more of my photos. My photos lacked depth of field, vibrance, resolution, and detail. I started reading about photography and associated terms such as aperture value, shutter speed, ISO, exposure, white balance, and metering. I quickly learned the basics of photography by visiting a few websites and determined that the camera I had wouldn’t hack it for me anymore.

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.

I am not a pro photog but my iphoto library is over 18,000 images of family & travel pics. So, when it comes to digital photography, I have been there since day 1. I have friends who buy the $2500 digital camera, thats not for me. I want a camera in the sub $500 range as I know I will be buying a newer one in a few years.

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.

I struggled over a 4 or 5 star rating for this product but ultimately believe that Sony has delivered an excellent package in the HX1. The other cameras I considered prior to purchasing the HX1 were several DSLRs, which I ruled out due to lack of support for video and the Canon SX1. The tipping points for me on the Sony were the panorama, twilight steady shot and high speed burst modes.

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.

I just took this camera on a 2 week trip to Brazil and Argentina and I absolutely love it! I have owned 5 Sony cameras and this is the best that I’ve seen. Prior to this, I’ve had 4 point-and-and-shoot cameras from the cybershot series as well as the DSLR A100. I travel extensively, so I mostly use the camera for scenic shots. I’ve had the A100 for about 3 years now. While I am happy with the image quality, it does weigh quite a bit especially if you have to carry 2 lenses with it. Also, my fiance loves to take videos, so he’s been using the T10 as a backup camera and camcorder. I was looking for a lighter camera that also has good video capabilities, and viola! I found the HX1! I struggled between giving 4 or 5 stars on this review, and at the end decided on 5 stars. Here’s why:

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.

I was somewhat scarred as a youth having to carry around a huge film SLR. Looking back now I appreciate the film quality, but it made me a point and click user for most of my adult life. Now that I have a child, I really wanted to get back to the best possible picture quality and also capture HD movies.

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.