Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5

Opinion: PICTURE QUALITY: Really 'true' exposure and colour rendition in day and low-light (however due to typical Sony trait of a love of yellow tinting, in lit interiors I recommend adjusting white balance). Daylight pictures taken in a big range of conditions come out quite sharp.

Intelligent Auto mode includes option of exposure bracketing (eg takes 3 shots at different exposure levels), and automatically detects back-lit situations that need foreground compensation (this is also a separate, dedicated mode).

Most of the more trying shots using Hand-Held Twilight/HHT (more on that later) and Anti-shake modes (ie really dark conditions) benefited from sharpening and exposure control out of camera.

Big achilles heel with this cam is the very aggressive NR which seems to work on a hair-trigger, smearing fine detail even in quite untrying conditions. Then again, I've got twilight single-shot 2 sec exposure photos that come out pin sharp, and ISO 400 shots taken w HHT that are delightfully clean and crisp too. With no in-camera tweaking allowed of NR etc, you're relying heavily on the camera to figure it out, and it gets it right only a proportion of the time. If you're a pixel-peeper or like A4+ enlargements this cam is going to be exquisite agony. If you value it's go-anywhere capability of HHT, view shots on screen or print 5x7 or occasionally 8x10 then this should definitely be on your shortlist.

WIDE-ANGLE/ZOOM: Great range from 25mm wide to 250mm tele. Very good sharpness edge-to-edge throughout the zoom range. Set in auto mode the camera puts up the ISO at the long-end of the zoom to help keep the shot clear, but put it in P mode, and set the ISO at 125 or 200, and I've still managed clean shots nearly all the time.

FULL HD 1080i VIDEO: Full HD! 50fps for better action videos! Looks great shown on your HDTV, thanks to the (included) hdmi adaptor and (unfortunately massive) octopus-cable connection.

HAND HELD TWILIGHT: Deserves it's own mention. Fun and useful means to take hand-held shots in very low light. The camera takes 6 shots in rapid succession, stacks them into one, and corrects exposure and noise. It's interesting and scary to see it happily traipses up to ISO 800, 1000, 1600... (all the way up to 3200, albeit w 'grubbier' results), but the final pic is relatively clean and can be sharpened further out of cam. If you don't have a tripod, or its inconvenient to use one, this gives you the shot you'd otherwise miss. Also super as a means to take low-light interior shots w/o resorting to the flash.

INTELLIGENT PANORAMA: Entertaining way to take photos with extra "oomph", very fun for viewing on your hdtv or small prints (my preference is to set it to a vertical sweep, and then turn the camera on its side to sweep left to right, which gives a taller shot).

MANUAL CONTROL but no AP/SP: It does come with manual control, but no aperture priority/shutter priority, which are more fun and flexible options - I believe AP isn't possible because the cam uses a ND filter instead of true aperture control.

GPS - It seems a 'must have' for top-end travel zooms - From my use of taking photos with it on for a day, it didn't seem to affect battery life, all the way up to 100 shots but I don't doubt it does draw on more power. It also has a magnetic compass built in, which allows you to view in which direction you were standing when you took your photo.

To summarise a great take-everywhere camera. For a travel zoom, amongst it's competitors, it doesn't have the very best picture quality at low ISO, doesn't have the longest zoom, aggressive NR kicking-in at a moment's notice, but with top-notch picture quality throughout the zoom range, very useful and usable low-light capability plus HHT, excellent video, very entertaining Intelligent Panorama, manual control if you ever want to get a little creative, it gives you a very good all-round solution.

Opinion: My first Sony camera as I always gave them a wide berth because of the memory card specifics, but that has now been fixed by the introduction of SDHC cards. So after much research and hands on trialing I purchased one.
The most impressive feature I have found is the Sony G lens which is found on the high end professional DSLR Sonys. They seem to know what they're doing Sony by ditching Zeiss and the image quality is truely outstanding.
The Exmor R sensor and AVCHD qualities round out a fantastic compact camera made for fast action shots (10FPS) like car racing, which is specifically why I purchased it.

Opinion: Rather disappointed..I am an amateur, but comparing the previous Sony model I had DSC W-170 and this one I must say it’s far from sth I would expect from Sony. Since models are 2 years apart it’s appropriate to expect better images, better speed (even though one has 5x zoom and another one 10x), etc..Its true camera has all kind of new features (gps, hd, compass that reminds more on the compass from pirates of the carribean,..)..but in the sense of performance..It’s not even close to the old model (images, construction, energy consumption)

Ps: before buying I checked all kind of forums, I thought critics are too demanding, people who do photography more than just for fun, but seems they aren’t overreacting

Opinion: As any gadget you buy, you need some time to get the most out of it.
That said, I have a HX5 for 2 weeks and I can say: WOW! Absolutely stunning pictures in hand held low light, the full hd movies are crisp with very little shake. The 25-250mm zoom will cover almost anything you want.
Oh, and Sony thanks for accepting SDHC cards!

Opinion: I am rating it a great camera but I didn't decide to keep this.

RUSH fan as well! I actually took the HX5 to the Toronto ACC show, I sat 9th row directly stage right (Alex's side), so I was close enough for the camera to really show what it can do. The HX5 was amazing. ISO800 great picture! ISO1600 very decent (of course all w/o flash). The AVCHD videos were amazing.

I would almost want to buy this just to take to concerts and clubs.

Great value for all that it can do for $350Can.

I love that while viewing playback, you can just press the shutter button slightly to immediately get back to shoting mode. The Pani ZS7 you have to flip the toggle switch which I am sure would annoy most people.

That said, I am returning the HX5 and keeping the ZS7.

Opinion: After comparing this camera to the Canon SX200, SX210, and Panasonic ZS7, I decided to purchase this one. I got my hands on all of these cameras at the local camera shop before making my final decision and spent many hours reading about the features that they all offered. I actually purchased the SX200 first, due to the sale price at the time. It was returned within 3 days due to the overall poor image quality. The pictures were simply fuzzy and noisy, even with optimal lighting conditions and no zoom. I also didn't care for the pop-up flash at all. The SX210 was not much better, so I really didn't even consider buying it. I've been a Canon guy for 10 years, but the SX200 and 210 simply didn't cut it. My wife hated the fact that she couldn't turn off the flash in Auto mode on the new Canon cameras.

My final decision was between the ZS7 and the HX5. I ultimately chose the HX5 due to the low-light shooting capabilities. The CMOS sensor in the XH5 is really awesome. The low light noise reduction works very well. It tends to hunt for the focus, but most P&S cameras do also in low-light. The AF is lightning fast in decent lighting conditions.

The final output is very nice from this camera. I do have a few gripes with this camera, but it seemed to be the best of the bunch in my novice testing.

Opinion: Overall I am very pleased with my HX5. The image quality is great, except for some smearing of fine detail due to noise reduction. You should be able to shut this off. I post-process all my photos and the base photo, except for the smearing, is excellent to work from. However, if you do not like the camera output and do not post process, the HX5 does not offer you any ability to adjust noise reduction, contrast, saturation or sharpness in camera at all. So in that case, I would not recommend it.

However, if you can live with the default noise reduction and either post process your photos or are happy with the camera processing then I highly recommend it. I am especially pleased with its excellent dynamic range (even in Program and Manual modes) , which rivals a DSLR.

The 10FPS is wonderful for action shots (although without a viewfinder it can be hard to follow birds, etc and the special modes can be very useful. I do wish it had at east an aperture priority Mode in addition to its Manual Mode.

I hope that Sony will put out a version with full manual control, RAW, and in-camera adjustments of noise reduction, contrast, saturation and sharpness.

Opinion: As a professional seeking a carry-along shooter on casual explorations, my expectations are in proportion to what one can possibly expect with a small sensor camera. In my opinion, the worst aspect of this one is the digital artifacts that appear at close inspection, even at 125 ISO. They appear to be sharpening done inside of the camera. It's a shame that a "raw" file format isn't offered, but that would probable do a great deal to enhance the final image quality, without introducing such artifacts. Other than that, the Sony is quite amazing in its capability, offering 10 shots/second full res image sets (of course you can't expect it to process that quickly!!) that take about 20 or more seconds to write to the card. The SD card that I'm using is a 16 GB Class 4 Sandisk Ultra II, which works flawlessly, btw. Videos focus continuously and rather well, considering the cost and type of instrument this is, with adequate sound quality. The special effect setting for low light shots impressively reduces noise like nothing I've seen before, and can capture pretty good images. The i-auto works good too, and will switch to macro automatically if the subject is close to the lens; pretty cool. There's lots of unique features (like the GPS, which I consider not useful for me) which are packed into this little wonder that make it quite a little performer. It takes a couple hundred shots to learn your way around the thing, and naturally there are some niggly things for me like the excessive button pressing required to change the exp. comp. setting or the ISO, for example, but this type of camera isn't designed to handle like an SLR, let's face it. It slips into your pants pocket easily, and it's unobtrusive as well, allowing for ultra convenience and candid photos--- unlike carrying along the 'ol SLR.

Opinion: My first and last Sony camera.
GPS works so-so, but it is a cool feature for the price.
Included combo USB and video cable is ludicrous, very cumbersome and awkward. the camera has a propriety plug on it instead of a mini USB. I use my card reader and bypass using the supplied software.
Color accuracy is poor in the reds.
Good bracketing and seems to respond to changes in light levels.
Good continuous shooting, but slow to record the images, I missed some shots while it was busy.
The LCD screen is unusable in very bright conditions.
Heavy for pocket camera
I like the panorama feature.
Mode dial on top frequently gets bumped to wrong setting, either it moves too easily or is poorly located.