Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H1 Digital Camera

BACKGROUND

It's funny how six months can change your perspective on things. Back in February of 2005, I bought FujiFilm's latest effort, the S5100. Six months later, there was an image sensor problem that caused every low-light photo to have a lavender cast … and an ugly, muddy vertical blur. I tried to live with the camera but decided even with warranty work, perhaps I hadn't made such a good choice. So when I settled on Sony's newest 5-megapixel piece of work, the DSC-H1, I had been comparing cameras for a while. There's a lot to like about the DSC-H1 (hereafter, the "H1"), and since the holidays ended, you may be able to find the camera at street prices closer to mail-order like I did. The H1 is a very good pick for photo enthusiasts and, while it's not perfect (what non-DSLR, sub-$1,000 camera is?), there's a lot I like about the design of this camera. But I will caution you – unless you're using the camera entirely in Automatic mode, there's more to it than meets the eye initially, and you'll want to take some time simply doing experimental shots in a variety of settings to get comfortable with it before taking it out for an intended use. I suppose part of this is that operationally, the H1 is very much like using a conventional 35 mm camera – meaning a knowledge of the basics of photography in a technical sense – shutter, aperture and ISO sensitivities – will be helpful.


DECISION PROCESS

Let's back up a little bit, first, to tell you what I wanted. Fuji's S5100 was a "monster zoom" camera – it had a 10X telephoto lens. If you've seen the S5100 and held it, you know that it looked and felt like a regular SLR camera. The controls were simple enough to use, and the photo quality was decent, but not spectacular (that would have cost another, like, $300, for another selection in the same class). I wanted manual controls, adjustable ISO, the works.

I narrowed my selections down to Canon's most recent S2 IS camera and the Sony H1. Both cameras are about the same size and run about the same, pricewise. Both cameras boast 12X zoom and great optics. But in the end, I wound up giving the nod to the H1 mostly because I found the controls easier to use. (On Canon's S1, the shutter release, on/off switch and play/record modes are all wrapped around each other. Bad idea, especially if you're in a hurry to take a photo.)


FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Fortunately for me, Circuit City was running a sale just after the New Year's holiday, where I was able to get the H1 for $409 (the $50 rebate Sony had been offering expired at the stroke of midnight January 1). Since I was feeling a bit more eager to get my mitts on a new toy, I decided to forego the mail-order route – and risk Circuit City's steep 15% restocking penalty – to try the H1 out. So far, I've been pleased and I enjoy the camera more the more I use it.

Inside the box you get the H1 camera, the neck strap, the lens cap, a sun hood (for shooting in bright sunlight), two rechargeable 2100 mAh NiMH batteries and a charger, a USB 2.0 cable, software, a "Read Me First" guide (for guys like me who can't wait to start playing with it) and a full user's guide. Note that I said TWO batteries. The H1 was designed to run on two batteries – impressive. My first thought was, how could such a big powerhouse of a camera operate with such energy efficiency and then I thought of my little point-and-shoot Pentax Optio 30, from which I can usually get over 200 photos on two NiMH batteries. So I guess power technology has taken some big steps forward in the last three years.

One thing you don't get in the package is a puny little memory card. That's because Sony decided to put 32 MB of internal memory in the camera itself. I'm not sure if this was Sony sparing themselves the cost of manufacturing a bunch of low-end Memory Sticks (the proprietary media format you'll need for this camera; more on that, later) or whether they were providing users with convenience – I don't know. The 32 MB internal memory will let you take about a half-dozen photos at 5 MPX resolution and about 20 photos at 3 MPX resolution. So if you're not sure you want to keep the H1 and just try it out, you don't have to buy a separate memory card that you'd also have to return if you decided against the camera.

Now, about the Memory Stick – remember, the H1 is a Sony. Sony has long been an electronics company that has believed it can do anything it wants in its own proprietary way (think of the Mavica, the first digital camera to use floppy disks, years ago). The H1 is no different – you cannot use SD, MMC, xD, CompactFlash, or any other common media card formats; you have to buy Memory Stick-type. Happily, Sony isn't the only manufacturer of Memory Stick media anymore, and you can save quite a bit this way. I got a half-gigabyte Memory Stick (512 MB) for about $50 at Fry's Electronics so it appears Memory Stick prices have come down. But it would be nice if Sony – just once – decided to use a "standard" format rather than making up its own rules. (End of my Sony rant.)

When you first hold the H1, I think the thing that will surprise you the most is how heavy it feels. The camera does feel substantial and that's good; I want a device that I don't want to have to feel like handling with kit gloves (like, oh, say, the Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 which I bought and returned). You can even see SCREWS on the body – when was the last time you saw a piece of modern electronics made with screws??

The grip, while nice, is not perfectly snug – like that of the more molded-grip Fuji S5100 (which fit my hand more snugly). What this means – if you have smaller hands and you're trying to shoot one-handed with this camera, be careful.

Also, keep in mind that this is a large camera – you can't expect to slip this in your pants pocket (unless you have absolutely huge pockets!). Its large lens and ample back mean you'll need to get a hip pouch or proper camera bag, and that's just as well, anyway. The H1 should be treated with a little more care; it's more of a photographic instrument.

The look of the H1 is much like any classic SLR from 30 years ago – from Canon, Nikon, whoever. It's a silver-colored body with black, plastic accents and grips. The included black, plastic lens cap is a nice, snug fit – a marked contrast to what I've heard about the lens cap for the Canon S2 IS, so that magnificent 12X lens will be protected.


CONTROLS

Turning on the camera is done with a nice, large indented power button on the top of the camera body (labeled "POWER"), safely away from the shutter release button. To the right is a rotary knob with the various shooting modes, the sole green icon indicating automatic mode. (Note to Sony: I would also suggest a red icon for playback; it's the other important dial setting.) When using the LCD, turning the knob shows the same mode selections (in a rotating ring) so you don't have to be looking at the top of the camera to see what mode you're selecting.

The shutter release button is a large, thankfully simple silver-colored button – not encircled by any kind of fancy twisting switches or lights (as on the Canon S2 IS, which was, ultimately, the deal-breaker for me on that one).

Most digital cameras now seem to have some form of a five-way control and the H1 is no exception. The buttons feel substantive, not cheap (as on an Olympus model I also checked out), and give you access to flash control, macro mode, the self-timer, and quick review (which lets you review the very last shot you took). The "MENU" button takes you into menu mode where you can change a variety of settings, set the time and date, turn button beeping on or off, and so on. Other separate buttons let you control resolution, and whether to use the EVF (electronic viewfinder) or the LCD. The "W/T" wide/telephoto rocker switch does double duty in playback mode, letting you zoom in on a photo to check out detail, or show up to 16 thumbnail images. It is in the multi-thumbnail mode, by the way, where you can delete multiple images at a time.


LCD

One of the best features on the H1 is the LCD – it's freakin' huge! It's a 2.5" color LCD, which is great for sharing just-taken photos with friends and family – less squinting is a good thing. (This seems to be the trend on newer cameras now, whether high-end ones like this or low-end point-and-shoots.) However, I have to say that while the display is large, bright and colorful, it seems to be a display one would see on a camcorder rather than on a camera. Don't get me wrong – images look good on the LCD, but I was thinking they would be crisper and sharper. If you're gonna go to the trouble to give people a big display, go all the way.

By the way, with a Memory Stick installed, the H1 can be used to capture MPEG video. I don't expect to use this much, but when I do use it, it will be nice viewing it on that larger LCD! More on video further down.

The LCD display is reasonably well laid out. A battery symbol in the upper left corner of the display shows how much power you have left. The upper right corner shows your photo resolution, the number of photos you've taken, and an icon showing, in a sort of pie-chart-style, how much space on your media you've consumed (if you've shot half the space, the icon is half-full). The bottom of the display shows the file number, date and time of the photo.


OPERATION

As I said, the H1 is a Sony. Sony likes doing things their way. Here, I'm going to pat Sony on the back. Underneath the shutter release – but not so close that it's in the way – is a little thumbwheel called the jog dial. This control lets you rotate back and forth through all the images you've taken. You can use the five-way navigation button pad on the back of the camera to move through the photos, of course, but you might find the jog dial handy. In shooting mode, the jog dial is used to change aperture, shutter speed, etc. I've never seen this in a digital camera before and it's pretty nice.

However, one complaint I have is that if you use the camera's Automatic mode, you can't change ANYTHING (except the resolution). You can't change white balance or ISO sensitivity, which I'm accustomed to being able to do. This, I have a problem with, particularly since the H1 tends to pick ISO 64 as much as possible. If you're planning on taking any photos in low-light conditions without flash, be prepared to use one of the manual modes (P, S, A or M). (Again, some experimentation before an actual event would prove instructive.)

White balance can be automatically set by the camera, you can choose a preset, or you can use a camera-set white balance, on-the-spot. To use this option, simply choose it in the WB menu (it's the very top option), you hear a tiny click as the camera takes a light sample, and voila! Your white balance has been adjusted. In the manual modes, you may want to do this as an alternative to using the camera's "Auto" white balance setting; for some reason I got different results using each.


SOMEWHAT FLIMSY USB AND AV COVER

As sturdily built as the H1 was designed to be, I was a little surprised at the small, plastic cover hatch for the USB and AV connections. I hope the two plastic connectors are strong enough because I fear that after about 100 openings and closings, the thing may break off. If I were you, and you want to keep the camera looking as good as the day you bought it, plan on opening the Memory Stick hatch, removing the Memory Stick, and using it in a third-party media reader to reduce the wear on that hatch. I'm not sure what a better solution to this would have been, but this wasn't it, Sony, sorry.


IMAGE QUALITY

Overall, the H1's image quality is very good. Sometimes, though, I thought Automatic mode, I felt, produced contrasts just a bit too high – there were stark differences between light and shaded areas of sunlight images. The color is certainly there, as is the saturation – it's vibrant, occasionally too much so. The camera has four manual modes – shutter priority, aperture priority, program mode and manual (in which you control everything). There are several other user-friendly "preset" modes such as low-light, sports-action, panorama, and the like but I don't expect to use any of those and will not comment on them.

Here's an important thing to remember as you're using this camera – if you're in Automatic mode, you can't change anything, so don't look for white balance, ISO, etc., when you press the MENU button. It's going to take me a few times before I remember this. I would rather the camera had showed grayed-out options as it does in some other modes.

The H1 has five resolution modes – 5 MPX, 3 MPX, "3:2" (3 MPX, but a slightly longer format to match photo papers, I guess?), 1 MPX and VGA (640x480). I'm not sure about the value of having a second 3 MPX mode; I think most users would have preferred a 4 MPX mode instead. (That's what Photoshop is for, for cropping images to unusual sizes, right?)

I took the H1 out on a weekend afternoon for some tests in bright sunlight. For the most part, I liked what I saw, although I have to say that colors are a little more strongly saturated than I expected. Once again, though, you can change the saturation down a notch (there are three settings, normal, plus, and minus) through the menus. If you like really strong colors, you won't mind this, and I'm sure that most casual users certainly won't even notice. You'll only want to take control of this if you're really into subtleties.

What I've read in other reviews about purple fringing (aka chromatic aberration) is also true – there is virtually none, certainly nothing noticeable to most eyes. But I still think there's a touch of "astigmatism" I can make out in the finer details of background objects. You can deal with this by changing the Sharpness value up or down (like Saturation, there are three settings, normal, plus and minus). You can also tone the contrast down also with the same three-notch settings in the menus. At least Sony was smart enough to give you lots of ways to fine-tune anything you don't like.

Speaking of which, some reviews have said that the ISO 400 setting produces so much noise such as to render the pictures unusable. While I would say the noise in the photos is noticeable, I think it's a bit shrill to say the photos are not at all usable. There are going to be some circumstances under which ISO 400 will be the only practical way to capture a low-light image. You can use ISO 200, of course, and cut the noise but will it be at the cost of being able to see the subject? (Reminder to novices: if you're planning on taking low-light photos, use a tripod or steady your camera-holding hand against a fixed object like a wall or lightpost.)

I had not used Exposure Compensation (aka "EV") before this camera – this is sort of like a combination of brightness and contrast. The settings range from +2 to -2 in one-third increments with 0 being the default, and this can be helpful in staving off overly bright images.

Night images, as with a conventional camera, are helped with a tripod mount. For my test, I took images of the Houston skyline and a couple of office buildings with lots of lights on in the offices. The camera's mount screw socket is durable metal, not plastic – nice. I got mixed results using Automatic mode – the camera often chose ISO 320 for night scenes. Sodium vapor streetlights were quite orange unless you corrected the white balance from the menu; fluorescent lights appeared faintly purple. I found that you can get better results sometimes either from using "P", program mode, or "S", shutter priority mode and experimenting with exposure times.

Macro mode photos are remarkably crisp. I tried photographing the cover of a book with the lens about an inch or two from the cover, and was pleased with the results.

From a personal standpoint, I found the H1 gave nice results when taking portrait photos – that is, photos of people using color-corrected photoflood lamps in a studio setting. Skin tones are pleasing and facial features show splendid detail. As an exercise, however, I would recommend experimenting between the camera's Automatic mode and one of the manual modes, as you will see subtle differences. (And don't forget to watch the white balance!) You will enjoy this camera if you plan on taking a lot of photos of friends or family.


MOVIE MODE IS NICE

The movie mode requires you have a Memory Stick installed, and you can shoot as much as your inserted card will handle. If you have a 512 MB card, for example, you can get about 6 minutes video at 30 frames per second, or over 20 minutes of video at 16 frames per second. I don't think you should use the H1 as a substitute for a camcorder by any means, but if you're walking down the street and happen to want to get that footage of the family dog knocking catching the Frisbee, you can do it capably with the H1. The color and the detail are both very good. I shot some footage on a tollway driving home (one-handed, of course), copied the MPEG files to my PC and burned a DVD of the footage. It looks good, but it looks more like film than video. If you want a "live" look to your video, stick with a conventional camcorder.


STEADY SHOT COMES IN HANDY

As cameras become increasingly powerful with ever-increasing telephoto lenses, the need for steadiness at the far end of those focal lengths becomes increasingly important. That's probably why many monster zoom cameras like the H1 now include image stabilization – the H1's is called "SteadyShot" and it's pretty good. At longer distances you will see clearer images.

However, if you wish to turn it off, you can – there's a small button to the right of the viewfinder with an appropriate icon of a shaky hand.


FLASH

The flash has the power to turn night into day! You can adjust the brightness down, which would be a good idea if you're standing less than, say, five feet from your subjects. If you don't, you'll bleach them right out. I figured out why this is, and I consider it a major issue – why did Sony choose 1/40 second for flash photos rather than the industry-standard 1/60 second? I couldn't believe it when I checked the photo attributes of several flash images in Windows Explorer. The difference between 1/40 and 1/60 of a second may not sound like much, but do the math and 1/40 second is 50% longer. Plan on using one of the program modes and selecting 1/60 for yourself if you don't like the results at 1/40.

If you don't have flash suppressed, and the H1 thinks you need more light, it will automatically pop up the flash unit for you and fire as needed. You only need be careful with this if you're trying to take a surprise photo, because, as stated above, the flash is very bright. Or, if you're used to a camera that doesn't automatically extend the flash unit, you'll need to remember to suppress the flash if you don't need it.

You control the different flash modes with the "up" button on the five-way button pad on the back of the camera. It may be tricky to find because the symbols are embossed rather than printed – not a problem; just a "nit".


LENS, QUICK START-UP

One thing I've read about in other posts that I haven't found to be a problem is the time it takes for the H1 to focus. Either I'm not as discriminating of a photographer, or it just doesn't bother me, but the H1's focus time is quick enough for my needs. And the start-up time is less than two seconds; the lens barrel extends nice and quickly and is, thankfully, not very noisy.

The zoom lens is pretty swift – going from 1X to 12X in about two seconds.



BATTERY LIFE

The H1 wisely uses AA cells rather than proprietary Lithium Ion batteries. With AA cells, and I'll say this 'til I'm blue in the face, if you exhaust your cache of rechargeables you can pop down to your local pharmacy or convenience store, get some Energizers or Duracells, and keep going. Why the rest of the digital camera industry hasn't adopted this as a standard is beyond me, but Sony absolutely did the right thing here!

Battery life for the H1 is surprisingly good – in a photo test I did last night, I was able to snap off 239 images without changing the batteries even once. And the camera had more juice when I was finished. I would say that the better your batteries, the longer you'll be able to use the camera. Get the highest "mAh" rating you can – I used 2100 mAh batteries, the type that also came in the H1 package. Considering the 2.5-inch LCD, that I got that many images shows pretty good power management on Sony's part. Naturally, you can extend your battery life by using the electronic viewfinder instead of the LCD, or by not using the movie mode. Taking a lot of flash pictures will deplete the battery more quickly, as it would on any camera, so be sure you have extra batteries handy.

The Sony H1 comes with two 2100 mAh batteries along with its own recharger (when was the last time any digital camera gave you not just batteries, but rechargeable batteries and a charger?). Another review states the charger is not super-fast, taking about 6 hours. One thing I would suggest is that you invest an extra $40 to $50 and get a 15-minute charger (that can charge 4 cells at a time, not just two) and at least 8 NiMH (nickel metal hydride) AA cells of at least 2100 mAh. You will save a fortune on alkaline batteries and the 15-minute charge time means you won't miss not having working batteries for long.


READ THE MANUAL ONLINE

If you want to see more information on the camera, you can go to Sony's web site (www.sony.com) and look at the PDF version of the manual. There, you'll find the specs on the camera as well as information on the various features and modes of operation. There's more features on the camera (like burst mode and bracketing), too many to mention in the scope of this review.


FINAL VERDICT

The Sony DSC-H1 was introduced last summer at an MSRP of about $500. Now that it's been out for a while, street prices are already dropping, and I'd guess you can expect even lower prices by Summer 2006. This is a very good camera for the money, particularly if you're a first-timer who wants power without complicated operation. Casual users will absolutely love the H1. Someone wanting to learn manual photography will find this to be about as close as you can get to 35 mm without burning cash on processing photographic mistakes.

But as great as the H1 is, it's not perfect - it does have a few flaws. If you're a more serious photo enthusiast like me, you may find yourself a little irked by some of Sony's design decisions (this is one of the risks of buying a digital camera from an electronics or computer manufacturer rather than from a company like Nikon who only makes cameras). You'll love the 12X zoom, of course, but if you occasionally do night or low-light photography you might find yourself a shade disappointed with the results (but that's what Photoshop is for!). If you're a serious photographer, and you are able to do so, I would strongly recommend taking the camera out for a test drive before you commit to it and, if you buy it, taking it out for some experimental sessions to get fully acquainted with it before using it on a particular occasion or assignment. Once you do, you'll find it to be a reliable sidekick.

All things considered, Sony's H1 is an exceptional value for occasional and accomplished photographers alike and is worth a serious look. I don't think you're going to find another digital camera – with an amazing telephoto zoom lens, to boot – that can provide something this close to the SLR experience of a film camera.