Sony CyberShot DSC-HX100V Preview

Sony HX100V is so good in the hand like a mirror reflex camera, even better than Sony's Alpha DSLR-entry-290th Therefore, the developers formed in HX100V an ergonomic handle and a rubberized coating also did not forget. Anyway: The whole body design, the developers were influenced by the self-proclaimed long-awaited appearance of the Alpha-700's successor. The weight of 580 grams when ready for operation for this class of camera is absolutely fine.

The HX100V has a weighty lens with 30x magnification (focal length: 27 to 810 mm, corresponding to small image). In the laboratory, we found good imaging properties. An ND filter is present and can switch from bright scenes to achieve a balanced exposures.

The zoom lens is an optical image stabilizer to the side. He convinced us fully in the test is the stabilizers and a Nikon Coolpix P500 and a Fujifilm FinePix HS20 EXR visibly superior. Particularly clever: The films of very effective stabilization calms. You can not stand the entire zoom range used, without much fear of blurred images must.

Scharf is the HX100V as quickly as any other mega-zoom camera: only 0.33 seconds, the shutter lag and autofocus at wide angle, very good 0.83 seconds in telephoto. The engineers put it on magnetic support and an image-depth calculation, as it also comes with the digitally created 3D pictures are used. Alternatively, you can manually set using the handy lens focus ring (electronic implementation). In contrast, you change the autofocus operation with the focal length of the ring. Here comes the somewhat sluggish response of the camera, be it the focal length change, or the recording settings menu in the menu - which is always present, slight delay putting the brakes on a really unnecessary operation. Slowly and the camera start: After 3.1 seconds is the HX100V ready to fire. For continuous shooting, it goes forward briskly, however: Sony typically there are up to 10 photos per second.

Functions HX100V provides in abundance: automatic and manual shooting modes, intelligent and superior automatic (the latter selected from 36 scene types, the right and starts playing well burst, if necessary), pan panorama, reasonably well-functioning calculated, digital 3D images, twilight and HDR mode and GPS. But the time here, sometimes several minutes, until the camera has determined the current position. Ambitious photographers will miss the save in RAW format. The battery lasts in spite of the many functions for 260-880 photos - a good performance. At a charging cradle Sony waived, however, you need to recharge the battery in the camera.

The display relies on a Sony high-resolution screen (921,000 sub-pixels) with good image quality. Practical: The monitor can be rotated about 45 degrees down and 90 degrees. The electronic viewfinder provides only a much lower resolution. After all, the camera can automatically switch between two display modes.

The menu design is well done Sony. However, 22 functions appear in the Quick Access menu a bit too much of a good thing - at this mass of possibilities well get lost. The contrary is true for the buttons on the back - anyone who wants to "blind" use, the lack of haptic feedback almost flat and the housing is adapted controls. Unlike the trigger: The not miss you, but he throws too fast, there is a lack of significant resistance during focusing. Apart from these weaknesses, there are number of configurability and the keys nothing wrong.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX100V: Nice menu design, but too much content in the Quick Menu. Very low noise. The 16 megapixel image sensor triggers on - that brings back memories of the DSC-W570 Cyber-shot with the same resolution and disappointing picture quality. However, a higher value uses HX100V Exmor sensor of the type-R. So that it achieves a high resolution of 1358 line pairs per picture height (ISO 100). This is significantly better than the W570 and also better than the 16 megapixel resolution Megazoom competition SD20 Fujifilm EXR. The loss of sharpness at the edges is about 20 percent in the HX100V - acceptable. The measured values ​​for the noise are very good. The same applies to the detail at the lowest light sensitivity. At ISO 1,600 and higher, but you should avoid. Somewhat in contrast to the very good readings, however, is the visual impression of the photos: In the 100-percent view her work may be extremely low noise and fine details melt away, however, the aggressive noise reduction, and act like a light "art filter" reworked. In the photo gallery you can get an idea of ​​this effect.

Videos assumes HX100V in Full HD resolution and 50 frames per second - a rarity in the filming cameras. There are stereo sound, a slow zoom and auto focus tracking. For recording start and stop the camera responds sluggishly. Saved to SD-HC card or Memory Stick Duo.

With the Sony HX100V manages a convincing mega-zoom camera: the equipment is excellent, considering the 30x zoom large enough for most photographic needs and the autofocus is fast and the competition significantly. The image quality scores at low light sensitivity with very good resolution and extremely low noise, interfere with intensive observation, however, the washed-out looking, fine detail.