Sony Cyber-shot HX100V Preview - Best Superzoom camera yet?

Superzoom digital cameras are becoming very popular among photographers, whom searching for a versatile long zoom traveling camera. On 1 February 2011 Sony introduced the Cyber-Shot® DSC-HX100V superzoom compact camera. This is a 30x zoom, 16.2-megapixel camera and Full HD video recording capable camera. To ensure that you get the highest possible image quality, Sony has decided to use a Carl Zeiss® Vario-Sonar T* 27-810mm F2.8-5.6 (35mm equiv.) lens in the DSC-HX100.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX100V (DSCHX100) will be competing against the Canon SX30IS (24-840mm - 35X), Fujifilm FinePix HS20 EXR (24-720mm - 30X), Nikon Coolpix P100 (26-678mm - 26X), Panasonic Lumix FZ100 (25-600mm - 24X) and Olympus SP-800UZ (28-840mm - 30x). There is a wide range of superzoom digital cameras to choose from. Camera manufacturers try to improve the image quality and add new updated features. I am very interested to see if this high-zoom camera is capable of delivering the highest image quality that photographers are waiting for.

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX100V Camera (Image credit: Sony)

Sony has another high-zoom compact camera in the H-series, the DSC-HX1. It features a 28-560mm (20x zoom) G lens. This camera already won the TIP 2009 Awards and got really good reviews over the Internet. The first questions that I ask myself is why Sony increased the resolution and if it will reflect the image quality? - Let's start our specs reviews and dive deeper into the heart of the Sony DSC-HX1 and compare it vs other superzoom cameras on the market.

Exmor R™ sensor

The first obvious change that we can see on he HX1 is the increment of the Exmor R™ sensor's resolution. The sensor is a 1/2.3-inch 16.2-megapixel (effective) Exmor R back-illuminated CMOS sensor, which was developed by Sony to match the high quality lenses of the Sony Cyber-shot HX100V and HX9V and deliver exceptional Full HD video quality in 24Mbpsat. I didn't find an answer why Sony has bumped up the sensor's resolution. Maybe it' because that's what the competition has done.

• The Olympus SP-800UZ is a 14MP
• Canon Powershot SX30 IS 14.1MP
• Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR 16MP
• Nikon Coolpix P100 10.3MP

As you can see from the above figures, it seems that Sony has increased the sensor resolution to top that on the Olympus, Canon, Fujifilm and Nikon's best super-zoom compact cameras. We just hope that we won't be disappointed with the image quality due to the increment of megapixels (more info later on)

The new Exmor R™ sensor is a new kind of CMOS sensor that was developed by Sony to answer the demands of advanced photographers.

The Exmor R sensor is back illuminated sensor (BSI). It utilizes the CMOS technology, but instead of the data transmitting wires being at the front of the sensor, blocking some of the light, the wires exist at the back of the sensor.  The problem with current non-BSI CMOS sensors, is that in small CMOS sensors, the metal wiring covers a large area in comparison to the total light receiving surface. That means that much less light gets to the photo diode's layer at the back of the CMOS sensor.

With Back Illuminated sensors, the metal wiring exists at the back side of the sensor, while the photo diodes light sensitive layer exists above it and beneath the Bayer color filter and micro lenses. By utilizing this technology in the Sony Cyber-shot HX100V (and other cameras), Sony has managed to produce a 2x increase of sensitivity. Add the Carl-Zeiss lens into this formula, and we should get a highly capable low-light consumer digital camera. The Exmor R sensor is featured on both Sony Cyber-shot and Handycam camera models.

Here is a very informative video which better explain this technology (by LearnTV):

More on the Exmor R CMOS Sensor here.

Vario-Sonnar T* Ultra-zoom lens by Carl Zeiss

DSLR photographers know that you have to get a high quality glass to enjoy high quality photos. That's what Sony has done in the HX100V when it decided to use a high optical quality Vario-Sonnar T* lens. Carl Zeiss lenses are well known for their superb optical qualities.  The all idea behind using a high quality lens is to get a very high resolution and optical qualities that will match the Exmor R sensor properties. This sensor-lens combination should provide spectacular results.

This type of high quality glass is also used on some of Sony's brand professional-grade Carl Zeiss® lenses, like the DT Carl Zeiss 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom, Zeiss ZA Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70mm f/2.8 (Zeiss brand), Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 80-200mm F/4 lens and others.
The T* on the lens stands for "Transparent". It signifies that the Carl Zeiss® Vario-Sonar T* 27-810mm F2.8-5.6 lens has T* multi-coating to dramatically minimize lens reflections and suppress ghost and flare, while keeping maximum available contrast.

The Carl Zeiss® Vario-Sonnar T* lens is a very powerful 4.8-144mm F2.8-5.6 (27-810mm 35mm equiv.) 30X zoom lens. The lens allows you to focus from approx. 5cm at its widest angle to approx. 120cm at its maximum telephoto zoom range.

With such a huge zoom range, Sony has utilized its Optical SteadyShot image stabilization to minimize camera shake. Having an image stabilization mechanism is critical in order to get sharp images at a long focal range and when shooting in slower shutter speeds. Talking about shutter speeds, the HX100V supports 2 sec - 1/4000 shutter speeds.


StreadyShot - Active Mode vs Normal Mode
The Optical SteadyShot supports an Active Mode (3-way shake cancellation). The "Active Mode" (OASS) means that the new SteadyShot now employs 10x wider camera shake correction angle compared to the "Standard mode". It is useful when shooting images and videos at a wide angle while at motion (i.e. walking, running). It will considerably reduce the camera shake and provide you with smoother movies with less blur According to Sony, when you shoot at the telephoto distanced, the "Active Mode" will not be effective and act as the "Standard mode" (more information here).

I know that text won't be enough to really give you the feel how it works. In fact, some people have done some testing and found the "Active Mode" to be very useful, compared to the "Normal mode".

Here is a video which demonstrates the "Active Mode" in action (i.e. with and without) - take a look!
(note: tested on the Sony HandyCam HDR-XR500V)

As you can see - It seems to work very well. So if you want to shoot your kids running at the back yard while you're walking or running, the SteadyShot "Active Mode" will help you get a smoother footage.

The lens also features a manual focus/zoom control ring, which is very useful when shooting macro/close up subjects.

Leaving all technical details aside. What you should know is that you get a very high quality zoom lens with the Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-HX100 and very useful in-camera image stabilization to compensate hand-shake.

Full HD Movies

The Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-HX100 can capture gorgeous Full HD movies at the following resolutions and frame rates:

• 1920 x 1080  60i/60p (AVCHD)
• 1440 x 1080 60i/30p
• 1280 x 720 / HD 30fps
• 640 x 480 / 30fps

Full HD can be found in almost any new digital camera these days, whether it's a compact camera or professional DSLR camera.  If you read all the review until here, you should know that the HX100 had the potential to deliver high video image quality. Considering the lens, effective SteadyShot and new BSI CMOS sensor, the HX100V should provide brilliant video quality. Of course as a skeptical person, I must see the image quality myself in order to say good things about its (potential) video quality. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this review, I didn't find any HX100v sample videos. I will update this section when new test movies appear on YouTube or Vimeo.

More Great Features!

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX100V is equipped with many new exciting features, which really makes this camera stand above its high-zoom competitors.

• Intelligent Sweep Panorama - Create a beautiful Panorama image by sweeping the camera from one side to another in a circular motion.
  
• 3D Sweep Panorama - Create extra wide 3D panoramic images with ease. Those 3D panorama images can be views in 3D HDTVdisplays or in 2D
  
• Sweep Multi Angle - Allows you too create a sequence of images which can later be used to view subjects from various angles on your camera's LCD, HDTV or with PS3® and PlayMemories™ application
  
• 3D Still Image - Press the camera's shutter button and the camera captures a sequence of images that can then create a single 3D image which can be seen on a 3D TV
• Background Defocus - Allows you to blur the background behind your subject, exactly like achieved in digital SLR cameras
• GPS and compass-  YES! - the Sony DSC-HX100 features both GPS and Compass. The built-in GPS receiver will capture longitude and latitude position data and embed them into the image EXIF data. It can Getotag images and movies too! - Many of today's online image sharing communities support this feature.
• High Speed shooting up to 10 frames per second
• Face detection
• Smile shutter / Smile detection - Take an image at the same moment that your subject smiles
• HD Slideshows
• ISO sensitivity - ISO 100 - 3200
• Metering modes - Multi/Center/Spot
• 13 Scene modes
• Powerful DLSR-like manual functions
• Electronic Viewfinder (201,600-pixel resolution)
• Flash modes - Auto / Flash On / Slow Synchro / Rear Slow Synchro / Flash Off
• Support for SD/SDHC/SDXC/Memory Stick Duo/Pro Duo/Pro HG Duo memory cards
• Bionz Processor
• Weights 525g (wo/battery)
• Dimensions - 122mm (W) x 87mm (H) x 93mm (D)

More on shooting Panoramic images with Sony CyberShot cameras...

XtraFine TruBlack LCD (921K-dot Resolution!)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX100V also features a large 3-inch XtraFine TruBlack LCD screen with 921K dot resolution. This is the same resolution which can be found on today's latest DSLR cameras. From experience, you will enjoy watching images on your LCD and Sony's XtraFine TruBlack LCD is one of the best out there.

The TrueBlack displays are used in various Sony products: digital cameras, digital frames, camcorders, etc. Sony developed this new TruBlack technology to create a display with high Anti-reflection properties, strength and durability, less light absorbency and great optical quality properties.  TrueBlack displays incorporate: Anti-Reflection (AR) coating, hardened glass for extra durability and Resin (removing the air gap). You can see that the display colors are much more intense, higher contrast and have deeper blacks are presented.

Sony's TruBlack display will give you an exceptional shooting and image/video viewing experience.

Sony HX100V vs Canon SX30IS vs Olympus SP-800UZ vs Nikon P100 vs Fujifilm HS20 EXR

I guess that if you plan to buy a super-zoom camera, you might compare the Sony HX100 vs other super-zoom cameras, especially versus: Canon SX30 IS, Olympus SP-800UZ, Nikon Coolpix P100 and Fujifilms's latest superozom, the FinePix HS20. On paper, the HX100V looks very promising. loaded with new technologies and superb optics. I tough about drawing a comparison table which might help you decide which one is better for your specific needs.

Here is a specs table which compares all cameras side-by-side.

Feature	Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX100V	Canon PowerShot SX30 IS	Olympus SP-800 UZ	Nikon Coolpix P100	Fujifilm HS20 EXR
Effective Resolution	16.2MP	14.1MP	14MP	10.3MP	16MP
Pixel Density	58 MP/cm²	50 MP/cm²	50 MP/cm²	37 MP/cm²	52 MP/cm²
LCD	3-inch 921K-dots (articulating touch screen)	2.7-inch 230K-dots	2.7-inch 230K-dots	3.0-inch 460K-dots	3.0-inch 460K-dots (articulating screen)
Lens	27-810mm F2.8-5.6 (30x zoom)	24-840mm F2.7-5.8 (35x zoom)	28-840mm F2.8-5.6 (30x zoom)	26-678mm F2.8-5.0 (26x zoom)	24-720mm F2.8-5.6 (30x zoom)
Image Stabilization	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Continuous shooting	10fps	0.6fps	10fps	10fps	8fps
Movie recording (max resolution/ frame rate)	1080/60fps	720/30fps	720/30fps	1080/30fps	1080/30fps
Shutter speed	1/4000sec - 30sec	1/3200sec - 15sec	1/2000sec - 1/4sec	1/2000sec - 8sec	1/4000sec 30sec
Viewfinder	EVF (Electronic Viewfinder)	EVF	NONE	EVF	EVF
GPS	Yes	No	No	No	No
Weight	577g	601g	455g	481g	730g
Dimensions	122 x 87 x 93mm	123 x 92 x 108mm	110 x 90 x 91mm	114 x 83 x 99mm	131 x 91 x 126mm
Supported Memory Cards	SD/SDHC/SDXC, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo	SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, MMCplus, HC MMCplus	SD/SDHC	SD/SDHC	SD / SDHC / SDXC (UHS-I)

I'll let you go over this comparison table and see what matters to you the most and what's not. Overall, the HX100 is a very attractive and fully featured camera.

Specs First Impressions

The Sony CyberShot DSC-HX100V looks like a very promising ultra-zoom compact camera. Although its reach is a shorter than the Canon's, still it features a 921K-dot LCD screen, higher continuous shooting, 1080/60 video recording, faster shutter speed and GPS for geotagging photos. I haven't found sample photos or sample videos to see how it compares to its rivals. I have a feeling that this new ultra-zoom camera won't disappoint. I do hope that the increment of MP won't hurt its high ISO capabilities. I think that the fact that the HX100 utilizes a BSI CMOS sensor, will only help it to achieve good results (see the Canon SX30IS in low light). Overall, I am very excited to preview this camera. I am sure that the other vendors will release their own upgrades to their ultra-zoom series to compete against this new camera. If you are searching to purchase a new ultra-zoom camera, the DSC-HX100 is really a camera that worth considering.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC HX100V will be available in April at $450.

You might be interested in these reviews:

Fujifilm FinePix HS10 30x zoom
Samsung WB700 Slim 24x super-zoom camera