Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony Cybershot DSC-HX1 9.1MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization and 3.0 Inch LCD

I love this camera. It is probally the most user friendly camera I have ever had. It is definately a point and shoot. I only gave it 4 stars because it does not come with a remote. It takes beautiful pictures. It has the ease of a point and shoot with the quality of a Digital SLR.

I've been using a Canon A720 IS digital for the past two years. I wanted a camera which would capture stills of moving subjects (mainly wildlife and sports) within a larger frame area, as well as take movies, and bought the Sony with its "burst" mode and larger LCD in mind. I didn't intend to compare the two cameras for quality, but find it unavoidable.

For a general purpose digital camera, the Canon A720 has a coordinated interfacing of settings and features that makes it easier to use than the Sony HX1.

Sony's "burst" feature makes the HX1 highly desirable, though the recovery time between bursts is quite slow, especially if one wants to take another burst of 10 or even 5 shots right away.

Sony's autofocus mode is good but needs time to settle on the subject.

The 6x Canon zoom is very powerful (better than claimed), and I can actually get closer to a moving subject with it without blur, though the subject has to be exactly within the smaller frame area, which gets very much smaller at full zoom (a lot of good pictures are missed by being "off"). The Sony has a larger, adjustable LCD screen that reduces glare (nice), but I miss the optical viewfinder that's on the Canon; the viewfinder is a fast locator and I miss too many good shots with the Sony. The Sony LCD screen, tilted or not, is virtually useless in bright sunlight and without the viewfinder or image stabilization (which the Canon has) I am more limited in what I can do than expected. I also have to use a tripod with the Sony when making zoom-in movies; but color and depth are quite good. I have a Mac computer and in iMovie (the editing software) scenes can stall when playing a Project - and some will not play at all - which has never happened with the Canon footage.

The Sony disappoints in its claim to zero in on moving wildlife for the reasons listed above. It takes "panoramic" pictures, which is nice, but the feature is not made for moving subjects.

The Sony CD-ROM is made for MS Windows; doable for Mac users, but not as user-friendly.

If I could have only one of these cameras, I would choose the Canon A720 for overall performance and best value for the money.

Just got it today. Pictures look pretty good in all modes.

Excitedly, I took my first 720p video. The video quality was very good. Happy with it.

Audio was good until I decided to zoom in and out of an object. YIKES!!! A clear hummmmmm is recorded every time I zoom in our out.

How disappointing. Admittedly, it was almost dusk and there was no noise to record, as I was in a very quiet front yard. But still. Zoom humm in my videos.

I'll continue to test this camera, but my guess is this noise is distracting enough in the video to make me send the darn thing back.

Why can't anyone make a camera that doesn't have some problem???

So far, I've sent the Lumix FZ28 back (mono sound is lacking). Sent back the Canon SX1 (no 720p - 1080p too difficult to deal with).

So now I guess it's back with the DSC-HX1.

Oh, not to be a grouch, but please don't anyone tell me to get a video camcorder. Some of those do it too.

I want a decent still camera and a decent 720p video built in one fairly small device.

Ain't found it yet.

****UPDATE!*** Make it 4 Stars

I've decided to keep this camera despite the noisy zoom on video. I am very happy with the pictures, especially the Handheld Twilight Mode, which enables me to get almost motion-free blur pics, even at night when people are moving. To compensate for the motor zoom noise, I've purchased a Blue Mikey for my iPhone. That way I can get an alternate audio track if good quality is important.

Good camera. I like it.

The camera isn't a bad buy for the money -and it's on the high-side of prices for its class. It has lots of features. But anyone who thinks that an ultra zoom "works" is deluding themselves. There's barrel distortion at wide angles and the images at 560mm telephoto equivalent are not very sharp. The lens also produces images with relatively weak contrast.

The camera does not allow one to manually adjust contrast or color. That has to be done post processing, and the lack of RAW images limits serious image manipulation.

There's some other annoying design attributes. To view images in the camera, the camera obviously has to be turned on, but that also extends the lens and pops the lens cap off. The program control knob is loose enough that the sometimes you'll find it set for something other than expected -that is, it'll switch with casual use from, say, Intelligent program mode to Easy or Vibration mode. Sure, that's user "error", but the engineering could be better.

The main problem, though, is the optics for any advanced amateur. Sony can and should do better.

This was a gift--I did not personally use it, but heard from the recipient that it was great and she really likes it.