25 out of 25 people found this review helpful.
P&S Continues To Amaze the Amature
Date of Review: Dec 22, 2008
The Bottom Line: Biased toward Sony products. Significant learning curve esp for the manipulation of the buttons, but doable with patience and care. Not one for beginner unless much time will be devoted.
I owned an Olympus FE-100 that I bought over three years ago and that gave me problems from the start. I finally had to accept the fact that it needed to be trashed. I began the search for another point and shoot to supplement my Sony A350 DSLR that I bought last April. Even though I am not a "photophile" I enjoy learning different features on a camera and experimenting with different shots when the mood hits me. Yet, I also want the portability and convenience of a smaller camera but one that has some bells and whistles too that I can carry and take out on a whim or serendipitous moment.
I began the search among the different brands but the built in bias toward Sony brought me to the DSCH series. It s absolutely amazing how much the P&S versions have evolved within a reasonable price range in less than 36 months. The Sony DSCH-50 is the latest in Sony's line of long zoom digital cameras and, like its bigger SLR brothers has a rugged body that is easy to hold and shows an SLR-like appearance.
The H50 is a multi-featured P&S camera with high-power zoom capability. Its 15x reach may be considered by some to be less effective than other brands offering 18x and 20x optical zooms but it's in the neighborhood. Sony likes to market it by emphasizing such features as Smile Shutter technology which captures smiles the moment they happen, and Face Detection technology to optimize focus, exposure and color for up to eight faces. Sony also brings some other interesting technology to the CyberShot H50, including its Nightshot infrared mode (e.g., much of the wildlife prefers the night scene) and Super SteadyShot to stabilize the image at long focal lengths.
Additionally, there is Intelligent Scene Recognition that automatically selects your camera's settings based on detected lighting conditions. Sony's Double Anti-Blur solution helps keep your images blur-free. The DSC-H50 completes the package with a 3.0-inch ClearPhoto LCD Plus display that lets you easily view your images and menu options.
Since I am not a pro, a lot of the spec data does not say much to me but readers in the past have been critical that such information is not included. So for the OCDs, A-retentive, micromanagers, and science types I will try to intersperse some of that information starting with this list of the Basic Specs for the Sony H50:
Resolution: 9.10 Megapixels
Lens: Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 15x optical zoom (with 2.0x digital zoom that includes Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization) has a focal length of 31-465mm. Has 13 elements in 8 groups including one ED glass element and four aspheric elements.
Shutter speeds: 30 seconds to 1/4,000 second are available, although various modes restrict one end or the other of that, to complement the aperture range of f/2.7 to f/8 at wide angle and f/4.5 to f/8 at telephoto. Sony's Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization is also built into the H50.
Modes: The two main Auto modes are Green Auto and Easy Shooting. Green Auto lets you set image Size, Face Detection, Scene Recognition, and Red-Eye Reduction. Easy Shooting uses very large type to offer only two options on the Menu which are Image Size (Large or Small) and Flash (Off or Auto). The Sony H50's traditional PASM modes are next. Program Auto, Aperture Priority, Shutter Speed Priority, and Manual Exposure all rely on the Wheel to select either the settable option or EV compensation. When the option you want to change is highlighted in yellow, you press OK to activate it and again use the Wheel to change the value. The Sony H50's Scene modes add special camera setups for Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Beach, Snow, and Fireworks.
Internal Memory: 15MB of built-in memory that is not considered adequate by many because it can only accommodate about four 3,456 x 2,592 pixel Large/Fine images. More likely though, you'll rely on a Memory Card Duo (probably a Duo Pro) anyway. The H50 can take cards up to 16GB capacity but does not support the Access Control security function.
Viewfinder: EVF / LCD
LCD Size: 3.0 inch (very nice)
LCD Display: 230,000 pixels
Shutter: 30-1/4000 Max Aperture: 2.7 Mem
ISO sensitivity: From ISO 80 to 3,200
Type: MS Duo / MS PRO Duo
Battery: Power is provided by a proprietary NP-BG1 lithium-ion rechargeable battery. It comes with a 3.6V, 960 mAh lithium ion battery (that s the NP-BG1). CIPA battery life rating is 300 shots with the LCD, and 330 with the EVF.
Dimensions: 4.6x3.2x3.4in (116x81x86mm)
Weight: 15.6 oz (442 g)
MSRP: Was $400 in May 2008 when it became available. I paid $299 tax from Dell in early December 2008 and it was found on two other sites a week later for $285.
Focusing: This camera uses contrast detection autofocusing, nine focusing points, and an AF assist lamp to assist with difficult lighting conditions. Exposures are determined with multi-pattern metering by default, and both center-weighted or spot metering modes can be made available also. A Noise Reduction System helps suppress the color noise that can degrade low-light shots.
---FINALLY WE RE MAKING PRETTY PICTURES---
The long zooms, like the Sony Cyber-shot H50, are bulkier than the slip-in-your pocket ultracompacts, but they're designed to get you comfortably close to wildlife and sports action. That s something no darling little digital camera can do. From my reading, the tech obstacle has always been focusing speed that is reflected in shutter lag. At telephoto focal lengths it can take ANY camera a bit of time to find focus. In my A350 I can hear the motor as the lens goes back and forth trying to find the desired focal point as it picks up the near article while also picking out something else in the background. It s especially frustrating when your subject is not inclined to sit still.
DRO Plus mode has also been added to the Sony H50 along with intelligent scene mode, which can detect low light, backlight, and whether or not a human face is included to determine which of several scene modes to use among Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, and Twilight using a tripod. Plus, this camera can take a second shot immediately with optimized rather than standard settings.
A few other technologies worth noting: Sony's new "real" color mode; Easy shooting mode, which came from the company's Handycams, increasing font size and simplifying vocabulary as well as camera options; and the autofocus now knows when to slip into Macro mode so you don't have to remember. Resources have been allocated to organizing images so they can be more easily retrieved on the larger memory cards. You can view your images by date, face or no face, smile or not, adults, children, etc., and you can organize those images by groups (maximum six) of favorites.
As you ve gathered by now there are a lot bells to ring and whistles to sound. If a compact long zoom is on your shopping list, then you may want to consider some of the many alluring features.
THE BEAUTY PAGEANT While it may look like a heavy-duty digital SLR in the commercials and ads, it s actually a fairly compact digital camera that can be easily handled with just the right hand by using the very comfortable grip for this lightweight model. In fact, if you re a one-armed type then there s no worry because your other hand has nothing to do. Zooming, usually done with the left hand on most digital SLRs, is done with a Zoom lever on the top right of the back panel.
INTERFACE: With the H50's Home and Menu buttons, it may not be immediately clear what the Menu system hierarchy is. Home is the top of the hierarchy where you can setup camera behavior for Record mode, Playback mode, Slideshows, Printing, Memory Management (both built-in and cards) and general settings (for Main Settings, Shooting Settings, Clock Settings, and Language Settings).
ARTICULATED LCD: The 3 LCD swings up and it can be pulled out from the camera back to angle up or down but there's no swing to the sides. To the left of the Mode dial, the Power button is highlighted with a green LED when the camera is on. This is a particularly nice feature because you can toggle between the LCD and the Electronic Viewfinder and may not realize the camera is still on when you're using the viewfinder.
HOME AND MENU BUTTONS: You press the Home button to scroll past the first Shooting menu to the Settings menu and the second Shooting menu. Seems odd but that s how it is. You press the Menu button to affect settings peculiar to that operational mode. If you wanted to enable Real color to see what this new Sony feature offered you press Menu in Record mode and will find Color Mode on the list of options. It runs top to bottom over several screens but does wrap back around. So basically, you visit Home when you are first setting up your camera and once you've gotten acquainted then you will rarely need it again, but Menu is something you probably will return to frequently; usually at times that you don't like what's happening,
MORE BUTTONS AND SWITCHES: The Metering and Shutter Release buttons are just to the back of the Shutter button, and behind them is the Mode dial with the12 options. Those begin with the standards: Program, Auto, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual modes. The standard green Auto mode with the new Easy Shooting mode follows. High Sensitivity, Smile Shutter, Portrait, and Advanced Sport modes are trailed by Scene mode and finally by Movie mode. On the other side of the EFV is the Nightshot switch. The back panel holds the Finder/LCD button to do the toggling between the LCD and the EVF. A Presentation button sits next to the Playback button which is just to the left of the Zoom lever. The four-way navigator, using what Sony calls a Wheel Dial, is to the right of the 3.0-inch LCD. A Menu button is above the navigator and a Home button is below it.
PORTS: There's a DC-In port on the top right side and Sony's proprietary connection for AV and USB are on the bottom left side. The multiconnector supports USB 2.0 and 1080i HD video output. From published lab tests, it seems that the USB support is High-Speed (the fastest variant).
THINGS TO FIND: A metal tripod socket is underneath, off-center and near the battery/memory card compartment. A speaker is hidden behind the LCD that snaps out from the bottom to tilt up or down from a hinge on the top. The microphone is to the left of the lens housing on the front.
THE REMOTE: The remote control is nice during shooting (for remote shutter release) and playback when it is attached to a TV.
---IT S NOT THE PERFECT LITTLE CAMERA BUT TO EACH HIS OWN---
The Sony H50 is nice looking but it has some design features that others may consider irritating depending upon individual tolerances. The shoulder strap can easily twisted into webbing due to unimpeded swivel eyelets. The Zoom lever requires some learning to touch control because it doesn't have much travel. That s ideal for zooming to get a close-in quickly but on the downside it can be a detriment when you try to tweak your composition.
The camera comes with a plastic lens adapter ring that screws onto the body and to which you can snap on a flower petal-shaped lens hood. After it is in place it can be awkward to reach inside the hood to put the lens cap on. The lens itself will extend when you turn on the camera thereby knocking off the cap.
The worst physical feature of the Cyber-shot H50 is Sony s newly presented Wheel Dial. In attempting to describe it think of an outer ring surrounding the navigator. The navigator is also a ring but a wider than the Wheel. Now inside the navigator is a small OK button. The problem is that it can be very difficult to control any one of these three controls without hitting one of the others.
Moving the thin wheel to change a setting can easily take you off the setting because you can accidentally press the navigator. When you do manage to get where you want to get then you have to cope with the H50's OK button. It is small so when trying to confirm a setting or selection you can find yourself taken to another selection or setting because you hit the navigator rather than the OK button. The bad news here is that essential controls like EV compensation can be set only by using the Wheel Dial.
It takes time and patience to do it. Some will not change settings frequently but others who often do may find the Wheel Dial very frustrating.
---More About Some of Those Features Mentioned Earlier---
Special modes on the Mode dial include High Sensitivity, Smile Shutter, Portrait, and Advanced Sports Shooting. High Sensitivity uses ISO 3,200 to shoot effectively in low light without flash while the Sony Clear Raw Noise Reduction system helps suppress the color noise that can degrade low-light shots.
Smile Shutter detects smiles and captures them immediately. The mode can be set to capture when your subject laughs, smiles or even grins, and like Face Detection it is able to differentiate children and adults to set priority.
Advanced Sports Shooting means that it will select a higher ISO more readily than other modes to freeze action and prevent blur. It automatically uses Auto Focus to analyze subject motion and predict the next move while the shutter button is halfway pressed. A high shutter speed of up to 1/4,000 second will freeze the subject even if it is moving at high speed.
You can even retouch a smile. If you re dealing with a Grinch it can help but it only lifts the corners of the mouth.
Movie mode can capture MPEG VX Fine (640x480 at 30fps) with a Memory Stick DUO PRO, MPEG VX Standard (640x480 at 16fps), or Presentation Mode (320x240 at 8.3fps). Optical Zoom is available during movie recording.
Technically, H50's Nightshot option is not a mode but is a nice feature to play with or get some serious pics for the serious photog. You can even get a clear shot of a dark corner of a basement area that hasn t been seen since the contractor was there. Fortunately nothing was growing or growling there when I took it.
In-Camera editing options includes the Red-eye correction, Soft focus, Partial color filter, Fish-eye filter lens, Cross filter, Retro, Radial blur, Unsharp masking, and Happy face.
The small remote control can be used to operate the camera in either Record or Playback modes as previously mentioned. It's handy for activating the shutter without touching the camera in Record mode, and in Playback mode it will be appreciated when you connect the camera to a TV to display your images.
Startup takes a few seconds but I ve read that it will take some seconds for any long zoom to extend. Shutdown was also average of about three seconds. Neither of those times were particularly a problem.
--- But When The Finger Hits The Shutter, What Say You? ---
When it matters, the Sony H50 exceeded expectations. The spec numbers provided state that the 0.699 second combined wide angle and telephoto autofocus lag and the 0.008 prefocus lag were both better than average . When you're trying to get that award winning shot (at least in the family s eyes) of wildlife or sports, then those are the two numbers that really count.
Telephoto shutter lag is by far much more important in a long zoom than a wide angle. In that regard, as is typical in these cameras, the H50's telephoto autofocus lag is considered to be slower at when compared to the wide angle.
When taking a picture if you do find it frustrating to wait for it to come into focus then you can do what you may have done with other camera and prefocus by half-pressing the Shutter button. This can be done long zoom extended to full telephoto focal length.
Cycle time for a large/fine images in continuous mode is less than a second. Flash cycle time was about 10 seconds, but do not let this bother you because the H50 has a very powerful flash that will enable you to reach more distance than any compact digital camera flash.
USB download speeds from the cabled camera to a computer were excellent.
The Sony H50 was easy to power up and was responsive. The Zoom lever was the one item that experience will remedy hopefully, but once it zeroed in on the subject then it was easy to catch the action.
The low-light performance is very good and produces reasonably bright images even at a very low light level and at the camera's lowest ISO sensitivity.
CONCLUSION: (Keep in mind the price and size) While this model is not the longest of the long zooms, the Sony H50 provides excellent above average autofocus performance. Image quality can be considered deceptive by the purists, showing problems on close examination that aren't apparent at normal viewing distances. Most people are not going to be that picky considering the price for the features. Unfortunately the weakness is its Wheel Dial and small OK button in the center of the four-way navigator that it is predicted Sony will modify in future models. It's an essential but frustrating control. Overall, it is an average camera in its price range (because of the Wheel) but will give good to excellent image quality in the various modes and configurations.
SUMMARY OF THE SPECIAL FEATURES
Face detection technology for focus and exposure; Smile Shutter technology to capture smiles, laughs and grins; Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization; High Sensitivity mode of ISO 3,200; Intelligent scene recognition for Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, and Twilight using a Tripod with either automatic settings or optimized settings; Bionz image processor; Dynamic Range Optimization; Standard and Plus Nightshot infrared system; Advanced Sports Shooting mode using AF to analyze subject motion, predict the next move while shutter is half-pressed and more readily use a high shutter speed (up to 1/4,000 sec.); Long distance flash; Automatic Macro shooting; Built-in color filters; Real color mode to minimize in-camera processing; Remote control
ALONG WITH THE SONY CYBERSHOT DSCH-50 BODY, WHEN YOU GET IT HOME YOU WILL FIND IN THE BOX:
Lens adapter ring; Lens hood; Lens cap; Shoulder strap; Lithium-ion battery NP-BG1; Battery charger BC-CSG; Combo AV/USB cable; Remote control RMT-DSC2; User Guide and Warranty and Registration forms; CD with Windows Picture Motion Browser Version 2.0 and USB Driver. ***NOTE: NO Memory Stick PRO Duo Media or adaptors are included.
