Sony Cyber-shot H20 Digital Camera

[Charlton]

The new Sony H20 is company’s budget ultra-zoom Cyber-shot with performance features. The 10 megapixel gets superior Carl Zeiss 10x optical zoom lens that’s good for 38-380mm (35mm equiv) ) focus distances, and can record 720P HD movies with a 3-inch LCD screen.

Characteristics of H20

• 10 megapixel sensor
• 10x Optical Zoom 38-380 mm equivalent
• Stabilization Super SteadyShot
• 14-bit RAW mode
• Face Detection
• Detection of smiles
• Registration 720p
• TV output composite
• 3-inch screen that displays 230,000 points

10.1 Megapixel Super HAD CCD Image Sensor:

A powerful 10.1 megapixel 1/2.3” Super HAD CCD image sensor helps you capture gorgeous images with superb contrast and clarity down to the finest detail. With 10.1 megapixels, you can create stunning, photo-quality prints up to A3+ (13x19”) size, or crop your images and still come away with high resolution shots.


Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens with 10x Optical Zoom:

The professional-quality Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 10x optical zoom lens brings distant subjects closer for great outdoor, sports, and travel photos.

3.0" Clear Photo LCD display (230k pixels):

Generous 3.0”1 (230K pixels) Clear Photo LCD plus display features sharp, natural color that makes it easy to compose shots, read menus, and view photos, even in bright sunlight.

[Charlton]

Intelligent Auto Mode:

Intelligent Auto (iAuto) mode goes beyond traditional auto settings by recognizing and adjusting to scene conditions and lighting, enhancing natural skin tones, and reducing blur. By incorporating advanced features such as Intelligent Scene Recognition, Face Detection, and Optical SteadyShot, iAuto lets you take advantage of the latest Sony Cyber-shot technology without leaving auto mode. Whether you’re shooting expansive landscapes, capturing playground action, or taking pictures at a birthday party or wedding shower, iAuto will optimize your camera’s settings to help ensure you come away with a great shot.


HD Movies:

The H20 features wide and full-screen 720p movie recording at 30 frames per second in fine, standard and VGA recording modes. The 720p movie resolution is three times higher than VGA movies.

The movie function is based on the MPEG4 codec for video compression. Benefits of the format include high-quality video as well as PC-friendly files that are easy to download, upload and share.

Easy navigation:

Sony has simplified the display of options on the H20 to make it easier for customers to use them. The most commonly used features include shooting mode, zoom, play, delete and Smile Shutter. These are available at a click or touch of a button. More sophisticated users can select other shooting modes or change the settings using the menu button.

[Charlton]

Face Detection technology:

Face Detection technology detects up to eight individual faces and controls flash, focus, exposure, and white balance to deliver accurate, natural skin tones with reduced red-eye. It can also give priority to children or adults. Newly added Face Motion Detection adjusts ISO sensitivity and accelerates the shutter speed when facial movement is detected, reducing blur in the subjects face.

Selected Face Memory:

Optimizing focus, exposure, and white balance for a specific face is easier now with selectable facial memory, even when the subject leaves the frame. This feature is perfect at weddings and other events the goal is always to focus on a certain person.

Anti-blink Function:

It's frustrating to think you've captured that perfect shot, only to review it later and discover one of your subjects blinked just as you pressed the shutter. The Anti-blink function works to help counter blinking and squinting. When the camera is set to Soft Snap, the Anti-blink function captures two images, recording only the photo with less squinting. If a blink is detected in other shooting modes, a warning will be displayed after you take the shot.



Red-eye Reduction:

Red-eye Reduction helps reduce common red-eye problems.

Smile Shutter Technology:

The popular Smile Shutter technology automatically detects and captures a smiling face. Simply activate by pressing the Smile Shutter™ button and the camera will capture a smile the moment it happens. You can also select subject priority (Adult or Child Priority or using the cross key buttons on the camera) and indicate the degree of Smile Detection Sensitivity to high (small smile), medium (laugh) or low (grin). Great substitute of self timer, smile once all are ready and the camera will capture the smile.

Double Anti-blur Solution:

The combination of Optical SteadyShot image stabilization and High ISO sensitivity helps compensate for shaky hands, minimizes blur, and allows flash-free shooting to preserve the mood.

Optical SteadyShot Image Stabilization:

Optical SteadyShot image stabilization uses a built-in gyro sensor to detect camera shake and automatically shifts the lens to help prevent blur without sacrificing image quality.

High Sensitivity Mode (ISO 3200):

High ISO allows for faster shutter speed, so you can take photos indoors or in low light without the need for a flash. In addition to High Sensitivity Mode (ISO), you can select up to eight ISO settings (Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200) when shooting in Program Auto Mode to adjust sensitivity to your shooting conditions.

[Charlton]

In-Camera Retouching Tools:

Retouch and enhance your pictures on the go with 10 in-camera editing functions: Trimming, Red-Eye Correction, Soft Focus, Partial Color, Fisheye Lens, Cross Filter, Radial Blur, Retro, Happy Face and Unsharp Masking effects.

Multi-purpose Resize function:

The Multi-purpose Resize function lets you change the aspect ratio of an image right in the camera, so you can adjust images as necessary, whether you want to display them on a compatible HDTV5, or e-mail them / upload them to a blog4.

Wide Zoom display:

To use the entire image area of the compatible HDTV screen (sold separately), Wide Zoom display automatically expands standard 4:3 and 3:2 images to 16:9.

PHOTOMUSIC feature:

PHOTOMUSIC3 combines images with music (5 minutes per track) to produce fun and entertaining slide shows. The standard visual effects (Simple, Nostalgic, Active, and Stylish). Select from pre-loaded tracks on camera or transfer your own from your compatible PC (sold separately).

[Charlton]

Pros


Compared to most recent cameras in this class the H20's lens is biased far more towards then other brands. Image quality is pretty good but the lack of wide angle is disappointing. The H20 is different. If there's one thing Sony does well it's AF systems, and this one is almost as quick at full zoom as it is at normal focal lengths. The 720p HD movie mode produces footage that's far and away clearer than standard digicam movie modes and you can even zoom in and out while you're filming.

Cons

Image quality is pretty good but the lack of wideangle is disappointing. There are a couple of other things such as the zoom range. Sony Cyber-shot H20 has 10x zoom, but it's biased towards the longer end of the scale. The minimum equivalent focal length is 38mm, which is nowhere near as wide as the 25-28mm equivalent wideangle lenses on rival superzoom compacts.


Final words

Even though H20 lacks wide-angle zoom. It's very effective at full 10X zoom, which gives a tough competition to the rivals like Nikkon, canon, panasonic etc. Good HD movie mode is a major selling point on its own.