Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2

...about my new toy, the Sony Cybershot DSC-H2 digital camera.


INTRO
Since leaving school some 15 years ago with a GCSE grade B in photography I have been rather absent from the photographic scene. Back in those days of 35mm film I had my own darkroom at home where I used to print and develop my photographs. So when the new age of digital photography came about I was a little taken aback losing interest in taking creative ...
...fell in love with the Sony cyber-shot range, with its slick designs and competitve prices I decided to go for the Sony Cyber-shot H series.



SONY CYBER-SHOT H SERIES
At present the Sony H series has 5 models out. They are DSC-H1 (earliest model) DSC-H2,DSC-H5,DSC-H7 and the latest model is the DSC-H9. As you would expect each later model has been slightly revised and a marked improvement for instance the H1 has ... more

Can't take my eyes off of you, you're just to good to be true are the lyrics from a great song that sprang into my mind when writing up this review about my new toy, the Sony Cybershot DSC-H2 digital camera.

INTRO
Since leaving school some 15 years ago with a GCSE grade B in photography I have been rather absent from the photographic scene. Back in those days of 35mm film I had my own darkroom at home where I used to print and develop my photographs. So when the new age of digital photography came about I was a little taken aback losing interest in taking creative pictures, since then I have had only the odd digital camera (nothing flashy) which I have used mainly for Ebay.
Recently I had to take a photograph for my work so it was now time to seriously look into the digital camera market.

LOOKING FOR A DIGITAL CAMERA
Seeing such a huge market for digital cameras I decided straight away to choose from 3-4 camera manufacture's that I have used and bought from before, these where Sony, Nikon, Pentax, Canon.
I set myself a budget which was £200 for a digital camera with at least 5m pixel (dots that make up the picture) and then went down to visit my local High Street.
Jessops was my first port of call where I looked at the many different types of digital camera ranging from the small compact to the professional Nikon digital SLR which may I say was costly, but desirable for an old 35mm photographer like myself. The next shop was Currys who had some good offers, but by now I was becoming rather confused with all the extra features packed into these little machines, such as video recording with sound (loved that feature) and all the different types of settings for taking that extra special picture i.e modes for Portrait,Landscape,Sport, plus the ability of storing hundreds of pictures on one tiny memory stick (amazing).

It was not until the following week whilst browsing reviews on the internet that I fell in love with the Sony cyber-shot range, with its slick designs and competitve prices I decided to go for the Sony Cyber-shot H series.

SONY CYBER-SHOT H SERIES
At present the Sony H series has 5 models out. They are DSC-H1 (earliest model) DSC-H2,DSC-H5,DSC-H7 and the latest model is the DSC-H9. As you would expect each later model has been slightly revised and a marked improvement for instance the H1 has 5.1 M pixel and the H9 has 10m pixel.
Being that my buget was £200, the Sony DSC-H2 was my final choice.

SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-H2
I bought my camera on Ebay secondhand below my £200 budget and luckly for me the camera was in a new condition. If you ever consider buying a secondhand digital camera be cautious and make sure that the Ebayer has no negative feedback.
My first impressions on the Sony DSC-H2 was that it was much more compact and lighter than I first thought, it also comes with a massive 123 page manual which is a little daunting at first, but within a few hours I was snapping away with a big smile on my face.
On the H2 camera you've got the choice to use either the 2"inch LCD screen or a digital viewfinder when taking your pictures. One of the strongest points about this camera is the powerful 12 x opitical zoom lens plus a further 4 x digital zoom for a seriously close up image, it has also manual exposure, aperture,macro and shutter speed opitions which all count when taking a great portrait photograph.

As I've been away from this new age of digital photography for so, long I was amazed by the picture quaility that was super sharp,clear and of a high resolution. The SteadyShot mode which activates the anti-blur function that stops camera shake (very handy when using zoom) is yet another smart function on this camera. The Sony DSC-H2 Movie mode (video recorder) is exceptional with its super clear sound and the choice of either shooting in colour, b/w or sepia will bring endless fun.
The camera kit comes complete with 2 ni-mh rechargable batteries that stay charged for several hours (another strong point), a recharger, USB lead, strap, lens shield and a lead for connecting camera to TV.

SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-H2 TECHNICAL INFO
Key Features
Image Sensor Type CCD
Resolution 6 Megapixel
Camera Type Standard Point and Shoot
Optical Zoom 12x

Lens
Optical Zoom 12x
35mm Zoom Lens 36 - 432 mm
Digital Zoom 4x
Focus Type Autofocus & Manual Focus
Focus Range 19.7 in. (w)
Focal Length 6 - 72 mm
Macro Focus Range .74 in. (w)

Image Quality
Camera Resolution 6 Megapixel

Video
Video Speed 30 fps
Video Format MPEG

Exposure Control
Aperture Range f8 (t) - f2.8/f3.7 (w/t)
Shutter Speed .25 - 1/2000 sec
White Balance Auto, Cloudy (Preset), Daylight / Sunny (Preset), Flash (Preset), Fluorescent (Preset), Incandescent (Preset), Manual
Frames Per Second 1.4 Frames

Storage
Memory Type Built-in, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro
Built-in Memory Size 32 MB
Compression Modes Fine, Normal
Compression Type JPEG

Flash
ISO Speeds 100, 1000, 200, 400, 80, 800, Auto
Flash Type Built-In
Flash Functions Auto Flash, Fill-in Flash, Red-eye Reduction Flash, Slow Sync

Viewfinder / Display
LCD Panel With LCD Panel
LCD Panel Size 2 in.
LCD Screen Resolution 201,000 pixels
LCD Protected Position Without LCD Protected Position.

Interfaces
Video Interface Video Out

Included Features
Self Timer 10 Sec., 2 Sec.
Built-in Microphone With Built-in Microphone
Built-in Speaker With Built-in Speaker .

System Requirements
Operating System Apple Mac OS 9, Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows ME, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

Miscellaneous
Included Accessories Battery Charger, Macro Focus Range .74 in. (w)
Lens Cap, Shoulder Strap, Software, Video Cable

SUMMARY
If you're looking for a great digital camera that takes superb photographs and doesn't need to be too compact then look no further,the Sony DSC-H2 digital camera is an excellent choice. Outstanding features such as the powerful zoom and the ability to produce razor sharp images through the many exposure settings allows you to become far more creative when taking pictures. Being that the camera has now been around for just over a year means you're more than likely to buy it at a heavily discounted price in the shops (try using www.kelkoo.co.uk to compare prices too) but if you are going to buy secondhand like myself remember a digital camera is very fragile and can easily be damaged, so be careful.
I would have no hesitation in recommending the Sony cyber-shot DSC-H2 digital camera. It's truly great fun and an all round winner in every field Enjoy 10/10.

Below is a picture of my neice Florence I took with my Sony DSC-H2 digital camera. 

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