DSC-HX90V

I should probably say first that I am a huge fan of Sony cameras. I have a Sony DSLR and 2 previous HX models. First, if you are wanting this camera to perform like a DSLR, this camera will not do that. It is still a point and shoot with a small sensor. As long as you are aware of this limitation, then you will probably be pleasantly surprised. I purchased this camera mainly for use at concerts, going to places like Seaworld, video recording my daughters dance performances, and just general photography. I do have a DSLR but I find that its size and weight prevents me from using it very often. There is nothing wrong with my other HX models but the 30x optical zoom on this camera in a small body was just too much to pass on. My favorite feature of this camera is the control ring. I thought it would be the zoom, but it's definitely the control ring. I find myself shooting in S mode quite often at concerts and the control ring allows me to easily and quickly make adjustments in the dark. This is wonderful!! My least favorite feature is how the pop-up viewfinder works. It pops up but then you have to pull part of the eye piece towards you to get it to work. Its a little cumbersome, but not terrible. The size is nice. Since this was going to be my main concert camera size was extremely important. Most venues do not allow any camera with a detachable lens or one where the lens extends beyond a certain length. My larger HX (sorry, I dont know the model number off the top of my head but its in the "bridge camera" size range) would often give me issues. I would have to explain that no, the lens does not detach but sometimes they still didn't want to let me in with it. I am confident that I will not have that problem with this camera. I know there are lighter and smaller cameras out there but I'm not sure if any of them pack so much into them. The grip took a little getting used to as the body is slightly different than my other HX model, but that was nothing significant. The record button for video recording is in a much better position now and can be found easily in the dark. The menus and scene selections are very intuitive, particularly if you have ever used a Sony camera before. The battery life is as expected. I had no problems during a 3 hour concert taking stills and videos about 40% of the time. The picture and video quality was what I would expect from Sony and this type of camera. It works excellent in great lighting, struggles a bit in low light. I'm not one of those that zooms in at 100% and looks for purple fringing, noise, and so forth. I also don't do large prints - 8x10 maximum, but mostly 4x6. I found the concert images were better than expected. This is really putting the device to its maximum capabilities. I know I'm not going to get perfect images when you zoom in at 30x optical from really far away. But I could tell who I was taking pictures of and wide angle shots caught some really beautiful mood pictures of the overall stage. I was impressed that the camera was able to capture the colors in almost the same hue as I was seeing with my eyes. I've noticed that at concerts cameras tend to not be able to capture the stage lighting well. Purples come out as blue, and so forth. With some experiments with the settings, this camera did a pretty decent job. The tilting screen is nice to have on such a small camera. I kind of wish that it rotated in the opposite direction so that you could hold the camera above your head and use the lcd screen, but this is a minor issue. It worked well for taking a selfie. Overall I am very pleased with this camera. I would definitely recommend it to others.

My camera cam last night and so far it is very impressive. I'm wring this review to help people with downloading some of the features as it was a very frustrating process (Shame on Sony!) and I want to try to help. I also comment on the viewfinder as I wear bifocals and am questioning whether it was worth the extra $100. When you buy the camera give yourself 2 hours if you want to get apps downloaded and know that you're probably going to have to connect to a computer to do it. Apps that should have been included on the camera need to be downloaded and it isn't as easy as it should be in a plug and play world. Many people are going to want to do this because the sync to cell phone feature seems attractive for travel and so does the ability to take remote photos for group photos. To download the apps you first need to register with the Playstation network and download the Sony PlayMemories app to you telephone, tablet and/or computer, so you'll need a smartphone, tablet or computer, and patience as it wasn't the clearest process and involves verifying your e-mail. None of it worked as smoothly as other things I've registered for. Next, I tried to use my new account to download the software through the camera - BIG MISTAKE! You have to enter your e-mail address (not your user name) and password, and the connection to the network doesn't work, so each time you try you have to enter it again. This never worked for me after multiple tries! (I want the name and telephone number for the software engineer who set it up this way to give him/her an earful.) Thankfully I was able to connect the camera to the computer, download software to the computer and register online. Next, I tried to download the apps via Google Chrome, which did not work. Using Firefox I was able to download them slowly and one at a time. Instructions weren't very clear to me, possibly because of age, but any event it worked. Also the webiste was buggy and didn't let me go back easily to the page with the others apps to download, but I finally realized you have to go through path message to get back to the page with the other apps you may want to download. MY MESSAGE TO SONY - MAKE THIS AUTOMATIC ONCE A CAMERA OWNER CONNECTS TO A WIFI NETWORK OR COMPUTER!!! THE LITTLE BIT OF USER INFORMATION YOU ARE GETTING CAN BE OBTAINED THROUGH REGISTRATION AND WITHOUT FRUSTRATING THE BUYER!!!!!! Connecting the camera to an iphone works, but might not be intuitive to you. One place referred how to connect using my iphone as a network hotspot, a feature I don't use on my iphone. Luckily I found the instructions that tell you to USE THE CAMERA AS NETWORK ON YOUR WIFI setting on the iphone (SETTINGS, GENERAL, WIFI ...). When I first tried it, it wasn't there, but after a little while it popped up. You then need to enter the password the camera displays in the PlayMemories app, not the settings. Another thing I noticed is that the sync to telephone feature defaults to auto sync, which means when you turn off the camera it tries to connect to your telephone and sync the photos. If you are on a wifi network it won't work and the camera will keep looking for the connection burning through battery. The reason is that you need to go into settings and turn on the camera is the wifi network for this to work. (Obviously if you already had the camera as the wifi network this should work fine.) I turned the auto sync feature off. Everyone I talked to said get the viewfinder for sunny days. I listened. I wear bifocals and so far I have mixed impressions. I'll post on this once I use it more. I will say that I wish that the viewfinder was a little more rigid in place and that the diopter adjustment was easier. It works, but because the camera automatically switches back and forth between viewfinder and display, it is a pain. Also, I wasn't able to adjust it enough to use without glasses although that might be the solution for other people. I'm glad that the camera gives me some options about use, and I may just need to change settings. I also found the electrical viewfinder to be very different than the SLR and rangefinder cameras I've used in the past, as well as the older Olympus and Nikon digital cameras I used in the past. Once I use it for awhile, I may edit this and provide more info. The display and viewfinder do have an unbelievable amount of information available. I dimmed the display to save on battery life and it may have also dimmed the viewfinder - I can't tell yet. The pop up flash works and I understand the value of having it higher above the lens, but I still might prefer a flash I don't have to pop up.

UPDATE: We are halfway into our Thailand vacation and the camera is performing up to or beyond my expectations. Having this quality camera in my pocket during our bike tours, night shopping and other activities has proven to be exceptional. I hardly notice the camera in my pocket but it's there when I need it, which has been often. The viewfinder has come in handy many times during bright days, and I find it quick and easy to use. The quality of the images has been exceptional for both wide shots and long zoom. I continue to be impressed. Of course the tradeoffs in the sensor size are there - noisy images in low light, but for the size, I don't think this can be beat right now. Original review: My family and I are taking a trip to Thailand and I wanted a new camera that would fit in my pocket, have a long zoom and plenty of control to get the best shots. I've owned too many cameras in the last 10 years, looking for the right camera for the situation. This one seems to have it all. It's small enough so that I don't know it's in my pocket but has many controls and presets to get awesome photos for such a small sensor. I'm sure people will make the usual complaints about small form factor cameras, noisy at high ISO, weak flash, etc. You have to consider the tradeoffs. I would love to have a full frame or micro four thirds mirrorless , and looked carefully at the usual suspects there but ultimately decided that having the camera in my pocket was more important than the higher quality at low light. The HX90 image stabilization works well, as does the EVF, and adjustment wheel around the lens. My only 2 complaints so far is that I wish it had a touch screen and more parts were metal.

Great camera for the value which is what I expect from Sony. It is funny to have to manually operate Eye piece, but I understand why, and not having any motor does save on the cost. I like the fact that when you use the Eye monitor, the LED monitor shuts off Automatically. It comes back on when you take your eyes away. The zoom is fast, the picture quality in both video and still is awesome, the panoramic is excellent and easy to use. This is a very high-quality camera, and it is so small you can put it in your pocket. The zoom is fast, the picture quality in both video and still is awesome, the panoramic is excellent and easy to use. I like the way Sony has placed the operation buttons on the back of the camera, especially the video record button. It makes it much easier.

My first review of this camera was all glowing - the photos taken with it fantastic even as a semi-professional photographer. I have it on my body or in my purse almost daily just in case one of those once-in-a-lifetime photos happens along. However, after having it for two years and encountering known problems with it, I suggest that anyone interested in this little Cyber-shot be wary. They are prone to collecting dust on the sensors. And, since that accumulation comes over time, rarely are they in warranty when you need them cleaned. The cost of cleaning the sensor in mine by Sony is about half the cost of my camera, thus eliminating that avenue of help. So, be careful and be aware of the problems prior to purchasing. The Zeiss lenses are worth every penny, and the photos are excellent and out-shoots my Nikon D5200 SLR. But, you end up paying more in the long run.

The Sony HX90V offers great functionality and a nice shooting experience but ultimately, even considering its sensor size, image quality falls short with detail smearing down at the lowest ISOs when blown up to anything larger than web size photos. While I realize that they have decreased the MP slightly on this model, I still think 18MP is way too much for a camera with a 1/2.3" sensor. I kind of feel, for an enthusiast-oriented megazoom, they should've gone with something like 12MP like Panasonic did for its Lumix ZS50. Detail smearing due to noise reduction is visible at reduced sizes at base ISO. Most pedestrian point and shoot cameras these days should at least be able to give you the ability to blow up your prints at ISO100. RAW capture is also not available on this model, which is unfortunate, because you can customize the level of noise reduction applied and potentially get better photos than what they out of camera JPEGs display.To balance this out, color and exposure are pretty good. The camera doesn't blow out highlights as badly as some of its peers. It's unfortunate that image quality falls short because, otherwise, this is a nice camera to use. The autofocus is fast and mostly on target. The image stabilization works well. And the viewfinder is actually very nice, despite being a lower resolution than the ones found in the RX100 series cameras. Battery life is also pretty good. The LCD screen on back is pretty good as well. I have not shot with the Panasonic ZS50 so I can't really comment on overall image quality compared to this camera, but, the fact that you can shoot RAW gives it a leg up over the Sony. If you never really blow up your photos at all, then this might be an alright choice. But if you at least want to make larger prints from images at base ISO in good light, I would look elsewhere.

I have been the previous owner of the Sony HX series of point and shoots including the 20v, 30v, and the 50v. While all of them had their strong points and weak points, the HX90v has improved its strong points even further, while some of the weak points still plague the small sensor. Sony has reduced the number of megapixels from 20 down to 18 improving its signal to noise and dynamic range. You can now do exposure bracketing from +/-3EV where before it was +/-1EV. This opens up a higher dynamic range shooting exposure bracketed images for HDRs. The camera also has an auto-HDR feature which will take three shots for you at the exposure range you set and process it into an exposure balanced image which of course retains you shadow and highlight details. The camera has also been reduced in size but has has new features added such as a popup EVF and a flip up rear LED display for those selfie moments. It is a marvel of engineering to pack so many features into such a small camera. It also features a movable lens ring that will give you better control over zooming in or out of your scene. Like I mentioned before, the small sensor still has problems with noise at higher ISO ranges above 800. Navigating the menu to get at certain features is complex but has a lot of customizations that could be useful. The popup EVF was clearer than I expected from such a small display but totally adequate for shooting in bright sunlight where the main display is totally washed out by the sun. I would have preferred to have had the rear display be able to tilt up or down rather than just flip up. Like the 60v, this camera can also accommodate PlayMemories applications which adds more capabilities and automation to help process and/or shoot your photos. You have the ability to wirelessly transfer your images to your smartphone of computer as well as being able to remote control the camera from your PlayMemories Mobile app including settings, zoom, and remote viewing of the scene before triggering the shutter from your smartphone. The only downside to the apps is that Sony has not updated all their apps to accommodate the HX90v yet. All in all, it is s great improvement over the previous models and I look forward into using it a lot more for those times that I don't want to lug my big DSLR around.

If you own a DSC-HX30V or other older Sony super-zoom then stick with it. This new model is slower to focus, has a slower lens, and is not as sharp throughout it's zoom range. The viewfinder is very small and cumbersome to use. first you pop it up, then you have to pull the magnifier toward you. The diopter lever is easy to use, but the image is just too small, and distorted near it's edges. It will be a help in bright light, but I would bet most people will just leave it down. The monitor screen is good, and has plenty of resolution and brightness. But the steadyshot feature does not seem to be adequate at 30x. The image is just too hard to hold steady. Did I mention the noise ! pictures are noisy at any ISO. Do I expect too much from this point and shoot ? I don't think so, especially when Nikon got it right with their Coolpix S9900, For 100.00 less. To be fair, maybe I received a poorly calibrated camera. It's going back tomorrow.