Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

After a successful run with its first ultra zoom Cyber-shot DSC-H1, Sony released the 7.2 megapixel H5 and 6 megapixel H2. The Sony H5 will be available in May for $499 and the H2 will sell for $399 when it debuts on store shelves in April.
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Picture Quality / Size Options
Usually there’s not much to write about in this section, but the H5 and H2 have an interesting and unique feature regarding the image size. There is a print guide that appears when users scroll through the image size options. The print guide displays the number of pictures that can be taken on the memory card with a particular image size and also how large an image of the chosen resolution can be. For example, the H5’s 7M option reads, “Up to A3/11 x 17” print.” The image sizes can be accessed with the button on the bottom right corner of the back. On the 7.2 megapixel H5, the options include 3072 x 2304, 3072 x 2048 (3:2), 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1632 x 1224, and 640 x 480. The last four options are on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2, as well as a 3:2-formatted 2592 x 1728-pixel image size. The prototype cameras also include a 16:9 image size, but the specs were not available. Each image size is available in Fine and Standard compression.

Picture Effects Mode
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5 and H2 include several picture effects for those consumers who like trendy colors without accessing editing software. Natural, Vivid, Sepia and Black & White are available. This is a little more selection than the H1, which had only black and white and sepia options. There are live views with these options. There are also live views with the Contrast and Sharpness picture effects that have +, - and Normal options.

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