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| SONY CYBER-SHOT HX300 |
The hottest shooters in the superzoom segment these days are DSLR-like bridge cameras with massive telephoto lenses. Sony’s latest fl agship, the Cyber-shot DSC-HX300, is one such camera, but is it worth the price?
DESIGN AND FEATURES
At first glance, the large-bodied HX300 comes across as an entry-level DSLR, more so because of the large lens barrel that houses the 50x zoom lens. Starting at 24mm, the lens is nice and wide, allowing you to shoot wide scenes and large groups of people without having to move too far away. At a whopping 1200mm, it's easy to capture extreme close-ups and distant scenes.
The lens barrel has a ridged metal ring towards the outer end that can be rotated. A
switch on the camera's left lets you set the function of the ring to zoom or manual focus.
A pop-up type flash that can be released by a tiny button to its left resides above the lens. Moving to the top right, you have the mode dial and buttons for focus mode, custom function and the EVF/LCD switch. Much of the camera's rear is taken up by the 3-inch LCD monitor and EVF. It would have been nice if the monitor was of the fully-articulating type, but nevertheless, you get a tilting one, which makes it easy to frame scenes with the camera held above your head or below eye level.
The control panel comprises a 5-way D-pad, a dedicated button for video recording, buttons for playback, menu and in-camera guide/delete. The D-pad offers instant access to display info, flash
modes, self-timer and burst modes, and Photo Creativity functions. A clickable jog dial is placed at the top right corner for convenient access while you’re shooting.
USER INTERFACE
The user interface of the HX300 is clean and straightforward, which makes it quick and easy to use for both beginners and advanced users. If you have no idea about shooting parameters or want optimal exposure and quality without too much tinkering, set the mode dial to Intelligent or Superior Auto mode. These modes analyse the scene and subjects, and accordingly use optimal settings. The Superior Auto mode is useful for getting better quality results than with the Intelligent Auto mode, especially in low light. It shoots a bunch of images and processes them to yield a blur-free photo with low noise and optimal exposure. The Photo Creativity function via the D-pad is only available when you’re using either of the Auto modes. On pressing the Down button, you’re presented with sliders for brightness, colour, vividness and picture effect.
Scene presets include Background Defocus, Hand-held Twilight, Landscape, Fireworks, Gourmet, Advanced Sports Shooting, Beach and Snow. iSweep Panorama is also available, but as a separate mode on the dial.
This camera can record videos at full HD resolution and you can use the entire zoom range while recording.
You can avail the PASM modes via the mode dial if you want granular control over exposure and depth of field. The ISO, shutter speed, aperture and EV values are displayed at the bottom of the screen. You can switch between these by clicking the jog dial, while rotating the dial changes the value of the selected parameter. The UI is snappy and quite intuitive; however, individual controls for shutter speed and aperture would have been more convenient. The video recording feature of the HX300 deserves special mention. The camera can record videos at full HD resolution and you can use the entire zoom range while recording. Apart from the auto mode, you can choose to record videos using scene presets. However, only a handful, including Night Scene, High Sensitivity, Beach, Snow and Fireworks, are available. Other options include face detection, IS level and quality settings. It also allows you to shoot photos (up to 15-megapixels) while recording videos.
BUILD QUALITY AND ERGONOMICS
Sony has made no compromise with the build quality of the HX300—it feels like a premium product. The body is made of very good quality plastic as are all the buttons, dials and flaps.
The thumb grip on the rear is a patch on the body with a textured finish that mimics leather, but works well. The large protruding grip is layered with textured rubber, which together with the thumb grip, inspires good confidence while shooting.
PERFORMANCE
The HX300 performs best indoors in good ambient lighting, and outdoors in broad daylight. Photos shot at 20 megapixels look great when rescaled to the monitor’s resolution. But the flaws become apparent when viewed at 100 percent zoom. The exposure is handled quite well and the colour reproduction is very good. However, the lack of detail due to noise and compression artifacts takes away the charm. So, don’t expect miracles should you want to use cropped portions of photos. Another problem is the occurrence of purple fringing against bright backlight; the fringing is strongest towards the edges of the frame. What we found most interesting were effect filters, iSweep Panorama mode and video recording. The effect filters include Toy Camera, Pop Color and Partial colour, HDR Painting, Rich- tone Monochrome and Miniature. You can get some very creative photographs if these are used cleverly.
PERFORMANCE The HX300 performs best indoors in good ambient lighting, and outdoors in broad daylight. Photos shot at 20 megapixels look great when rescaled to the monitor’s resolution. But the flaws become apparent when viewed at 100 percent zoom. The exposure is handled quite well and the colour reproduction is very good. However, the lack of detail due to noise and compression artifacts takes away the charm. So, don’t expect miracles should you want to use cropped portions of photos. Another problem is the occurrence of purple fringing against bright backlight; the fringing is strongest towards the edges of the frame. What we found most interesting were effect filters, iSweep Panorama mode and video recording. The effect filters include Toy Camera, Pop Color and Partial colour, HDR Painting, Rich- tone Monochrome and Miniature. You can get some very creative photographs if these are used cleverly.
VERDICT AND PRICE IN INDIA
Priced at Rs 25,990, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX300 is the most affordable super-zoom digital cameras with 50x optical zoom. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best value for money. You don’t get a hot-shoe for external flash, RAW support, a fully-articulating LCD monitor, an eye sensor for EVF, and GPS. Also, the image quality isn’t extraordinary. If you’re meticulous about image quality and want the best-in-class superzoom, there’s nothing better than the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS. You get most of the features that are missing on the HX300 and the imaging quality is far superior.
SPECS
Dimensions (WxHxD): 129.6 x 93.2 x 103.2 mm; Weight: 650g; Resolution: 20MP; Focal length: 24-1200mm; Optical zoom: 50x; Aperture: f/2.8-f/6.3; Shutter speed: 30-1/ 4000 sec; LCD monitor: 3-in, 921k dot, tilting; Video recording: 1920x1080, 50p
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