Sony HX7V / HX9V analyzing the 16MP sensor pictures - Part 3

The truth about the Sony HX7V and HX9V image quality.
This post analyzes the pictures provided by a pre-production Sony HX7V review from Nagoya, Japan.

Nagoya is between Ichinomiya and Toyota. Some pictures include GPS coordinates, just let Google Earth take you there.

Let´s have a closer look at the provided samples, shall we?


Background defocus
has 3 settings and is a new function on some 2011 models from Sony like the HX100V, HX9V, HX7V, WX10, TX100V and others.

for best results look for maximum contrast between the foreground object and the background

HX7V ISO comparison from 100 to 3200
I did choose the worse case scenario: shot a night, low contrast gray areas not well lit in the background with fine detail.
Up to ISO 400 the results look promising.

beginning at ISO 800 color is starting to dim a bit and is nearly gone at ISO 3200 for small badly lit areas
detail is well kept up to ISO 400 and usable up to ISO 1600

Purple fringing
is very well controlled in high contrast areas against a white, black or colored background

Sony HX7V pp original size and quality crop - no purple fringing

Sony HX7V pp original size and quality crop - no purple fringing

Sony HX7V pp original size and quality crop - no purple fringing

Resolution
the level of detail captured on the 16MP sensor all light situations is not too bad, but as always with an overenthusiastic image processing engine the low contrast areas get a bit of a good smoothing.
But hey, for a pocket super zoom and 16MP on a tiny sensor, I am quite impressed.

Sony HX7V pp original size and quality crop

Sony HX7V pp original size and quality crop

Sony HX7V pp original size and quality crop

Sony HX7V pp original size and quality crop

Sony HX7V pp original size and quality crop

the quality and resolution of these images are not worse than the ones I took with my Sony HX5 in fact they are mostly overall better.

Color and detail captured in low light
so how good is that BSI sensor really in low light?

Sony HX7V pp reduced to VGA original

Sony HX7V pp reduced to VGA lets see what lurks in the shadows.
Not bad at all what is captured.

Sony HX7V pp original size crop

Sony HX7V pp original size enhanced to see whats with the tower in the back

mtc