Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 review

The sweep panorama mode is fun to play with, and the results are decent -- if you don't look too closely. The 1,080-pixel limitation makes the images too low resolution to resolve any real detail, the exposure gets fixed at the beginning, which can result in blown-out highlights with bad fringing, and anything in motion produces a variety of odd effects. There's no manual but high-resolution alternative if you'd like to shoot a better-quality panorama.

The hand-held twilight mode, for low-light but flash-free shooting, fares much better. The camera bursts several shots at a high ISO sensitivity, then combines them to produce a brighter, sharper photo with lower-than-normal noise. We were initially sceptical, but it works surprisingly well and is a compelling feature for photographic night owls.

Performance
The DSC-HX1 unequivocally leads its class for performance. It powers on and shoots in a surprisingly zippy 2 seconds, and typically focuses and shoots in 0.4 seconds. It's slightly slower than the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS at focusing and shooting in low-contrast conditions, but it still delivers a respectable 0.7 seconds. At 1.4 seconds for two sequential shots -- 1.7 seconds with flash -- it's pretty fast.

Shooting speed
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Canon PowerShot SX1 IS

1.4 

1.7 

0.6 

0.4 

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1

2 

1.4 

0.7 

0.4 

Casio Exilim Pro EX-FH20

3.3 

1.8 

0.8 

0.5 

Canon PowerShot SX10 IS

1.5 

2.1 

0.8 

0.6 

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50

2.3 

1.8 

1.3 

0.7 

Olympus SP-570 UZ

3.3 

2.5 

1.8 

0.8 

There's also a ten-shot ultra-high-speed burst mode, which we clocked at 10.6 frames per second. You can choose to scale that back to 5fps or 2fps, or drop the resolution and get faster shooting. Keep in mind, however, that after that speedy ten-shot burst, you have to wait another 16 seconds for the camera to write the photos to the card. That's with the fastest card you can currently buy, a SanDisk Extreme III Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo 30MBps version.

Combined with the lack of a standard slow-but-steady burst that can shoot a larger number of frames, the DSC-HX1 becomes far less useful for continuous shooting than it really should be. That's unfortunate, because the autofocus is quite fast and seems to keep up with the burst.