Sony Cyber Shot DSC-H9 Complete Test

Sony Cyber Shot DSC-H9

Sony has changed some details (both inside and outside) between the H5 released last year and its latest aircraft zoom hyperpuissant, Cyber DSC-H9 and DSC-H7. The resolution is increased to 8 megapixels, compared to 7 above. Say good-bye to AA batteries, abandoned in favor of a proprietary lithium ion battery.

Two features distinguish the H9 and H7. On the one hand, H9 retains the excellent swivel LCD of 7.6 cm of H5, while the H7 uses a fixed 6.35 cm. On the other hand, H9 includes infrared NightShot mode Sony. Otherwise, the two models are identical and should offer the same performance and the same image quality.

The plastic casing that feels cheap, and the handle (a bit larger than the H5) deserves a more pronounced texture rubber. Sony “improves” also commands simple navigation (paved quadridirectionnel decorated with a selection button) H5 adding a scroll buttons and the buttons and menu Home, which is now standard from the manufacturer. We appreciate the scroll buttons, but it takes a little time to get used to adjustment system settings shooting. To switch between the modification of the adjustment required, and the modification of the values of settings, you must use the select button. The option is modifiable visible yellow. In theory, all this is very logical. But in the heat of the moment, this operation requires a little reflection. Nevertheless, it is intuitive, so you should have it fairly quickly.

The H7 and H9 offer options kinds of manual exposure, and the semi-automatic scene modes including High Sensitivity, Portrait, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Twilight, Beach, Snow and Fireworks. (Inexplicable thing, the H7, measuring and shooting burst / bracketing must be modified through the monitor, while on the H9, they have dedicated buttons.) You will also find choices that starts’ s installing such as face recognition, a way forward Sport, or unusual as infrared NightShot mode. The face recognition only works in fully automatic mode. You have no control over the faces detected or selected. Sport mode advanced rule the camera on a fast shutter speed, and uses a continuous autofocus.

Leaving aside the time to scroll through the menus, H9 (and, by extension, the H7) is pretty quick for a camera in its class. It presents a time which starts reasonable 2.1 seconds, with a delay of the shutter of 0.6 seconds in direct sunlight, compared with 1.3 seconds in the dark. It also offers an interval between every shot of 1.4 seconds, which remains modest time with the flash at 2.9 seconds. The shooting gust recorded about 2 frames per second (fps), irrespective of the image resolution. The camera combined 18 shots around before starting to slow. We are a bit disappointed by the electronic viewfinder surprisingly small. The system of Optical Image Stabilization Super SteadyShot Sony works very well, as always.

In the right circumstances, the pictures are very beautiful. These circumstances include shooting at settings of 200 ISO sensitivity or less, in full sun. Thanks to his shooting quick burst, its stabilization system performance and its development center reliable, H9 has produced the best results we have seen so far to capture the scenes with rapid movements (photo sports, children in motion, etc.). . The automatic white balance is correct, even though it provides an aspect a little cold. The colors are now bright and saturated.
However, as with other cameras zoom hyperpuissant, that of Sony displays a certain distortion and chromatic aberration (fading edges) on the sides of the photos, as well as a fringe effect by color purple on the contours sharply contrasting . As far as photos taken at medium to high sensitivities, we advise you to avoid them. If the device promises to take care of the sensitivities up to 3200 ISO, the transition from 200 ISO to 400 ISO reveals a great loss details and a significant increase in artifacts.

For video, Sony offers a compromise slightly better than the others between file size and video quality. The MPEG VGA 30 fps require about 1.3 MB / s storage, which is far less than the 2MB / s required for the M-JPEG recordings Canon. The disappointment comes from the tiny microphone that records sound suffocated.

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