Nexitus
New member
Hi guys, I am a bit new to posting here at dpreview.com. I have been following this forum lately as I had gotten interested in retiring my old Canon P&S.
What caught my eye when the HX5V was first announced was probably it's GPS/Compass functionality. That was the main highlight for me when I first heard about it. Then, of course, I delved a bit further and read, the marketing material, to find that the camera is suppose to have "superior" night-shooting capabilities and some great camera modes (ie. panoramic shooting, HDR correction and so forth). These were all really great features it seemed like.
I have a really limited background when it comes to photography versus many others who are around these threads.
I own:
Nikon D40x
Canon SD1200IS
Sony T20
So coming into this, I had some high expectations for the camera. As long as quality at 100% when displayed on a laptop or desktop screen was good, then it is good enough for me.
Impressions:
First off, I am going to talk about the worse thing about the camera. Seriously, it is absolutely an atrocity for the camera! The 3.0" LCD display is simply horrendous. I can literally see the scan lines which updates the screen and all the images which were taken in ANY lighting condition turns out A TON more red then what it looks like on a laptop or desktop!
I am not sure if mine is defective or not, but it really isn't acceptable in any way or shape. So I might exchange it to see if the problem persist or not. It could be the LCD panel they choose to put into this camera is simply sub-par.
The good thing about this camera I find is that it is quite a bit smaller than all those press shots make it out to be. Sure it isn't as slim as the TX7 or any of the T-series, but with the lens it packs, I really don't expect it to do so. Also, since some of my older cameras were sort of "bulky" in there own sense, I don't really mind the depth of this P&S.
The camera interface, the dial, and the controls feel pretty sold. I do wish there was a bit more click to the controls in the back though as I feel there is not enough there to tell me I actually pressed the button or not. It really is a minor gripe at the end of things. Otherwise the construction of the camera is a lot more superior then I had expected as it was listed that the camera is made out of "plastic" which makes it sound cheap, but in reality, it feels like a sturdy piece of electronic (like many of the Sony products I own).
Another "negative" which I would like to point out. It's more of an annoyance than anything else. The Full HD AVCHD mode which shoots at 1920x1080 60(i). I hate the interlacing of video, I simply hate it with a passion. As someone who views video and edits them professionally, there is nothing more that erks me than interlaced videos. Sure there are really easy ways to de-interlace with filters and so forth, but it is a huge inconvenience to do so! I am now finding myself using the .mp4 1440x1080 mode simply because I don't need to go through the trouble of de-interlacing. This is another of those minor "issues" I found for the first day in usage.
Shooting modes are probably the biggest draw for me to the new Sony line-up of cameras. From how it is marketed, to how it actually functions, I find that they make my style of casual photography a lot more fun. And that is what I am looking at for a P&S camera. Fun. If I wanted something serious I would go with my D40x, and would have probably bought a D90 or something.
Two functions I haven't figured out on the HX5V, is the smile detection system. It boggles my mind. I might actually need to read the manual for that one!
The dual-slot memory card reader is definitely a welcome addition! The battery is fairly decent with the GPS on. I got about 110 shots dropping only 1 bar. Of course that might not be completely accurate, but I will give it to the camera.
On that note actually, the GPS is very spot on for the most part. I imported all my photos into Aperture 3, and most of the shots are where it is suppose to be. Albeit, I don't think the GPS actually checks it location every single shot though since a lot of them have been lumped into one location. I haven't seen if the Compass works or not since I don't think Aperture takes that info out.
There was a review out....dcresource? Which had a comparison of the Pansonic ZS-7 I think, compared to the HX5V on the GPS side of things. And contrary to what the reviewer didn't like about the HX5V GPS system, I actually love it! It is really minimalist. It tells me if it has connected satelites, low connectivity or high connectivity. And really that is all I need from a camera! I don't need to pull up all the exact GPS coordinates. Does anyone really need to do that? Probably less than 10% of the population does....
Anyways, these are my intial impressions. I am in the process of uploading photos of the first day of photos to my gallery, so check them out and see if you see anything off or on about them.
Here are some samples for now:
What caught my eye when the HX5V was first announced was probably it's GPS/Compass functionality. That was the main highlight for me when I first heard about it. Then, of course, I delved a bit further and read, the marketing material, to find that the camera is suppose to have "superior" night-shooting capabilities and some great camera modes (ie. panoramic shooting, HDR correction and so forth). These were all really great features it seemed like.
I have a really limited background when it comes to photography versus many others who are around these threads.
I own:
Nikon D40x
Canon SD1200IS
Sony T20
So coming into this, I had some high expectations for the camera. As long as quality at 100% when displayed on a laptop or desktop screen was good, then it is good enough for me.
Impressions:
First off, I am going to talk about the worse thing about the camera. Seriously, it is absolutely an atrocity for the camera! The 3.0" LCD display is simply horrendous. I can literally see the scan lines which updates the screen and all the images which were taken in ANY lighting condition turns out A TON more red then what it looks like on a laptop or desktop!
I am not sure if mine is defective or not, but it really isn't acceptable in any way or shape. So I might exchange it to see if the problem persist or not. It could be the LCD panel they choose to put into this camera is simply sub-par.
The good thing about this camera I find is that it is quite a bit smaller than all those press shots make it out to be. Sure it isn't as slim as the TX7 or any of the T-series, but with the lens it packs, I really don't expect it to do so. Also, since some of my older cameras were sort of "bulky" in there own sense, I don't really mind the depth of this P&S.
The camera interface, the dial, and the controls feel pretty sold. I do wish there was a bit more click to the controls in the back though as I feel there is not enough there to tell me I actually pressed the button or not. It really is a minor gripe at the end of things. Otherwise the construction of the camera is a lot more superior then I had expected as it was listed that the camera is made out of "plastic" which makes it sound cheap, but in reality, it feels like a sturdy piece of electronic (like many of the Sony products I own).
Another "negative" which I would like to point out. It's more of an annoyance than anything else. The Full HD AVCHD mode which shoots at 1920x1080 60(i). I hate the interlacing of video, I simply hate it with a passion. As someone who views video and edits them professionally, there is nothing more that erks me than interlaced videos. Sure there are really easy ways to de-interlace with filters and so forth, but it is a huge inconvenience to do so! I am now finding myself using the .mp4 1440x1080 mode simply because I don't need to go through the trouble of de-interlacing. This is another of those minor "issues" I found for the first day in usage.
Shooting modes are probably the biggest draw for me to the new Sony line-up of cameras. From how it is marketed, to how it actually functions, I find that they make my style of casual photography a lot more fun. And that is what I am looking at for a P&S camera. Fun. If I wanted something serious I would go with my D40x, and would have probably bought a D90 or something.
Two functions I haven't figured out on the HX5V, is the smile detection system. It boggles my mind. I might actually need to read the manual for that one!
The dual-slot memory card reader is definitely a welcome addition! The battery is fairly decent with the GPS on. I got about 110 shots dropping only 1 bar. Of course that might not be completely accurate, but I will give it to the camera.
On that note actually, the GPS is very spot on for the most part. I imported all my photos into Aperture 3, and most of the shots are where it is suppose to be. Albeit, I don't think the GPS actually checks it location every single shot though since a lot of them have been lumped into one location. I haven't seen if the Compass works or not since I don't think Aperture takes that info out.
There was a review out....dcresource? Which had a comparison of the Pansonic ZS-7 I think, compared to the HX5V on the GPS side of things. And contrary to what the reviewer didn't like about the HX5V GPS system, I actually love it! It is really minimalist. It tells me if it has connected satelites, low connectivity or high connectivity. And really that is all I need from a camera! I don't need to pull up all the exact GPS coordinates. Does anyone really need to do that? Probably less than 10% of the population does....
Anyways, these are my intial impressions. I am in the process of uploading photos of the first day of photos to my gallery, so check them out and see if you see anything off or on about them.
Here are some samples for now: