Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1

Viewfinder (6.75)

The HX1 includes a viewfinder above the LCD screen. This is an electronic viewfinder, which means that it is really just a smaller version of the screen, showing the same captured image and information. You switch between the two using the Finder/LCD button on the top of the camera. We found the viewfinder to be mostly easy and comfortable to use, although it is a little awkward if you use spectacles as you have to look around to see the entire frame of the images. The image also updates rather slowly; if an object is quickly moving across the frame, you see a trail of images in the viewfinder.

Display (5.90)

The 3-inch LCD screen on the back of the HX1 has a new angle: it’s on an articulated arm which means that it can rotate up or down by 90 degrees for shooting from above or below. It cannot, however, rotate left or right. The screen itself is very clear and bright, and the 230k resolution is sharp enough to check focus and other details. It isn’t big or sharp enough to effectively showcase the photos, though.

Flash (5.25)

The flash of the DSC-HX1 pops up from above the lens when required, and it does a decent job of providing light. Sony claims a flash distance of up to 30 feet when auto ISO is enabled, but in practice, we found it was only good out to about 8 to 10 feet. But that’s adequate for a flash of this type. There is also a slow-sync option (which combines a flash with a show shutter speed), standard pre-flash red eye reduction and an interesting option called auto red-eye which enables the pre-flash when a face is detected in the preview image.

Lens (12.00)

The lens on the HX1 is a biggie: it has a 20x zoom ratio that has a focal length of 5mm to 100mm. If we translate that to the focal lengths of a 35mm film camera, that’s an impressive range of 28mm to 560mm, which covers the entire range of wide angle to a long zoom. As usual, there is a price to pay on the aperture, though; this has a decent range of f2.8 to f8.0 at the widest zoom point, but this range drops to f5.2 to f8.0 at the longest zoom setting. This means that the lens won’t be able to gather that much light, so you’ll need to either have plenty of light or use a really long shutter speed with the zoom fully extended.

Below are sample shots from the camera at three zoom settings: the widest, the middle and the longest, showing the wide zoom range that this camera offers.

Zoom Ratio Examples
5.0 mm	50.0 mm	100.0 mm

Battery (6.00)

The HX1 uses a proprietary Lithium Ion battery; the Sony NP-FH50. This means that you’ll need to go back to Sony if you need to replace this, and a replacement will cost you about $39. Sony does not offer an extended battery, and you cannot use any other types of batteries. So, if you are on the trip of a lifetime, it runs out, and you didn’t buy and charge a spare, you’re stuck: you can’t use AA batteries.

Memory (2.50)

The HX1 stores its photos on a MemoryStick Duo card, a format that is only used by Sony. In order to shoot videos at the highest resolution and quality settings, Sony claims you have to use the MemoryStick Pro Duo variants, which can cope with the faster data transfer this requires. The Pro versions of the cards cost about $14 for a 4GB version or about $75 for the largest 16GB version. The camera does not come with a memory card, so you need to factor in this cost when buying.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs (5.50)

The HX1 has a decent selection of outputs: included with the camera is a cable that provides a USB connection, as well as a composite video and analog audio output. There is also an adapter that turns the multi-connector into a mini HDMI port that can be connected to a HDTV and which carries audio and video. But this multi-connector port is a proprietary port; if you lose the cable or HDMI adapter or your cat hides it for fun, then you’ll have to go back to Sony and pay them about $40 for a new one. Proprietary adapters like this make us kind of mad; everyone loses cables and non-standard ports mean you have to buy the cable from Sony.

You’ll also have to lay out about $40 if you want a component video output; the included cable does not offer that type of connection.