Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H55 review – An excellent beginner’s mega-zoom

The announcement of the Cyber-shot DSC-H55 didn’t send hordes of shutterbugs into a frenzy, and with good reason. Given that it was a peer of the popular HX5V, hopes were raised for this camera but it all petered down a bit when the camera was made available to the public. In a world of speed, the H55 slows down to a pace best described as unhurried and does things well, but at its own languid pace. The H55 shares some of the DNA of its famous cousin in that they have the same body, lens and LCD, but don’t let that fool you; it looks like a Duck but it doesn’t quack like a Duck. Luckily, it’s not as expensive as said Duck. The H55 is cheaper, significantly cheaper, than the HX5V and so you’d be well-advised to forgive its relative shortcomings. If they are a major gripe with you, shell out the extra bucks and go for the latter. It’s a simple and elegant solution from Sony.

As compact megazooms go, the H55 is excellent in its own right but it is a lumbering giant that could potentially annoy you with its languid nature. The exteriors of the camera are simple much like the rest of it and it feels solid and compact in hand, especially when you consider its zooming capabilities and wide-angle lens. The H55 isn’t light by any stretch of the imagination but it is its calling card (the lens…where have you been?) that lends it much of its heft. The lens is one reserved for DSLR’s, most of its advanced camcorders and a few Cybershots. The controls are not hard to understand even for a first-time user and a cursory glance makes you understand everything rather easily. There’s the shooting mode dial, a ring meant to zoom in to pictures, a power button and of course a shutter release to capture that perfect moment for posterity. Do notice the odd layout of the power button though. It melts so perfectly into the body that you have to look for it on purpose to spot it. Another oddity is the flash location, which you can cover quite easily with your fingers on the front right-hand side if you’re not careful.

Next to the 3 inch LCD are the other controls. There’s the usual playback button and directional keypad that allows you to navigate menus and select things with the select button at the center of it all. While the shooting modes are handles by the similarly named dial on the top, the menu button accesses all other settings. A nice touch is the in-built ability of the camera to tell you when you’re adjusting settings incorrectly. Haven’t we all known someone who messes with the camera’s settings and claimed ignorance of it all later? This ought to put paid to it all. So you won’t be able to pick Face Detection so long as you still fancy Spot Metering being on and so on and the little guide is a big help since you normally have to guess what’s stopping you from selecting an option. Tyro’s failing at camerawork can now be a happier bunch.

The H55 is an excellent combination of manual and automatic controls. There’s even an Easy mode which is exactly what it says it is. It takes away everything barring image size selection and even increases the size of the fonts used. Just how dumb do you think we are, Sony? Next they’ll have prompts that say “CLICK HERE” or “ASK SUBJECT(S) TO SMILE”. Mollycoddling of users is a good thing, but not beyond a fault. The camera does feel very dumbed down when you stumble upon features like this. One thing that is decidedly not dumb is the video capabilities of this camera, with the H55’s movie capable of 720p so that’s a very welcome addition. For those of you with reasonable intellect, a full manual option exists for tinkering with aperture, exposure and shutter speed. It’s better than comparable point and shoots, but it’s not a whole lot. You’re limited to a mere two aperture setting for wide and telephoto shooting and that’s pretty much it. So while it does say manual control on the tin, don’t venture in expecting too much or you’ll be bitterly disappointed. Performance is tolerable at best and painful at other times, ranging from a pleasing start-to-shoot time of 1.8 seconds but shutter lag is up to 3.7 seconds sans flash, so don’t even look in the general direction of this camera if speed is your high. The macro mode is excellent, although performance is sketchy being excellent at some times and poor at others.

Photo quality and color reproduction is excellent but it does start to show its weakness when dealing with higher ISO’s. This is however only viewable when prints are blown up, so your 4×6’s or 5×7’s should be just fine and usable, if a tad fuzzy. To be fair, the H55 lacks a lot compared to the HX5V but that is a very unfair comparison. Compare it to a point and shoot and you’ll be delighted with its photo quality and features, although its speed (or the lack of it) does rankle. As compact megazooms go, it is par for the course which is disappointing given what it could have been but its excellent zoom and photo quality make it a terrific choice if the alternative is a point and shoot.