Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7

At its widest angle, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7 shows vignetting (darkening) at the corners of the photo.

As with other megazoom lenses, however, the Sony's displays some distortion, chromatic aberration (edge discoloration) on the sides of the photo, as well as purple fringing on high-contrast edges. In general, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS exhibits better sharpness both in the center and from side-to-side. As for shots at medium-to-high sensitivities, I suggest you avoid them.

Despite boasting support for up to ISO 3,200, the jump between ISO 200 and ISO 400 reveals serious detail loss and notable increase in artifacts. Though it produces better noise measurements than the S5 at the higher ISO settings, the Sony DSC-H7 has more apparent image degradation.

For movie capture, Sony makes a slightly better trade-off than most between file size and movie quality. Though they're not quite as sharp, its 30fps VGA MPEG movies require about 1.3MB/sec of storage--far less than the Canon's 2MB/sec M-JPEG recordings. One disappointment here is the tiny microphone that records muted audio.

If you shoot primarily outdoors in daytime--especially sports, children, and animals--and don't find the interface quite as crazy-making as I do, the H7 is a good choice. The approximately $100 difference in street prices between the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7 and DSC-H9 makes your choice simple: If you can forgo the infrared and the flexible LCD, then buy the cheaper model.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7

1.5

2.2

1.2

0.5

Canon PowerShot S5 IS

1.6