Sony DSC H9
 Feb 11th, 2008
Advantages:
size, zoom, li - on battery, tilted LCD
Disadvantages:
lacks external flash, power button position
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Picture Quality
Range & Quality of Features
Ease of Use
Durability
Overall Look & Design
Value for Money
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  jeaniecz
About me:
Hardly any time for ciao still...work and personal life issues prevail :p But I found time to post a...
Member since:10.02.2008
Reviews:52
Members who trust:58
Review rated by 28 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
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Read Comment
This is a very good digital camera for amateur photographers who are fed up with easy turn-on-click cameras and want to expand their knowledge and abilities, experiment and maybe become a pro one day.
It offers a wide enough range of options to set and explore, but you won't make sense of it unless you are or make yourself familiar with some physics, optics and technical stuff, so that you can make the most of using H9's settings. For a person like me, who doesn't remember much from my highschool physics classes, this might be not so easy and take quite some time, but once you get into it, H9 grabs you and doesn't let go until you will have taken thousands of pictures and spent hours and hours by computer editing and creating picure albums.
Remote control makes it even more fun and allows you to shoot e.g. birds by your window sitting on your couch while camera's installed by the window.
There's a LOT to do with the camera, might look scary if this is your first big one, but controls are intuitive and menus show description of all functions.
Main descriptions and functionsBody comes in black or silver version, robust but light plastic that doesn't scratch easily and survived being dropped a couple of times.Carl Zeiss Vario Tesar lens with 15x optical zoom and nightmode in a compact body with a hinged 3 inch LCD screen and an EVF which both preview exactly the result you'll get.
The camera takes 3 seconds to start, which is fine speed for unplanned picture taking.
Maximum resolution is 8.1 Megapixel, you can shoot in 8M (equal to an A3 print), 5M (A4), 3M (10x15cm), 3:2, 16:9 and also VGA mode, if you wanted it for some reason.
Modes: fully manual, aperture, shooter, auto exposure, fully auto, sport, twilight portrait, high ISO (80 to 3200), scene - twilight, beach, fireworks, snow.
Image stabilizer can be turned off, always on or on when the shutter is halfway pressed.
Macro shooting is available from 1cm distance.
Movie recorder creates .mpeg files in fine quality, including sound.
Shoting in vivid, sepia, black and white, normal and natural colour settings.
Flash instensity can be set from -2.0 to 2.0 EV.
White balance: natural, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, 3 kinds of fluorescent light, you can capture white image as the basis before shooting.
Exposure based on central point brightness, central area or balance throughout the screen.
Pictures are clear and sharp, colours realistic. You can notice a lens-round effect and also leaves tend to catch violet/blue contoures.
- Rather small body compared to DSLRs and other competition products, light and easy to carry. Fits into a messenger bag and similar, but preferably should be kept in a padded case, for safety reasons.
- Rechargable Li-on battery I count into advantages, I have two, since one lasts for about 250 pictures, so it's good to be ready for more shooting. Still I prefer this to carrying an ammo of AA batteries.
- LCD screen
Even if I mostly use the view-finder, a hinged LCD screen comes more than handy when shooting macros, high objects from their foot, over fences/crowd so that you don't break your neck or downwards where you can't lean over the edge. Maximum rotation angle is 180°, it would only be even cooler if the screen could also rotate around its support's axis.
- Connectivity
Via cable to computer, printer or tv. Memory card has a push-in slot next to battery slot, transferring pictures onto computer's HDD is a matter of minutes.
*Disadvantages
External flash cannot be added.
Power button position - easily pushed by mistake when tying shoulder strap around camera to pack it into case or when taking it out.
Sunshield appears not to fit precisely so it might get into your pictures if you won't take the time to install it properly.
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Related tags for Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9S
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by (4%):
28.03.2009 22:47
looks like a neat camera but I wouldn't substitute to my beautiful Canon S5. Great review
24.03.2008 01:18
Nice review, I wouldn't mind one of these
18.02.2008 23:59
Great review xxx