Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 review

Continuous shooting is fixed at about 2 frames per second (fps), regardless of image size, and can run for about 18 shots before it starts to slow. We were slightly disappointed by the surprisingly small electronic viewfinder. Sony's Super SteadyShot optical image stabilisation, as ever, works very well.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Canon PowerShot S5 IS

1.6

1.3

0.8

0.5

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9

1.4

2.1

1.3

0.6

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8

1.8

2.7

1.3

0.6

Image quality
Under the right circumstances, the photos look very good. Those include shooting at sensitivity settings of ISO 200 or lower, in bright sunlight. Thanks to the fast continuous shooting, solid stabilisation and reliable centre-point focus, the H9 delivered the best results we've had so far taking photos of dogs in the park. The EVF updates quickly enough to make it possible. The automatic white balance does a solid job, if rather cool, and colours look bright and saturated.

As with other megazoom lenses, however, Sony's displays some distortion and chromatic aberration (edge discolouration) on the sides of the photo, as well as purple fringing on high-contrast edges. In general, the Canon PowerShot S5 IS exhibits better sharpness both in the centre and from side-to-side. As for shots at medium-to-high sensitivities, we suggest you avoid them. Despite boasting support for up to ISO 3,200, The jump between ISO 200 and ISO 400 reveals serious detail loss and notable increase in artefacts. Though it produces better noise measurements than the S5 at the higher ISO settings, the Sony has more apparent image degradation.

For movie capture, Sony makes a slightly better trade-off than most between file size and movie quality. Though they're not quite as sharp, its 30fps VGA MPEG movies require about 1.3MB per second of storage -- far less than the Canon's 2MB per second M-JPEG recordings. One disappointment here is the tiny microphone, which records muted audio.

Conclusion
If you shoot primarily outdoors in daytime -- especially sport, children and animals -- and don't find the interface quite as annoying as we do, the H9 is a great choice. The approximately £60 difference between the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7 and DSC-H9 makes your choice simple: if you can forgo the infrared and the flexible LCD, then buy the cheaper model.

Additional editing by Nick Hide