OK this is your post, tell me and the rest of the world what you like and do not like about your new Sony HX9V. Please if possible join the HX9V Flickr group and post your results there.
If you already posted something about your HX9V put a copy of it in the comments below so we have them all in one place.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX7V / HX9V +++ Speculations +++ Facts +++ Previews +++ Reviews +++ Tests
First impressions.
ReplyDeleteHas been a little (just one day) that I could play with the camera, but I will tell you some things. I think the pros all know, so I will tell you some little mistakes I've seen:
Like HX7V, it takes a little time when you turn on and when you start and stop recording video.
The video record button is not protrude too much and you need a long nail to press it, xD.
The video in general is as good as I expected, but as I have seen, very washed colors. Although I do not see it as a problem as using levels and curves when it editing, it fixes.
A good point, I have not yet charged the battery, it left half or so and i was the whole afternoon taking pictures, videos and playing with it. Anyway, I ordered another.
For now this, there is little, but less is nothing.
I've ordered additional battery too.
ReplyDeleteIMO, charging battery with usb cable plugged to the camera isn't smart slution. I've ordered external battery charger Sony BC-TRN.
Picture colors tend to a bit over saturated and there is some smearing and loss of details, especially in low light. Video quality is great, but the lens are getting loose when taking video with zoom-in and zoom-out. You can see the video jerky or shaking when zoom-in or zoom-out. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-8fkTvOHXo
ReplyDeleteI have used this camera now for a month now and can honestly say that it is a fantastic point and shoot camera.
ReplyDeleteI recently took it on a Ski Holiday in France, the still pictures turned out very good, I took over 800 photos and only a handful of shots are throwaways, these were taken outdoors at night with very little street lighting, my Nikon D300 with a f2.8 lens would have struggled hand held in those conditions. I also took a few video clips of me skiing, the image stabilisation on the HX9V is very good.
Some of the pictures can be seen here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/hirsti/sets/72157626401139250/
Some of the video can be seen here - http://www.youtube.com/user/hirsti99
I have also used it to video football games, I was very impressed with the quality of the footage and also the usability of the camera. Previously I have used a Panasonic HS300 camcorder which is industry renowned and the HX9V beats it in almost all areas.
There are problems, mainly the smearing that is potentially caused by over aggressive noise reduction but to be honest, I have printed to A3 size and regularly view the photos on my 55 inch LCD TV and have yet to notice it, even if I stand cm's from the screen or printout. In fact the only time I do notice it is if I zoom right in on the PC. Initially I was a little dissappointed with the fact that the smearing was happening but now I have realised that although it happens it does not affect in any way the viewing quality of the pictures in the way that I use/view them.
Prior to buying the HX9V I considered all of the long zoom alternatives, for my requirements this meant the Nikon s9100, canon sx230, fuji f550, panasonic tz20.
I went to the onFocus camera show in Birmingham hoping to try them all. When I got there canon had not turned up but the others were there. Here were my opinions:
Nikon s9100 -
pros..Good zoom range
image stabilisation on stills very good
quick focus
good low light pictures
cons
image stabilisation on video was horrible
lot of wobble in video footage
felt small and flimsy
Fuji F550 -
pros - shoots in raw
lots of features
good zoom
good low light shots
cons
image stabilisation poor
under exposed in a lot of shots
video footage looked poor and terrible image stabilisation
video focusing seemed slow and jumped around
Panasonic TZ20
pros - Excellent zoom range
liked the fact that zoom was slower on video
solid well made
image stabilisation was good
cons - dissapointing that only 1080 60i on video
lot of noise in low light shots
After the show I then tested a canon sx220 at jessops (sx230 without the gps)
pros
good pictures
nice feel and size
cons
video focusing was all over, one minute zooming at stupid speeds then changing focus in middle of zoom and never seeming to lock onto anything
I think this would be dreadfull to video any sprorting events like the football I do.
My opinion of the Sony HX9V
pros - Good zoom range, especially if you reduce megapixels
the best image stabilisation i have seen on a p&s camera for video, stills is also excellent
panoramic HR photos are excellent
video quality is outstanding
good quality stills and IMO handles low light very well if in the right mode
good quality stills able to be taken off of video
sound is good
cons - GPS is slow to train and is a battery drain, I have it switched off all the time
in camera charging is a pain
excessive smearing due to aggressive NR
I would strongly recommend this camera to anyone who wants a good quality all round travel camera.
Here are my first videos taked with the HX9V:
ReplyDeleteThumbnails:
http://oi54.tinypic.com/2ppmz6c.jpg
Videos:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C01CP8CT 00000.MTS 31.88 MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L8JOIU95 00001.MTS 70.69 MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TA4HYQP2 00002.MTS 152.91 MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8UG0CPT0 00003.MTS 106.97 MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L09AUYDZ 00004.MTS 132.56 MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KXVUZM9W 00005.MTS 166.88 MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ST1E7FYR 00006.MTS 73.69 MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZAVGX9Y6 00007.MTS 76.88 MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HOLRYBZY 00008.MTS 128.72 MB
HI ive bought mine hx9v about 7 days ago and to tell you the truth im loving it! Batery life Is fine , point and shoot perfect , images looks very nice on my computer and my LCD. I recorded some videos but not much so im satisfied with the quality and the video stabilizer… Also I like panorama shots so for me it’s a pretty descent camera… Took some amazing shots with the blured background mode or background defocus as sony whould call.. im pleased to say I love this camera… pretty hard to find in stores almost everywhere.. just started to experiment with the manual mode because I want to create a slow shuter speed image it would be interesting though… happy user :)
ReplyDeleteHi, Had mine just over a day and first impressions are excellent.
ReplyDeleteIve had a TZ10 for a while and was considering upgrading to the TZ20 (fr the 1080 video mainly) however, back in January i heard about the release of the Fuji F550 which sounded as though it was going to be a superb bit if kit. anyways, on release and after seeing the video focusing issues my attention returned to the Panasonic TZ20.
Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) i managed to have a play with one and after viewing video samples on you tube and reading real user comments on amazon etc i decided against it (see a pattern occurring here ?) this brings me up to date and why i opted for the Sony.
impressive user videos and acceptable image quality won me over.
I had a Sony HX5V before i decided to upgrade to the HX9V, I thought the HX5V was superb for picture and video, but i am really surprised at how much more better the HX9V is, ok it's still only a pocket point and shoot camera so don't expect professional dslr type pics, but in my oppinion it comes damd close and has many features to play with.
ReplyDeleteAs for video quality, this beats many high end dedicated camcorders which are frankly crap to use and a stills camera even if they state so.
so here you get an excellent stills camera with an excellent 1080p camcorder thown in!
As for sound quality on videos, i was always finding that my HX5 was weak and flat in that department, but the new HX9V dose an excellent job. to judge this for yourself, please take a look at my sound comparison video for the two cameras: http://vimeo.com/25054905
Nice work on that audio comparison. I agree - both the video and the audio is better with the HX9V.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this.
Hi, I got finally my hx9v in Portugal, its sold out everywhere but I managed to pre order one.
ReplyDeleteIt's everything I expected, a compact camera with lots of zoom that takes very nice photos and takes good low light photos.
I'm just concerned about something,when its off when I pick it up and walk with it inthe hand the lenses feels a little sloppy, is that normal?
Any way to remove the date stamp from 700 images? Accidentally set date feature, but date does not display onscreen on the camera, so I didn't know.
ReplyDeletegporter@CRESAPartners.com
only cropping comes to mind to get rid of the unwanted date stamp pixels
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI am having a hell of a time choosing a camera. I was curious if you or anyone had a chance to try out the Background Defocus mode of the Hx9v. I am having my first kid soon and need a camera that can create passable quality photos indoors without a ton of flash. My wife would love it if that mode can create passable fauxkeh. I know with the kid an SLR is in my near future, but I need a camera my wife can use easily and I can use manually. Narrowed to Hx9v, sx230, s95. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been ripping my hair out for weeks over this.
I tested out a few other cameras before deciding on the HX9v.
ReplyDeletewas disappointed the fuji F500 exr with the low iso noise.
the nikon S8200 was a quite blind in AF in lower light, even the AF assist was of no use.
The algorithm also doesn't favor iso's greater than 200. very seldom would it pick iso 400 or 800 unless using manual ISO setting. The flash pop-up and not being able to manually close it is goofy.
The little brother S8100 was a little better, but had a nasty lag in low light AFTER the AF confirmed a lock. the 30mm lens was not wide enough as well.
So far the HX9V has been quite good, but I'm not happy with the smoother doing too much work and wiping out details in low contrast scenes.
Any chance YOU can tell SONY to provide a NR selection and less JPEG compression update to the HX9V? A TON of users would be happy.
What type of memory sdhc is the better for the sony hx9v. If I wish record movies hd
ReplyDelete