Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 Digital Camera [5.1MP, 12 x Optical Zoom]

Having owned a Fuji 601Z, which in its time was an award winner and cost me £500, I decided that digital photography must have made advances since I purchased mine from Amazon. I was in for a major shock!

What did I want from my new camera? Well, great images and the ability to zoom in. I bought a few glossy digital camera mags and narrowed my choice down to the Sony DCS-H1. It has won too many awards to be ignored. I then attempted to find the best ‘deal’. Having submitted the DSC-H1 to numerous ‘shopping’ search bot engines, my previous experience having bought from Amazon many times before made me pay over the ‘odds’ for my DSC-H1. Amazon was more expensive than the cheapest by a massive £1.49! No contest, my order was submitted and 2 working days later and in the lead up to Christmas, my camera was delivered. 10 out of 10 for Amazon yet again!

Now what do I think of the DSC-H1? Well it is smaller than I expected and smacks of quality. I did not open the box to get at the camera for 24 hours; instead I read the instructions, time and time again. Silly me! This is the most user friendly Gizmo that I have owned. The menu system is so easy, but I still would recommend reading the manual first.

As for the picture quality, I was hoping for a bit better than my Fuji 601Z, so I took my first 13 shots directly to the internal memory as my Mem Stick had not arrived, then uploaded them to my PC, at full 5m pixel quality.

When I viewed the shots for the first time using my DSC-H1, I was speechless! The quality of the photos was beyond my belief, stunning colours and crispness of the shots, but then adding the anti shock to a full 12x zoom blew my mind!

The DSC-H1 is big, but not enough to warrant rejection, in fact, when I opened the box, I was surprised at how small the camera was compared to a digital SLR.

In summary, the DSC-H1 takes awesome photos straight out of the box using the ‘auto’ mode. The quality of the images it takes is frankly amazing! If you are looking to take fantastically detailed pictures, you could buy another camera, but you would me mad if you did!

The DSC-H1 has massively changed my opinion of the camera, now you and I can really take brilliant shots, right out of the box.

The more I use the DSC-H1, the more I realise what rubbish is available. Clearly this camera is AWESOME and at a bargain price.

The only negatives:
Cover for USB connection appears to be a bit flimsy
Cover for battery and Mem stick seems a bit flimsy.

I bought this camera for a recent 2 week trip to the Himalayas. I wanted a good amateur proof all rounder with a decent lens that would get me close to the mountain tops and reasonable MP so that I could print large pics on my return.

It had to use AA batteries and have a good battery life and be able to take filters.

The DSC-H1 did all of that and I'm happy to say it's exceeded my expectations, for the money I don't think there's a better camera available at the current time.

This is one cracking little camera.Of course bear in mind it is just 5.1mp so don`t expect dslr quality.I have never had so much fun using a camera as using this.Yes fun--a very important factor in photography because if you truly enjoy using camera then your photos will be that much better.Zoom is brilliant and when coupled with the digital zoom then the power of the zoom is awesome.I have-as a test,and not spying!! taken a street of houses from about 1.3 miles away and you could see the washing line clearly and also the toys scattered about garden.Incredible it is.Moon shots come out fantastic,and the cameras metering can cope with just about anything.Use it on maual mode though,with live histogram and you cannot go wrong.I have never as yet(1300 shots)had a photo that has not been in focus due to cameras fault.Macro mode is a dream to use,and when you zoom to about 90mm and then home in the detail is unbelievable,I took a ladybird and it looked like some alien being,it looked that big---I`m glad they arn`t 6 feet high!! You will honestly have super fun with this trying all sorts out that the camera you now have can only dream of.I also have a Nikon D70(never use now) and a Fuji S9500 that too is a super camera but for different aspects of photography.This Sony gets used the most by far.With 2AA batteries I can get about 230 shots and download to my computer,not bad going.Of course you get more with Canon S2-IS BUT that takes 4AA batteries maling this far more efficient.Zoom can be a bit jerky I find, but may get more used to it with practise.I highly,as an amateur,recommend this camera.Thanks

I purchased the 'H1'10 days ago and I don't think I have put it
down since.This is my 3rd Sony digital camera, having started with the ancient DSC55 then on to the DSC505V which is a brilliant camera but now completely surpassed by the Sony H1.
This camera is so easy to use and gives superb results whatever mode it is being used.There is only one very small issue, in normal tungsten light indoors use the manual white balance, the Auto setting indoors is a little 'out'.All the other auto settings are perfect.It is however such an easy camera to use and gives such fantastic results that you want to use all the facilities the camera offers.
Don't put off by buying before it is replaced by Sony,plus the Amazon price is the lowest available.Enjoy before its too late!

This is an amazing camera. I have been looking at this camera for quite a while, and eventually made the purchase, I wasn't disappointed. I ordered this from Amazon on Thursday morning and it turned up on Friday morning, excellent delivery from Amazon.

I have read most of the reviews and they have all been spot on. Very easy to use, excellent quality photos. Coming from Sony this is one of the best on the market, mix that with the price from Amazon, which is the cheapest I could find, this really is worth making the purchase.

I can't really say a bad thing about this camera.