Manual Control Options
The true mark of an enthusiast’s digital camera is the manual control options offered. Sony offers shutter speeds in 46 steps from 30-1/1000th of a second, apertures from f/2.8-f/8.0, and choices of all kinds of settings: flash, burst, focus, metering, white balance, and ISO. There is also a semi-manual focus feature. It is called “manual,” but you can only choose from one of five preset focal lengths.
Focus
Auto (6.0)
There are three AF modes offered on the H1. They are: Multi-point AF, Center AF, and Flexible Spot AF. The H1’s Multi-point setting utilizes a three-area auto focus system, which comes short of other cameras’ 7 or 9-area systems. The Flexible Spot AF setting will enable users to determine a specific area of the composition to focus on by moving the AF point around the frame with the directional pad. This will be a useful focusing tool for off-centered subjects.
The H1 focuses accurately 99 percent of the time. However, it does have some flaws. When objects are a foot or so away from the end of the lens, with a visible background, the camera had a difficult time discerning the subject. The focus shifted back and forth and often more on images in the background. However, there is an additional bracket that shows in the viewfinder when the subject is spread out. This provides a nice visual cue, but also helps add sharpness for long, horizontal subjects. Although, when objects were spread vertically through the frame, the camera did not adapt quite as well and showed a bit of its shortcomings in using a 3-point AF system, rather than the FZ5 and S2 IS’s 9-point array. In low light, the H1 shoots off a red illuminator to assist the camera’s focusing system.
Manual (1.0)
Perhaps for those close subject shots, the so-called manual focus would be a better option. The “manual focus” isn’t completely manual; it consists of preset focal increments between 36-432 mm. This provides some manual control over focus, but it is not a suitable substitute for a focus ring.
Exposure (8.0)
There are several exposure modes on the Sony H1 including manual, aperture priority, shutter priority, programmed, automatic, and seven shooting presets. All of the modes are located on the main mode dial atop the camera. This Cyber-shot has the standard +/- 2 EV range in 1/3 steps.
Metering (7.0)
The Sony H1 offers three metering modes to choose from – multi-pattern, center-weighted, and spot. The multi-pattern option is the camera’s default and uses 49 points throughout the picture to determine exposure settings. The center-weighted option uses only the points in the center. The spot option uses only a small point in the center. The camera measures lighting from these points and exposes the picture according to its findings.
White Balance (8.0)
The H1’s white balance menu is found within the shooting menu; it offers typical options: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash, and Manual. The menu is depicted solely in icons that are easily distinguishable. At the top of the white balance menu is the manual set option (just above the manual option). To set the white balance, you just need to scroll up on the menu and you can hear the shutter click – just make sure you’re actually pointing at something truly white. In testing, the manual white balance proved accurate as well as the automatic and Tungsten settings. Colors remained true except when shooting video in low light with the white balance on auto; in that case, whites took on a reddish hue. However, this was fixed by toying with the manual white balance (yes, it is available in the movie mode).
ISO (7.0)
The Cyber-shot H1 includes four ISO ratings besides its automatic setting: 64, 100, 200, and 400. This isn’t very impressive. Many digital cameras in this genre between the point-and-shoot and SLR include an 800 and even 1600 ISO rating. This lack will be felt by true enthusiasts looking for a strong night imager. While the lack of sensitivity can be compensated for with the 30 second max shutter duration, a tripod will obviously be required at that point. The limited flash range will also make handheld shots is low light difficult with the H1.
Shutter Speed (8.5)
The Sony H1 allows for the shutter speed to be adjusted from 1/1000th of a second to 30 seconds in the manual mode. This is quite impressive for this type of camera and is perhaps the camera’s most enthusiast-oriented feature. This will help out in night photography and aid the lack of sensitivity and limited range of illumination.
The automatic range snaps a bit faster at 1/8-1/2000th of a second. Keep in mind that the optical image stabilization system is a nice sidekick for the shutter speed; you can take better pictures in low light and gain a few stops in shutter speed, helping increase the potential for handheld use.
Aperture (8.0)
The aperture can be adjusted in manual or aperture priority mode. The 12x optical zoom lens stops from f/2.8-f/3.7 in its widest setting and from f/3.7-f/8.0 in the telephoto mode. The H1’s f/3.7 max telephoto aperture is also quite impressive and geared towards enthusiasts. This will enable users to shoot longer shots in less lighting and is a particularly nice complement to the camera’s image stabilization system. Most other cameras in this style and price don’t open quite as wide in full telephoto, so the H1 will offer a leg-up in this regard.
