Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20 an excellent compact megazoom camera

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Great design, photo quality is superb for its class.

Thumbs Down:

Lens cap is physical instead of a mechanical cover.

Inside the Trunk:

Included accessories lens cable, bundled cables – A/V cable and USB cord.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20 is a 10.1 megapixels camera with 2x digital zoom, ISO options include ISO auto, ISO 3200, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100 and ISO 80. Shooting programs include Twilight portrait, High sensitivity, Twilight mode, Sports mode, Soft snap, Landscape, Fireworks, Gourmet, Beach, Snow. Special effects include Unsharp masking, Partial color, Black & White, Cross filter, Radial blur, Soft Focus, Happy face, Fisheye, Vivid, Sepia, Retro.

Maximum shutter speed is 1/2000 second, minimum shutter speed is 1 second, white balance presets include Fluorescent light (warm white), Fluorescent light (cool white), Fluorescent light (daylight), Incandescent, Daylight, Cloudy, Flash. Images are stored in JPEG format, the video capture resolution options are 640×480 and 1280×720. The H20 has 11 MB integrated memory and supported cards are Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick Duo.

Flash modes include Red-eye reduction, Flash OFF mode, Slow synchro, Fill-in mode, Auto mode. The camera has Zoom lens – 6.3 mm – 63 mm – F/3.5-4.4 with focal length of 6.3 mm – 63 mm, focus can be adjusted both manually and automatically. Lens aperture is F/3.5-4.4 and the device has 10x optical zoom, which can be used for shooting videos too.

Additional features include Smile Detection technology, Blink Detection technology, In-camera red-eye removal, Dynamic Range Optimizer, Digital noise reduction, 720p HD movie recording, USB 2.0 compatibility, PictBridge support, Resizing an image, Histogram display, Cropping an image, Built-in speaker, Auto power save, Face detection, Direct print. The camera is powered by 960 mAH Sony NP-BG1 Li-ion rechargeable battery

The LCD display of the camera is 3 inches big and supports 230,400 pixels. Connectors on the device include HD component output, USB, Composite video/audio output. Expansion slots include Memory Stick PRO Duo. Bundled software includes Sony Picture Motion Browser and drivers & utilities.

Supported operating systems are Apple Mac OS X 10.1 – 10.5, Apple Mac OS 9.2, Apple Mac OS 9.1, MS Windows 2000 and MS Windows XP. Sony gives a 1 year limited warranty for labor and parts.

Razzle Dazzle:

Being a megazoom camera, DSC-H20 isn’t a pocket friendly camera but can fit in your jacket pocket with a few struggles. The camera is big and the bulging battery compartment makes it easy to grip. There is also thumb rest on the other side. We won’t call this camera a sexy piece but certainly looks attractive.

Inside Dope:

This is a great camera from Sony in the company’s line up of point-and-shoot camera. It looks like Sony has turned its compact W290 camera in to a megazoom device. We really liked the camera, it has a revamped menu system which is more user friendly, has great shooting features and there is the 720p movie capture mode which uses the 10x zoom. It takes good photos, is a fast performer and is attractive looking. There are few issues but that doesn’t make it a deal breaker.

The controls on the camera are well laid out and the buttons are big which makes operation easy. On the top of the thumb, there is a mode dial and it isn’t cramped with too many icons. Along with the mode dial, there is shutter release with zoom ring, smile shutter button and power button on the top of the device. The shutter button clicks when it detects a smile.

We were relieved that Sony got rid of the convoluted Menu and Home buttons. With the old layout, you had to remember which button to press to access the menu and which one to press to access the context sensitive shooting controls. Now, there is a single Menu button to see which settings are selected and for shooting control access. We were also glad to see that the camera warning us about certain features. For instance, if the H20 is set to spot meter light, the Face Detection doesn’t work. The camera gives a warning on the LCD for this.

We said earlier that the camera had some issues. Firstly, there is no mechanical cover on the camera for the lens and instead you get a physical cap. If you forget to remove the cover and switch on the camera, the camera will be stalled and you will have to switch off the device, take out the cover and switch it on again. Secondly, you get a 35mm-equivalent 38mm instead of wide angle lens. This is not good for taking pictures of large groups for people in a small area.

The H20 does have a manual mode but you will find that the camera also takes good pictures even if you don’t fiddle much with the settings. The Program Auto handles aperture and shutter speed but gives access to metering, focus, white balance, exposure, ISO, etc. Sony’s Intelligent Auto is there, which contains 8 types for scenes and turns on image stabilization and face detection. You can set Sony’s iSCN to Advanced or Auto, for this, the camera takes 2 different photos in dim light conditions in different settings so you can choose the one that is the best. The SCN mode gives you ten situations for scene like Beach, Fireworks and Gourmet. The latter is used for pictures of food. Advanced sports option can be used for shooting moving objects. There is an Easy mode for newbies which take all the advanced shooting settings and give you simple point and shoot interface. Finally, the camera can shoot 720p videos and you can also use the 10x optical zoom for this.

Megazooms are slow in performance but H20 was faster than we expected. It takes 1.5 seconds to wake up and start shooting. In bright conditions, the shot to shot times were 2.1 seconds with the flash off and 2.8 seconds with it switched on. Shutter lag was 0.4 second in bright light and 0.7 second in dim light. Camera gives 1.7 seconds of speed for continuous shooting.

We liked the H20 for the photo quality it had to offer, but the quality will start to dip when you go beyond ISO 400. You will get good photo prints for sizes below 8×10 inches. At ISO 800 the details start to get blurry but it is good for prints of 4×6 size.

Lens of theH20 is sharper as compared to other megazoom cameras even at the corners. Colors were not accurate but were natural and pleasing. In extreme conditions there was purple fringing. When in bright sunlight we experienced some flare but that is not unexpected.

Nitty Gritty:

In spite of a few drawbacks, we think the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20 is a great mega zoom camera for shutter bug freaks. It is comfortable to use, well designed and has plenty of features like a manual mode if you want to fiddle with the aperture and shutter speeds and three types of automatic shooting modes for amateurs.