Sony HX90V Review

The HX90V enters a competitive travel compact market, but with a design overhaul it looks set to take on the current champions.

While compact camera sales in general have suffered from the proliferation of the smartphone, those with specs ahead of what the smartphone can offer have continued to sell well.

One such area is the travel compact. These models generally offer impressive zooms in pocketable bodies, and as such are often the place casual photographers go to as a first foray in compact cameras.

Sony HX90V Review – Features

The Sony HX90V is one such camera, offering a large 24-720mm focal range and a body that takes its design cue from the impressive Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III.

Despite being an altogether smaller version of its predecessor – the Sony HX60V – the model does inherit some of that model’s features. The most important of these is the sensor – a 1/2.3in BSI Exmor R CMOS chip, albeit with a slight drop in resolution to 18.2MP, which covers an ISO range of 80-3200.

Unfortunately the HX90V isn’t capable of capturing Raw files, a feature which is present on most of the model’s direct competitors.

There are however a host of changes to be found on the HX90V, including some that are sure to impress the travel compact market. Perhaps the most exciting of these is the new pop-up OLED EVF, complete with a 638,400-dot resolution and very similar to that found on the more advanced RX100 III.

Although the HX90V’s lens features the same 30x optical zoom, covering a focal range of 24-720mm, the lens technology itself is completely redesigned. Out goes the old G lens technology to be replaced with an all-new Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* version – an optic which is some 30% smaller than its predecessor thanks to a floating rear optical group.

Other core features include Wi-fi and NFC connectivity for use in conjunction with the Sony Play Memories app, as well as GPS image tagging and Full HD video capture.