Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 review

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 Review

Reviewed by: Philip Ryan

Reviewed on: 4 October 2007

Like a lot of superzooms, the H3 includes manual exposure controls, though there are only two apertures to choose from and these vary depending on the focal length you're using at any given time. You won't find aperture or shutter-priority, but there are the usual array of scene modes, some of which are in the menu and some of which reside on the mode dial, as well as program and full auto shooting modes.

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

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3

1.3

1.8

1

0.4

Canon PowerShot S5 IS

1.6

1.3

0.8

0.5

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8

1.8

2.7

1.3

0.6

Sony says that the H3 can output images and video to an HDTV if you buy the optional VMC-MHC1 component video cable for about £30. However, since it's not included with the camera and Sony didn't send us one with the review sample, we can't verify this, though we don't really doubt them.

This is a nice option, but we'd rather have seen an HDMI output on the camera instead of being forced to buy Sony's cable. Either way, viewing images on HD has always been a better experience for us than using the regular standard-definition outputs found on most compact cameras.

Performance
Except for a slow flash recycle time, the H3 performed well in our tests. The camera took 1.8 seconds to start up and capture its first JPEG, no doubt slowed by the fact that the lens has to extend before you can shoot.

It took 1.3 seconds between JPEGs with the flash disabled, jumping to 2.6 seconds between shots with the flash turned on. Shutter lag measured an impressive 0.4 seconds in our high-contrast test and one second in our low-contrast test, which mimics bright and dim shooting conditions, respectively. In burst mode, we were able to get an average of two frames per second, regardless of image size.