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Sony Point and Shoot and Non-DSLR
Home > Digital Camera Reviews > Sony Digital Cameras > Sony Point and Shoot and Non-DSLR
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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 First Impressions Reviewby Emily RaymondPublished on March 10, 2007
Model Design / Appearance
Previous H-series digital cameras came in silver or black colors, but the new H9 and H7 come only in black. The two cameras look nearly identical, with the only noticeable difference being the larger folding LCD screen on the flagship H9. The SLR-like Sony H9 has a look reminiscent of the late Konica-Minolta digital cameras, most likely because Sony bought their technology when they went under. Konica-Minolta’s legacy can be seen in the rounded and large-barreled left side, in the distinctively chunky body shape, and in the pronounced hand grip. The Sony H9 looks a little better than its Konica-Minolta relatives ever did, but that’s not saying much. The H9 leaves the looks up to Sony’s T-series and goes straight for functionality instead.
Size / Portability
The Sony’s specs didn’t indicate the size of the Sony H9, but it wanders in the realm between SLRs and compacts. The ultra-zoom digital camera measures around 4.2 x 3.5 x 3.2 inches – judging from the outlines I drew of it compared to a 4 x 6-inch photo (so this is my best guess without a ruler). The H9 isn’t heavy, probably because of the plastic material of the camera body. There are strap eyelets on each side of the camera, but they aren’t positioned straight across. This is also a legacy from Konica-Minolta cameras – but this legacy should have died with the company. It doesn’t allow the neck strap to hang straight down. The SLR-shaped Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 isn’t enormous, but it will still require a camera bag.
Handling Ability
The Sony H9 has a sturdy plastic housing that is comfortable to grip. There is rubber material that wraps around the hand grip, and there is even a cradle in the material where the middle finger handles the camera. The left side of the H9 is curved and encourages a proper left hand grip around the base of the enormous lens. Handling the Sony H9 feels good since it isn’t too heavy and has comfortable features.
Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size
 All of the buttons are properly sized and placed, and in the end, it should all be labeled well. For now, the preproduction model lacks labels on the multi-selector. There is an interesting control wheel that is similar to the rotary dial on Canon DSLRs and some Nikon compact digital cameras. The H9’s control wheel works together with the Set button in the center of the multi-selector to adjust manual controls like ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and auto focus mode. In the playback mode, the wheel navigates through large numbers of image files. It isn’t as flawless as the wheels on other cameras though; the Sony H9 has a distinct delay that is exaggerated the faster it is turned. If you’ve ever had a slow internet connection and clicked the “back” button a few times, not gone anywhere for a few seconds, then all of a sudden caught up and ended six pages back from where you wanted – then you get the feel of this control in the playback mode. The processing delay is the disappointment here, but the control feels pretty good though. The control wheel isn’t implemented like similar controls on Canons and Nikons in that the Sony’s wheel doesn’t scroll through menu items. It only moves through manual controls on the LCD screen and pictures in the playback mode.
My only complaints in this area are with the playback button that is set too far into the camera body and is uncomfortable to push, and the plastic zoom control that feels cheap and uncomfortable.
Menu
The menu system has been completely redone on the Sony H9. Some aspects are better and some are worse than predecessors’ menus. The text font is larger, more attractive, and more readable. However, there aren’t many live views and there are so many different menus that it’s nearly impossible to remember where everything is placed. The following is the recording menu, which is the most intuitive one on the camera.
The menu from this setup portal is as follows.
Here comes the confusing part. There is another setup menu. It is located in a whole series of menus found by pushing the Home button, which is a brand new concept for digital cameras. Pushing the Home button makes a menu appear with the following options: Shooting, View Images, Printing, Manage Memory, and Settings. The Settings portion of this menu has four sub-menus: Main Settings, Shooting Settings, Clock Settings, and Language Settings. Here are the options.
The Home menu’s shooting sub-menu is the same one that appears when the Menu button is pushed in a recording mode, and it’s a different way to get to the same spot. The View Images portion acts as a playback mode and allows users to view single images or screens of 6 or 25 pictures at a time. There is also an elaborate slide show menu from this sub-sub-sub-category (translation: nearly impossible to find). The menu will be displayed in the playback mode portion of this review, but the main point from all this wordy madness is that the menus in the H9 are a bit too much. There are menus within menus within menus, and even though the font is nice and readable, it doesn’t make it any easier to find certain settings.
Ease of Use
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 makes a few attempts at ease of use but doesn’t quite hit it on the head. It is easy to handle physically, and the auto mode is easy to use as all auto modes are. The menu system is confusing though because some options are found in two different places – and there are menus buried within other menus. Sony tried a new concept on this model with the inclusion of a Home button which is similar to a Start menu on a computer with Windows. There is a link to almost all the menus from the Home button’s menu. This is a computer-like interface that has potential, but it doesn’t quite succeed in terms of ease of use on the H9.
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