Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony Cyber-Shot DSCHX1 Digital Camera - Black (9.1MP 20x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD

I ordered this camera from Simply Electronics through Amazon and was very pleased with the service as it arrived one week later.

The camera on the whole is excellent and a huge step up from anything I've used to date.

The camera is small enough to fit into a small bag (not pocket) yet big enough to be comfortable to hold and operate (even for someone with big, clumsy hands). The menu system is pretty good as well (though I
have nothing to compare it against).

The panorama feature was the main selling point and I've not been disappointed. The standard setting gives an image approx 5000x1000 pixels but you can achieve a pleasing 5000x2000 image by rotating the
camera 90 degrees and using wide mode (I don't think I shall use the wide horizonal setting which gives a picture about 7000x1000 pixels). I'm very happy with both modes and the pictures are simply stunning (definitely not through any skill that I possess). Not sure how I'm going to get these extra wide shots printed yet though.

Using the panorama feature vertically for buildings is not very good at all and on the couple of occassions I've tried it the straight lines are visibly warped. I may try this from further away but initial impressions are not good.

The response time is pretty good. If you hold the button half way (to focus) then the picture is taken very quickly upon pressing it fully. It does take a second to write the image to card so you have to wait for that but to compensate there is burst mode which can take up to 10 frames in one second. You can take up to a maximum of 10 shots before the camera has to write them to card (which takes about 1.5 seconds per picture). I would have liked to be able to take a small number of shots when I press the button without having to wait for the last one to be written but cannot so I shall live with that.

Before I bought the camera I thought the zoom was overkill but I've used it a couple of times and it does a very good job.

My main real gripe is that you cannot attach filters to the lens (something I had "assumed" you would be able to do). Post-processing in GIMP has sorted out most problems but this is a crazy omission.

The only other minor quibble that I have is that even though I have a genuine 8GB Sony memory card (which I purchased through Amazon) I get a message "This Memory Stick may not record or play" every time I turn on the camera and I get an error message whenever I try to format it. I have had no problems actually saving pictures to the card but the message is annoying.

Despite these two last points I'm extremely happy with the camera and the pictures that it has produced.

I bought this camera simply for the burst facility of taking 10 shots a second, as my 2 year old son always moves when im trying to get him off the compact and the shutter lag is too slow.

This is a mean piece of kit.

As i said I dont know much about the intricacies of the system, i.e, what filters do yet. I'm on the learning curve.

What I can tell you is what I have found :

On a seaside trip last week, we tested out the zoom. This camera is a "Superzoom" and it certainly is ! From the beach, we took a photo of a cargo ship not quite on the horizon on full zoom, from that picture we then digitally zoomed in...........incredibly we could read the name of the ship and see that 5 men in hi-viz jackets were talking on deck !!! A similar shot saw us picking up a lighthouse further down the coast.....that ended up being a 25 mile drive to get to !

The effects on the camera are amazing too . You can blur out, hyper space, monochrome with colour centre, retro.......all amzing things that have already had people thinking that I have paid a pro to photo my lad.

Then there is the HD video mode which is superb too.

You can even make miserable people smile, artificially, although setting 5 makes them look like the new "Joker" !!!

On the subject of smiles, it has a setting where the shot is taken automatically , when a subject smiles. Fantastic.

Sorry, if I'm not too technical but I'm not even an amateur really, just a Dad capturing his lad and memories and just speaking as how I've found it.

Received this camera as a birthday oresent to replace an ageing Minolta SLR and a JVC DV Camcoder and it really does live up go its billing!
Brilliant camera and would recommend it everytime. You can just point and shoot or play around with the settings to create great looking photos and video footage.

Have been waiting for this camera for a while, due to the HD 1080p built in camcorder as well as Panorama function.

The HD movie quality is excellent, I have a sony AV tape camcorder I bought about 4 years ago and this is in a different league. The panorama is cool but the images on this mode dont seem very high resolution but still great.

Have pretty much left the camera on the auto setting and every image has been nigh on perfect. The image stabilisation at high zoom is very usefull too.

I bought a card reader for about 8 quid so just plug that into my Ps3 or computer and they come up straight away, cool.

I dont think the basic images will be as good as the SLR cameras but if you want HD Movies this could be the one for you.

ordered this camera as a back up to my slr and can not fault delivery or the camera everything is excellent.the camera looks complicated when you read the instructions but everything falls into place very well. feel it should come with more memory.but overall a 5 star deal thank you amazon and sony