Sony H9 or H5?

Hi All,

I recently purchased an H5 which has being returned due to a fault. The shop which I bought it from asked if I wouldn't rather take an H9, the price difference is not that much.

I have read so many good and bad things about the H9.

Which should I stick with the H5 or the H9?

Your proffesional opinions would be much appreciated

thanks

emani said:

Hi All,

I recently purchased an H5 which has being returned due to a
fault. The shop which I bought it from asked if I wouldn't rather
take an H9, the price difference is not that much.

I have read so many good and bad things about the H9.

Which should I stick with the H5 or the H9?

Your proffesional opinions would be much appreciated

Click to expand...

Professionals are very unlikely to use either camera, with on exception that I know.

emani said:

thanks

Click to expand...

--
Bob,

'We don't make a photograph with a camera; we bring to the act of photography all the books we have read, the movies we have seen, the music we have heard and the people we have loved.' Ansel Adams

Sony R1
Canon Pro1
Casio Z750
Nikon 3100

H9 is a very good camera and moreover if you have the option of buying the latest model with all very good features. I would have opted for H9 though I loved H5 too. If you are comparing H5 then compare it with H1 or H2 and not H9. Hope this helps. Good luck buddy.

Sorry , I meant ,

Is there anybody with EXPERIENCE, that could indicate which one to go with.

Simply which one is a better choice, thats all,

Thanks for the sarcasm

Thanks Ashis, thanks for the help

Bob Blount said:

emani said:

Hi All,

I recently purchased an H5 which has being returned due to a
fault. The shop which I bought it from asked if I wouldn't rather
take an H9, the price difference is not that much.

I have read so many good and bad things about the H9.

Which should I stick with the H5 or the H9?

Your proffesional opinions would be much appreciated

Click to expand...

Professionals are very unlikely to use either camera, with on
exception that I know.

Bob Blount said:

thanks

Click to expand...

--
Bob,

Click to expand...

Sorry , I meant ,

Is there anybody with EXPERIENCE, that could indicate which one to go with.

Simply which one is a better choice, thats all,

Thanks for the sarcasm

I have used the H5 before, and loved it, I just don't want to be dissapointed if I switch to the H9 and the picture quality is worse.

...and will soon be adding an H9 to my bag of tricks...I plan to use them both.

N
--
Neil MacDonald
NB Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclopzzz
http://nrmdisk.smugmug.com/

Feel free to comment, critique or PP for educational purposes. If you sell my pics, pls send me my share!

I was solving the same problem recently (deciding whether to buy H5 or H9) and after due and thorough consideration went for H5. I do not regret this decision.

By due and thorough consideration I mean arriving several times at several shops with my Memory Stick and making quite a few "test photos" with both cameras. At home I loaded them into Paint Shop Pro, increased their size to 1:1 and checked the details. Whilst H5 made clear, crisp and sharp images, results of H9 lacked the details, were unsharp, sort of "milky", unconvincing, for me utterly unacceptable. No number of additional gadgets and new features could convince me - I want a camera because of the images it can make and not because of features for themselves, if they are unable to project them into results. "Final frontier" is the image; everything else is just means to achieve it. H9 with its concept of compression, noise reduction and overall bad image quality for a camera of this class just wasn't what I expected.

I have had my hands on an H5. If you have the chance to go to the H9 for a little extra I would take the H9. No point in paying almost as much when the H9 is there. Picture quality? I just don't see the H9 being "worse" than the H5. I've seen several pics from each and I just don't see much of a difference in the good or bad range. Both take great pictures. You won't go wrong with either so, it comes down to size, feel, and features. These are my opinions though and I personally don't have the standards or expectations of a DSLR for these cameras.

The H5 is a little larger than the H9 but not by much. Controls are a little different but I think anyone can get used to either camera. There are some improvements to the H9 and I do think some controls are accessed quicker on the H9 for manual settings changes with the dial in my opinion (was moved from the front near the shutter button to the back near your thumb.

I will say this though, the H9 is fast at being powered on, focusing, and zoom. It's one of the reasons I chose it over the S3 or S5. That is a huge plus for me as well as the tilting LCD. The tilting LCD alone forced me to go from the H7 to the H9.

Don't believe all the negative hype. There are flaws in all high Megapixel cameras with small sensors as stated in the ISO article in the NEWS section. In fact, a lot of these complainers need to stay in the DSLR forums as those cameras meet their high standards and expectations better than piont and shoot, which the H9 is. It's just a high end point and shoot. Keep it in perspective.

Oh, and I go with the H9. If you still want an H5, don't pay full price. Get one that is marked down. They are being phased out.

mike

Just to add what I posted, I wasn't bad mouthing the previous poster. He has it right. If you don't care about the features, go with the H5. It's a fine camera. Just don't pay full price.

Also, just so you know, there are other settings beyond the manual mode that you can set to adjust the picture quality on the H9. I've been playing with these (sharpness, contrast, etc.) and they are changing the picture quality. I'll know more when I run through some more pics this weekend.

mike

I had both, did my own comparison of the types of images that I shoot most with the H cameras and I chose the H5. Shooting both cameras side by side I liked the out of camera pictures of the H5 better.

But only you can decide based on the types of features that are important to you. If IQ is not one of the most important features to you, then by all means the H9 is the better buy IMO.

Surely either one is capable of producing outstanding images, remember the most important feature is behind the camera.

--
http://digitalman.smugmug.com/
http://www.D1Pics.US/
Canon 5D, 17-40 L, 24-105 L, 100-400 L
Sony R1
Sony H5

Mike Goodman said:

Just to add what I posted, I wasn't bad mouthing the previous
poster. He has it right. If you don't care about the features, go
with the H5. It's a fine camera. Just don't pay full price.

Also, just so you know, there are other settings beyond the manual
mode that you can set to adjust the picture quality on the H9.
I've been playing with these (sharpness, contrast, etc.) and they
are changing the picture quality. I'll know more when I run
through some more pics this weekend.

mike

Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the great advice you said that you've been playing with the sharpness, contrast, etc. and that they are changing the picture quality. Is this helping with the so called 'IQ problem' people seem to have?

thanks

There is something that I don´t trust about: H9 has the same size sensor than H5 - H2, but H9 has more pixels. So pixels at H9 are smaller than at H5 - H2. Smaller the pixel, more noise vulnerable. So how the H9 could have better or at least same sharpness than H5 - H2?. I'm not surprised of read here that H9 has not the same image quality than H5.

just read this article carefully i think this explains a lot and can help in ur decision.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/compactcamerahighiso/
--

• living in harmony with nature and other people ...will create an better world for all * marti58 -2006

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marti58/

In some instances it has but I need to do more tests. Either way I'm happy with image quality whether I adjust those or not so for me they are pluses.

Keep in mind that contrast and sharpness can only be changed in the P, S, A, or M modes. It is not accessible in the menu unless you are in these modes.

mike

To add to this, you can modify the following in P, S, A, or M dial modes but not in AUTO. So, the key here is to be in one of these modes to maximize your options to obtain the best picture.

• Color Mode
• Metering Mode
• White Balance
• Flash level
• Contrast
• Sharpness

Given the choice I'd go for the H9.

I sold my H5 to buy a H9 and was offered my H5 back as the person who bought it then thought it was a bit big for them. Worried about the reviews on the H9 IQ, I was I was actually going to buy it back but in the mean time took more photos with the H9 and saw no real problems with them. IMO, the IQ seems no worse than H5 images and no better either. Both take great shots and both take bad shots to (probably more so with me as I'm a novice). You can look at many H9 shots and convince yourself that the camera is bad but then I look at my bad H5 shots from the past year and think, "hello, that used to take shots like this to" but I never worried about those as I wasn't in a forum where folks were bashing the H5.

For me the things I love about the H9 is it's sheer speed over the H5 in focusing, burst speed and normal operation, the tilting screen, better flash, the colours of the images and the remote control. The latter is superb when the camera is on a tripod and you can just control it from the remote.

Downsides of the H9 for me (not really downsides just personal preferences really as I willl learn to live with these), well being a novice and needing to learn about how to use manual modes, I still use scene modes and Sports mode is a bit dissappointing, not sure about the huge flower lens thing on the front and I preferred the thumbwheel on the front rather than at the back.

The reason I didn't buy back my H5 was because I made a list of all the things that the H5 had over the H9 that I thought I would need.

According to comments - better IQ. That was it.

I then realised if I had my H5 back, I would never have used it as I'd always take the H9 out - so why buy it? So I didn't and I put the money into a tele and wide angle lens for the H9. Regrets - non at all.

I have had some shots from the H9, both macro and scenic that I really like and they have printed amazingly well at A4 size (8x11). That's all I need a camera for and so for me, the H9 is superb ... but having said that I think I will need to learn more about the manual modes as the H9 isn't as good in auto modes as the H5 was - I think that was more novice friendly. That isn't a bad thing though as I'm excited about learning P,A,S and M mode.

These are some of my H9 shots. I have the colours in P mode set to Vivid as I like that.