Sony CyberShot HX1
Design & Performance
Sony CyberShot HX1 review - Design
The bulk of the HX1ʼs body comprises the LCD and lens. The wideangle G lens means much of the front of the camera houses a lot of glass. Meanwhile, the 3in LCD screen occupies most of the rear of the camera. The HX1 does feature an oversized handgrip, however, to complement the rest of the modelʼs fulsome features, making the camera comfortable to use when shooting.
Layout of the controls is intelligent, with buttons on the rear kept to a minimum - mostly due to lack of real estate, one suspects - and the majority of buttons and dials located on the cameraʼs top-plate and hand grip.
Sony CyberShot HX1 review - Performance
The HX1 is a real pleasure to use. The mechanical shutter and BIONZ processer combine to ensure that there is very little shutter lag, while Sonyʼs interpretation of ʻintellegent autoʼ generally performs well, selecting the right scene mode, and therefore right settings, to suit the scene. However, intelligent auto does like to select a ʻbacklitʼ mode fairly often, and in doing so produces a rather warm white balance, so Iʼd recommend overriding that setting if the HX1 sees fit to pick it.
Backlit mode aside, in general both white balance and metering are very reliable, with almost all exposures appearing as one would want at capture. This is a relief, because one omission from the HX1 that youʼd like on a camera of this standard is the ability to capture Raw files, thus being able to have greater control over post-capture adjustment.
The LCD screen of the HX1 is ample and visually pleasing, though itʼs a disappointment that it only pivots around a horizontal axis. If youʼve ever used Olympusʼs free-angle LCD screen, which pivots vertically and horizontally, then you canʼt help but feel like youʼre missing something with solely horizontal control.
The 10fps capture claimed by Sony is excellent, though itʼs a shame that it only extends for one second. However, if there is a single instant in time youʼre looking to capture, then the HX1 is more than up to the job.
Have your say!
Latest comments
January 16 11:37
s courtney
does the camera have manual long exposure.ie shutter can stay open for star photos
January 27 21:23
peter
cna you zoom when in hd recording mode
August 12 13:48
Paul
The panorama image doesn't use the burst mode - it uses the HD video mode. The clue is in the finished image size 7152x1080. I have and HX1 and while the panorama is innovative, it's really a gimmick. Used up close the image produced looks unrealistic because of the space/time continuum bending effect. Use it to capture far off landscapes and at a glance the image priduced is amazing but the resolution is low poor to see the detail you need. Nice idea, but if it used the burst to shoot 30 images it would have been really amazing. The burst mode can shoot 10 frames in 1 second, they're temporarily saved to superfast memory, then written to the memory card. tripling the size of this superfast memory would permit 30 images at full resolution to be taken then written to card. But they didn't do that... The HX1 is a good enough camera, and 1080p HD video is really really good, but if you're looking for great photographic image quality, in anything other than perfect light conditions, look elsewhere.
January 28 08:39
syra
Easily retouch and enhance images, and 10 in-camera tools to quickly and easily find photos of Image management functions. Plus, with PMB (Picture Motion Browser), it is easy to move, manage, store and distribute images.