Sony CyberShot DSC-H9

The Sony CyberShot DSC-H9 is a good camera, excellent shots on the move and I really love the night mode.

The Sony CyberShot DSC-H9 camera looks really great.

It has a really good build quality and is nice and sturdy with no barrel shake.

The image quality is superb.

It feels great to hold.

It is easy to use. For me this camera is perfect. I am a beginner and it is so easy to use and self explanatory that i am really learning the ins and outs of all the settings without any tuition and have taken some really great photographs with it. Also i suspect this camera would be perfectly adequate for a more advanced photographer as it has all the required fully adjustable settings. For the money i dont think you will get a better camera as the next step up from this would be an slr.

For want of a simple lens cap a sale was lost. I bought my H9 based entirely on my pleased experience with and prior familiarity with my H5. When the camera arrived I soon discovered major changes had taken place between the two models. I expected to see a slightly larger lens (going from 12x to 15x) plus a couple of new features. These new features are face recognition and very low light ability.

During my trial period I tested the camera to see these new changes and how they would be useful to me.

The low light function is a separate switch found on the left side of the body of the camera. In low light you can see things the normal mode does not display. The shots are grainy however, but I figured I might find a need for this at sometime or another. I considered it as only a small plus in my evaluation.

Face recognition was much better, but I only tried it in Automatic camera mode. I do not know if it works in other modes. The feature throws a white box around a face and as the person moves, the box moves as well. If there are several people nearby, several boxes will appear, but not always or for all faces. I hoped it would work for pet faces, but the software doesn't see just eyes. It apparently looks for lips and a nose also. Thus taking good shots of our dog would be back to the old method of often requiring luck. Overall I liked the feature. I felt this feature would be useful and evaluated it with good marks.

As my H5 already has a 12x lens, I did not see a significant leap forward with the 15x lens. But being an advocate for large digital lens ability I still enjoy knowing I can bring a subject just a little closer with 15x. I have a long distance sunrise shot taken with my H5 that includes a building 30 miles away and more buildings only about 12 miles away. The image was taken hand held, yet you can make out aerials atop the buildings 12 miles away. The extra 3x lens power would have made the images larger and even easier to see. I am very impressed with Sony's Super Steady Shot ability. The shot would have required a tripod otherwise. Both the H5 and the H9 have Super Steady Shot ability. IT WORKS.

The H9 has a tremendous advantage regarding the 3" viewing screen. The prior model has a fixed position screen but the H9's is articulated. It pulls away from the body on a hinge and can be rotated upward or downward about 90 degrees either way. This allows the user to see and take shots over the heads of people or to take them of flowers close to the ground without having to lie on the ground. It does not pivot to take a self portrait, but I don't see that as too significant. This feature is wonderful and I almost kept the camera for this alone.

Another tremendous improvement is the H9 moved the zoom button slightly higher and forward. A small grip ridge was also added. For many years and cameras I have always placed my right thumb in the upper right backside corner of a camera to hold the camera steady. The H5 model placed the zoom button right where I gripped a camera. The H9 now has this area and new ridge as a grip point. The zoom is just above. Apparently there were complaints and Sony must have listened.

The camera has a built in flash, but no hot shoe for backup. (My H5 does not have one, but it doesn't have a flared hood either.) The provided flash is supposed to be good for about 60 feet. But flash for subjects closer to the camera might be a problem due to the large flared lens adapter (hood). This flared hood is likely to partially block the flash to subjects less than 15 feet away. The hood problem is mentioned in more detail below.

The H5 uses AA rechargeable batteries, but can use regular AA's. The H9 uses proprietary lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. They're good batteries, but you can't just walk into any store and pick up some in an emergency.

There are more screen options for control of various functions. There is a new ring that turns. It has various controls based on what function you are using.

Now to the negative features:

1. The camera comes with a lens cap for the basic lens. As soon as you turn the camera on the lens moves outward and pushes the lens cap off.

2. The camera is provided with a flared lens adapter that screws onto the camera body. The flared opening is 74mm. This flare is a unique size and at this time only 2 filters are available from Sony. The cheapest is $50. It is good to have a protective lens for the primary lens. The problem is that this lens sits at the outermost part of the flare.

3. Also included is a flowered hood the fits onto the lens adapter in bayonet fashion. The hood must be aligned just right using marks on the camera (at TDC) the lens adapter, and the flowered hood. This protects the outer lens and completes the design of the camera. It doesn't help that all the mentioned marks are black on a black surface.

4. There is NO 74mm LENS CAP available. You are forced to walk around with a long camera lens setup. If you remove the flower hood, you risk bumping or smudging the outer lens as there is no plastic cap to protect the lens.

5. If you remove the flared adapter often you risk cross-threading. This is especially important if you are removing the adapter to take flash pictures and then putting it back on in a hurry for some other shot.

6. If I wanted this much hassle caused by the adapter and hood I would give serious thought to a digital SLR, which I do not want to do.

Essentially, I refused to keep the camera as I could not protect the 74mm opening and this is essential to protecting my investment. I will not risk damaging a $50 protective lens, possibly multiple times, when a $3 lens cap would do the job.