Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5 Digital Camera Review

by Alex Burack
Published on January 01, 2004

Navigation
Intro	Testing / Performance
Physical Tour	Components
Design / Layout	Modes
Control Options	Image Parameters
Connectivity / Extras	Overall Impressions
Conclusion	Specs / Ratings

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5 doesn’t add any more manual controls to the H1; they are pretty much the same. They both have fully loaded manual modes along with priority and program modes. A jog dial on the front of the camera, beneath the shutter release button, adjusts shutter speed and aperture. The system is a bit hard to follow, though. Both shutter speed and aperture appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. An arrow points down on whichever is currently selected. Intuition might tell users that the arrow means they should  scroll down on the multi-selector to change the exposure setting. However, the jog dial is the only means of control. To switch settings, users must move the jog dial left and right. Once the desired setting is finalized, they must push the dial inward. DSLR users are probably familiar with this setup, as it is used on several Canon single lens reflex cameras.

 

Auto Focus – The Sony H5 has plenty of auto focus options. A  designated button near the shutter release cycles users through the following modes: 3-area multi-point, center, and flexible spot. Manual focus is also on the list, but will be discussed later. The multi-point focus system, a 3-point system which guesses  where subjects are, is the default.  The center auto focus mode works quickly because it eliminates  searching, so it cuts down on shutter lag slightly. The flexible spot auto focus mode lets users push the central button in the multi-selector to move the point of focus anywhere around  a grid of 26 x 20 grid. Single control activates the auto focus only after the exposure is locked. The monitor control focuses after the shutter release has been pushed and locks it for the shot. Finally, continuous control keeps focusing until the shutter itself flips.

 

This Cyber-shot does not focus well in low contrast situations and needs help in low light; it has an orange assist lamp that can be turned off or to auto in the setup menu. The camera can focus as close as 19.7 inches normally and 0.74 inches in the macro mode. This is pretty good for such a lengthy lens. The auto focus system performed decently when shooting still images. It showed some weakness in the movie mode though: he 12x lens works, but the focus seems to take forever to catch up with the zoom. The movie mode does best with the multi-point setting, as the other settings don’t handle motion very well, end up breathing in and out while recording, and basically can’t focus.

Manual Focus – The Sony Cyber-shot H5 does have a manual focus mode, but it is not implemented the way it would be on a DSLR. Instead, the camera can focus manually anywhere from 5 cm to infinity. Sony recommends using this mode when shooting in low contrast situations or when shooting through a window screen where there are too many points on which the camera could automatically. While the LCD screen is huge and the resolution decent, it is still hard to see whether the subject is focused or not. Sony tried to make this easier by including a “peaking” feature. This shows blue outlines around everything that is in focus and can operate in Normal, High, or Low modes..

The Sony H5 had trouble showing the “peaking” in low contrast, so it was useless there. When shooting through a window screen the digital camera showed way too much “peaking”, making it hard to see anything at all. The H5 tries to make things easier with an Expanded Focus feature too; this magnifies the center of the image. It only works if the subject is precisely centered, of course. It is always nice to have the option to manually focus, and the Sony H5 has a better system than most compacts, but there is still no replacement for a decent focus ring.

 

ISO

A new feature  Sony digital cameras this year is the higher end of the sensitivity range. Previous models, including the H1, only went to ISO 400. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5 extends the standard range from 80-1000. The following options are available: Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1000.Sony’s Clear Raw noise reduction technology theoretically keeps the inevitable noise out of the picture. Judging from the camera’s High Sensitivity scene mode, though, there is still a lot of noise present—about which there is more detail in the Testing/Performance section of this review. The new High Sensitivity scene mode uses the higher 800 and 1000 ISO settings to capture images in relatively low light without using the flash, which has earned a bad reputation for casting harsh light. While we appreciate the wide ISO range on this camera, even more compact models are currently offering ISO 1600 settings. Ideally, an ultra-zoom would provide even more sensitivity control .

 

Within the recording menu, there are several white balance options: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash, and One Push. The automatic setting seems to work fairly well, but is still slightly inaccurate when compared with the manual setting, also called One Push on this model. The recording menu also lists a One Push Set option, which sets the white balance. There is no tiny window to frame something white, so users have to fill the entire frame with an even white color. That can sometimes a difficult, but the accurately colored results are well worth the hassle. For users who don’t have time to set the white balance, the presets cover most common photography situations. The H5, helpfully, shows live views with its white balance options.

A few good features encourage Sony users to properly expose their shots. The standard +/- 2 exposure compensation scale is available in 1/3 increments. If users can’t eyeball the image, they can find  is a live histogram with the display button. And, if they’re indecisive about which exposure value to use, they can activate the bracketing mode with the burst button atop the camera. Once in bracketing mode, users must enter the recording menu and select the bracketing steps from these choices: +/- 0.3, 0.7, and 1.0. The bracketing mode takes three shots just like the burst mode, so subjects need to remain still for several seconds (remember that pedestrian burst mode?).

The camera’s default is the 49-segment multi-metering mode, but there also Center and Spot options exist too. When users scroll through these, the live view darkens and brightens with the selected mode. Brackets are present on the frame when in the Center mode, and a tiny cross appears in the Spot mode to show where the camera is measuring lighting conditions from. There is nothing special about the selection or the modes themselves, although the live view in the menu is still a nice perk.

 

Like the H1, the Sony H5 has a manual shutter speed range from 30 seconds to 1/1000^th of a second. This lets users tweak the shutter speeds in 46 steps in the manual and shutter priority modes; changing the shutter speed requires some handiwork with the H5’s jog dial.  The range changes in the automatic mode, snapping at a quicker ¼-1/2000^th of a second speed, and can slow down a little in the Program mode, where the  range goes from a full second to 1/2000^th of a second. The H5 makes suggestions about the shutter speed by providing an exposure value on the LCD screen, and activates its noise reduction system on all exposures 1/6 of a second or longer.

 

The H5’s lens is branded with Carl Zeiss’s name, but its available apertures are still the same as those on the H1’s Sony  lens. Indeed, both cameras offer a large f/2.8 aperture at the widest focal length. When the lens is zoomed to its 12x capability, the maximum aperture shrinks to f/3.7. This is typical for a lens of this size. The minimum aperture available is f/8.0. Users can set the aperture to one of ten stops within the range by toying with the jog dial.