Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20

Viewfinder

There is no viewfinder on the H20; all photos are framed and displayed on the LCD screen.
 

LCD

The LCD screen of the H20 is a 3-inch model with 230,000 pixels. We found the screen to be clear and bright when we looked at a demo unit at the PMA show, but  we were not able to test it in the bright daylight that can turn many screens into pale shades of their indoor selves.
 

The 3-inch LCD screen of the H20 takes up most of the back

Flash

The H20 has a rather small flash that lives in the hump above the lens. This pops up when required, and can be easily pushed down again when not needed. Sony claims that the flash has a range of 23 feet, but this seems a little optimistic to us; we wouldn't be surprised if it was not much use beyond a few feet.
 

The pop-up flash of the H20

Lens 

The H20 is built around a 10X zoom lens, with a focal length equivalent to a 38 to 380mm lens on a 35mm film camera. While that's plenty at the telephoto end, the wide angle is disappointing, as 38mm won't allow you to get in a large group of people, or an expansive landscape. The aperture of the lens is also on the weak side; it goes from f/3.5 to f/8 at the wide end and f/6.3 to f/8 at the telephoto end.
 

The lens of the H20

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

The H20's connection to the outside world is through a single port on the bottom of the camera. The supplied multi connector cable plugs into this and provides video and audio outputs, plus a USB connection.
 

Battery

The battery of the H20 has a claimed battery life of around 290 images, which is decent, if unspectacular.
 

The battery of the H20

Memory

Like most Sony cameras, the H20 uses Sony's own Memory Stick Pro Duo memory cards rather than the more common SDHC cards .