[Review] Sony DSC-HX300 Cyber-Shot Digital Camera

[RedLdr1]

I have to admit I fell for the "Cyber Monday" sales this year. I had been watching the new Sony DSC-HX300 Cyber Shot and when the price dropped to $399.00 I bought one. I have been using the Sony DSC Cyber-Shot family for several years to back up my Pro Grade Sony DSLR gear since my wife prefers an easy to use point and shoot camera. With the HX300 I think Sony has a real contender to not only the point and shoot market but also the low end DSLR market. The camera delivers unbelievable capability at the price of one decent lens for my Sony A77 DSLR. Some of the highlights are:

20.4 megapixels in .Jpeg format.
50x optical zoom, that right optical not software zoom! That is the 35MM equivalent of a built in 24MM-1200MM lens!
100x Clear Image zoom on top of the 50x optical zoom!
Optical SteadyShot? image stabilization with 3-way Active Mode, helps keeps the shakes from blurring your photos.
AVCHD™ 1080/60p Full HD video It might be a bit awkward to mount on a helmet...:wink:
3.0" tiltable LCD or a traditional viewfinder
Sweep Panorama : Intelligent Sweep Panorama (360˚)
Up to 10 fps...if you have a very fast memory card.

For a shake down test we took it to Callaway Gardens for the annual Fantasy Of Lights last night. We also visited the Day Butterfly Center before the light show yesterday afternoon. This time of year the Butterfly Garden is a bit thin but there were a few still flying around. For the "test" the camera was left in Intelligent Automatic (IA+) Mode and was allowed to select what ever shooting Mode it wanted. The Modes can be manually controlled if desired. None of the following pictures have been edited / Photoshopped / or otherwise "tweaked" in any fashion, this is the raw photos straight off the SDHC card. That should give you an idea what the camera is capable of...now if only I was as good as it can be....:redface:

First a couple butterfly shots:


With Built In Flashhttp://www.flickr.com/people/wecnwise/


Without Built In Flash, That's Much Better!http://www.flickr.com/people/wecnwise/

Now the Fantasy Of Lights Driving Tour as shot out of the window of my Ford Flex during the drive through in a light rain. It always rains when we go to Callaway...one of those family traditions I reckon...:rolleyes1:


The Entrance By Dayhttp://www.flickr.com/people/wecnwise/


The Entrance By Night Over A Pondhttp://www.flickr.com/people/wecnwise/


Close Up Of The Entrance Toy Solider By Nighthttp://www.flickr.com/people/wecnwise/


An Eight Foot Tall Butterflyhttp://www.flickr.com/people/wecnwise/


Santa Checking His Listhttp://www.flickr.com/people/wecnwise/


Workshop Elves Assembling A Bicyclehttp://www.flickr.com/people/wecnwise/


Wayward Elf On A Bicycle Wheelhttp://www.flickr.com/people/wecnwise/

I'm happy, this is a good all around camera I'll probably carry more than the fancy DSLR "stuff".... It has more capabilities than I'll use and my wife enjoys the easy point and shoot IA+ Mode...

 

[RedLdr1]

almost no shutter lag

Shutter lag is due to a slow memory card 99.9% of the time. Try a faster Class 10 card with a +90MBS write speed and it should go away. I had to grab one of my faster SDHC cards (Sony SDHC 32GB Class 10 with 94Mbs write speed) out of my A77 to use the 10 frames per second burst mode with the Large 20Mega-pixel photo size on this camera. The older, slower 30Mbs write speed card I used when I first tried it had about a two to three second delay between shots.

 

[RedLdr1]

I hate to think about the money I have in my NIKON, 35 MM, SLR film camera, with all of the lenses from Macro-fisheye to LARGE telephoto lenses but not long ago, it was state of the art.

I took all my older 35MM Minolta AF A-Mount gear and swapped out the 35MM film 9xi camera body for a A700 Sony digital body that uses all of my lens, flashes, and most of the other accessories. I recently upgraded the A700 to an A77 and once again everything moved up to the new body. The real advantage is my older Japanese Minolta lenses are a much better quality than most, not all of them, newer Minolta and Sony lenses made in Thailand and Malaysia.... I still get out my old 35MM 9xi and play around with it but it is getting to be a pain to find a place that still develops 35MM....and Black and White is just a "Setting" away on the digital cameras or in Photoshop...

 

[RedLdr1]

I have a class 6 in it - which is the 30 Mbs - so I'll try a 10.

That should solve the issue. The good news is the price of the higher speed cards has really dropped, I recently grabbed a spare SDHC 32GB Class 10 SanDisk off Ebay for $28.00 with shipping...