And, of course, there's the 10-shot ultra high-speed burst mode, which we clocked at 10.6 frames per second. (You can also choose to scale that back to 5fps and 2fps, or drop the resolution and get faster shooting.) Keep in mind, however, that after that speedy 10-shot burst you have to wait another 16 seconds for the camera to write the photos to the card. That's with the fastest card you can currently buy, a SanDisk Extreme III MemoryStick Pro-HG Duo 30MB/sec version. Combined with the lack of a regular slow-but-steady burst that can shoot a larger number of frames, the HX1 becomes far less useful for continuous shooting than it really should be. Too bad, because the AF is quite fast and seems to keep up with the burst. And given the demands placed on the camera--large LCD, high-speed burst, HD video--the battery seems to last a relatively long time.
Alas, the photo quality is the weakest aspect of the HX1. Megazooms typically don't have the best quality, especially given their prices, and the HX1 fares a bit worse than many of its competitors in this respect, mostly from what looks like poor image processing rather than any real issue with the lens or sensor. It's capable of producing relatively sharp photos, and the lens displays little distortion or penchant for inducing fringing artifacts. The colors look good--appropriately saturated and relatively accurate--and it delivers correct, even exposures. But most nonmacro shots are a bit soft and have that smeary look associated with aggressive noise suppression at the default noise-reduction setting and even at low ISO sensitivities. As a result, shots that look nice on the camera display disappoint when viewed or printed at full size.
If you're more interested in video, the camera's 1080p movie capture looks a bit better. Though it does only 1,440x1,080, rather than 1,920x1080, at 30 frames per second, and the video suffers from the same general softness as the stills, the movies it produces (H.264 compressed MPEG-4 files) have solid exposure and focus. Like most models, the camera could really use a wind filter. But the most annoying thing about its video support is the bundled dongle--one of those add-on connectors that you're bound to lose within weeks of unpacking the camera--you need to use to make an HDMI connection to an HDTV.
At its price, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 competes directly with the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS, which isn't as fast and lacks the HD video and low-light shooting features of the HX1, but shoots better daylight photos, and the Casio Exilim EX-FH20, which matches it in the novelty features department but also has photo quality issues. While it's always a good rule to figure out what you're most likely to be shooting before choosing a digital camera, it's never been more important than with the HX1.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Time to first shot | |
Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Shutter lag (dim) | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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