SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-HX200V Jacks Review

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Sony Cyber-Shot DSC HX200V Digital Camera Black

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‘Please note, these reviews are my opinion on the cameras that I stock and sell, the reviews are not meant to be full blown technical reviews and I do not post any test images on line, they are designed to give you some assistance (in laymans terms, as requested by my customers) when choosing a camera that is right for you. I try to keep them as simple and short as possible.

These reviews are the result of requests from my customers.’

THANKS JACK

Exmoor Photography Gallery & Camera Shop
The High Street, Porlock, Somerset
T: 01643 862026
I have just finished putting this camera through my usual test and I love it! It seems to do everything it’s supposed to and responded very well to my test shots. I would however recommend a spare battery, it seemed a bit heavy on battery usage, obviously, this may improve after a few charges.
The build of the camera feels strong and rugged and it has hand/finger grips in all the right places. The buttons and dials feel tight and well made. In fact the whole camera feels like it should last if treated properly. The lens barrel has a nicely gripped focus adjustment ring, which feels incredibly  smooth to operate, although I have to say I’m not sure how often you would actually have the need to use this. It takes a bit of getting used to and several turns of the ring to achieve sharp focus. The auto focus was very accurate during my test, so why bother? It is quite useful for zooming the lens in and out though. The switch on the barrel to change modes is well positioned and would not easily be changed accidently.
The TFT ‘xtra fine trublack’ looks massive, even though it is a standard 3”, I think it looks bigger because you can tilt it. The screen is very clear and sharp and performed well in my direct sun light test, in fact it is amongst some of the best I have seen recently. It has all the shooting info you should need displayed on it. And you can adjust how much or how little you have to look at. You can also switch on a very neat electronic spirit level if you need it. If you prefer to have a viewfinder to look through the camera has an electronic viewfinder that has a very nicely placed dioptric adjustment dial next to it. You can either select the viewfinder or screen by pressing a button or it has a built in sensor that changes automatically between the two for you, so when you look through the viewfinder it changes from the screen and when you take the camera away from your eye it reverts to the screen, neat!


The viewfinder itself appeared to be bright, big and clear to look through and displayed camera settings etc for you.
Going back to the lens and of course the all important image quality, the Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens (designed by both companies and built under license by Sony) gave incredibly sharp, bright images at all focal lengths and the clarity and colour reproduction was great. When I test any camera, I am simply looking for it to reproduce what I am looking at, which this camera did very well. The edge to edge at detail with the optical zoom lens wide open (27mm) was very good, I could see no noticeable drop off in quality when looking at my standard 10x8 test prints. I was a little dubious about the other end of the lens optical zoom a massive 30x (810mm), however the test print results were better than I expected. Considering they were taken hand held using the cameras built in IS (image stabilization) the results were good and definitely useable. The sharpness was good and the edge-to-edge detail was better than I expected. The colour and exposure was very good.
Don’t forget I have test prints for all the cameras I sell at the shop if you want to have a look for yourself. I could waffle on for ages about the print quality but I think the test prints this camera has produced speak for themselves!
The build quality feels very good, it looks and feels a bit like an SLR camera, the controls are sensibly placed on the body of the camera and the moulded grip makes it comfortable to hold, although I would have liked a bit more around the area on the back where you place your thumb. Instead, you will find a slightly raised pattern, which is better than nothing.
The only other thing that I find a bit annoying is that you have to plug the camera into a socket to charge the battery. I would have preferred a stand-alone charger, which makes life a bit easier if you want to charge your spare battery while still using the camera. A minor thing I know, but a shame all the same. You can buy an optional Battery Charger SONY BC-TRV.
Now to the layout of the camera then, it reminds a bit of my first ever digital camera to hold the Canon 20D. It feels really well built and everything feels ‘tight’. Starting on the top of the camera the shutter button is a reasonable size and allows you to focus/frame your shot without accidently taking a picture, the top zoom control knob is around this and gives you pretty good control over the zoom lens, it is also quick if you need it to be.
Behind the shutter button is a focus and custom buttons, the focus button allows you to quickly change the focusing pattern. There are 3 patterns available, centre, multi and flexible spot. A great feature which worked really well during my test.
Next to this is a custom button, which allows you to assign a desired function to it and return to them instantly when required.
Staying on the top of the camera there is the on/off button, view finder or screen selection button, don’t forget the camera has a built in sensor so you don’t need to use this unless you have the camera held away from you. The stereo microphone is also located on top of the camera behind the built in flash. 
Then there is the main control dial, which includes the following settings, the dial itself has a nice grip around it and is a reasonable size, not sure how easy it would be to change with gloves on though?
Settings are, superior auto – ‘settings are adjusted automatically with low noise and high dynamic range.’ This setting gave some lovely results during my test, if not perhaps slightly ‘soft’ but not an issue though. This setting will also select the best scene mode as well as taking care of the cameras metering. I like that the mode is flashed up on the screen if you change the direction of the camera.
Intelligent auto – ‘point and shoot mode’ the camera does everything for you, sets the scene mode, metering etc. I found the images in this mode very sharp and well exposed,  the camera seemed to have no problem selecting the right scene mode and even recognized when there was a potential ‘back light’ issue!
P (Program auto) – you have more control over the camera in this mode and can adjust things like the ISO, bracketing and metering if required.
S (Shutter speed priority) – allows you to change the shutter speed while the cameras metering takes care of the aperture.
A (Aperture Priority) – the opposite to shutter priority.
M (Manual Exposure mode) – you can set both the shutter and aperture.
I tested all these modes during my test and they all appeared to perform well in various lighting conditions.
MR (Memory recall mode) – this allows you to recall up to 3 custom registered settings, you can change up to 5 screen pages of custom pages if you like.
'Isweep' Panorama – This is one of the easiest panorama modes I have seen on a bridge camera, you simply select this mode, press the shutter button once and start panning and press it again when you want to stop.
Lastly there is movie mode, 3D mode (I haven’t tried this because you need a 3D device to view the images) and scene mode, where you can select your own.
Moving to the back of the camera you have an image play back button, a nicely placed movie record quick start and stop button and a jog dial, which can you use for changing things like the ISO, aperture, shutter speed and bracketing etc.
Moving down the back of the camera next to the screen you have the menu button, this gives you access to a multitude of camera settings including, GPS location, GPS log, Memory recall settings, camera set up configuration,  metering mode, flash bracketing, smile detection sensitivity, continuous shooting mode, noise reduction, resolution settings,  white balance settings, picture effect and much more. I can’t remember the last camera I saw that had so many custom functions that you can adjust if you require.
Nearly finished!
Below the menu button is a ‘flat control panel’ where you can adjust the display mode, flash settings, self-timer, continuous shooting mode and you can set special effects as and when required. Lastly there is an in camera guide button and image delete button.
Overall, I think this is amongst the best bridge cameras I have yet seen; it would be an ideal travel companion with the inclusion of GPS. It is very easy to use in full auto mode, but would probably take a bit of getting used to if you want to start experimenting with your photography. Obviously the great advantage over and SLR is not having to carry lots of kits lenses around with all the time. For anyone wanting to take their photography to the next level but not go down the SLR route I think the functions and specifications of this camera would be ideal.
Jack
Exmoor Photography

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