The HX90V enters a competitive travel compact market, but with a design overhaul it looks set to take on the current champions.
Sony HX90V Review
Sony HX90V Review – Image Quality
One of the key concerns for a camera that shoots only JPEGs is how the white balance performs as, unlike Raw files, white balance can’t be changed after the moment of capture with JPEG files.
The good news is that the white balance is generally consistent, giving accurate colour rendition in a range of shooting conditions and even in variable light sources.
Dynamic range is another potential area of concern with the smaller compact sensor. However, while there is some shadow and highlight clipping in scenes with particular high contrast on the whole it’s respectable. The same goes for the camera’s metering system that gives accurate results in a range of conditions.
In terms of resolution, the HX90V delivers results in keeping with a camera with this sized sensor, although the results with regards to noise throughout the ISO range are more impressive. Between ISO 100 and 400 there’s very little evidence of image noise, and fine detail only really starts to break down at ISO 800.
The top two ISO settings of 1600 and 3200 are a different story, as image quality deteriorates and very little fine detail is retained.