Got my HX5V yesterday. Below is a cardinal I shot this morning. This photo is substantially cropped and slightly tweaked in photoshop:
A few observations so far with the camera:
1) The beep is really LOUD. Even on low volume, it's annoying. Fortunately, it can be turned off. It will stay that way.
2) The grid lines are very useful for keeping shots level. You have to walk down a bunch of menus to find it, but I plan to leave this always on.
3) The manual frustratingly omits all technical information on what the special modes do. For example, what's the difference between anti-blur and twilight? They don't say. Many users of this forum have posted deductions on what's going on, but it would be nice if Sony had listed this in the manual. (or if someone can post a comprehensive answer.)
4)The Intelligent Auto mode has an advanced sub-mode selected from the menu. It adds additional options for what the camera may do, including the ability to take two shots of a scene using two different solutions if the lighting is difficult. This seems like a good thing, so I'm planning on leaving this always enabled for this mode.
5) EASY mode: Why does this exist? The (overly terse) manual implies it does the same thing as iAuto except with larger fonts. Seems this should have been a menu option rather than a dial position.
6) Software: The manual says the included PMB software can burn HD video to a DVD, but that you need a PS3 or Sony blu-ray player to play it. I own a PS3, so I'm looking forward to trying this out. One issue with shooting HD video is editing it down to a useable form and playing it back on your HDTV. This is a nice solution for the playback part of this if it works as advertised. BTW, PMB also says it will burn BD-R, so I'm puzzled why there's an option to load additional software to burn BD-R. Why would you need both? Anybody with a blu-ray burner tried this yet?
Final comments: Man, is this camera a lot of fun! I've still got a lot of experimenting to do with all the modes to see just what the camera can do, but so far it's a blast to play with.
A few observations so far with the camera:
1) The beep is really LOUD. Even on low volume, it's annoying. Fortunately, it can be turned off. It will stay that way.
2) The grid lines are very useful for keeping shots level. You have to walk down a bunch of menus to find it, but I plan to leave this always on.
3) The manual frustratingly omits all technical information on what the special modes do. For example, what's the difference between anti-blur and twilight? They don't say. Many users of this forum have posted deductions on what's going on, but it would be nice if Sony had listed this in the manual. (or if someone can post a comprehensive answer.)
4)The Intelligent Auto mode has an advanced sub-mode selected from the menu. It adds additional options for what the camera may do, including the ability to take two shots of a scene using two different solutions if the lighting is difficult. This seems like a good thing, so I'm planning on leaving this always enabled for this mode.
5) EASY mode: Why does this exist? The (overly terse) manual implies it does the same thing as iAuto except with larger fonts. Seems this should have been a menu option rather than a dial position.
6) Software: The manual says the included PMB software can burn HD video to a DVD, but that you need a PS3 or Sony blu-ray player to play it. I own a PS3, so I'm looking forward to trying this out. One issue with shooting HD video is editing it down to a useable form and playing it back on your HDTV. This is a nice solution for the playback part of this if it works as advertised. BTW, PMB also says it will burn BD-R, so I'm puzzled why there's an option to load additional software to burn BD-R. Why would you need both? Anybody with a blu-ray burner tried this yet?
Final comments: Man, is this camera a lot of fun! I've still got a lot of experimenting to do with all the modes to see just what the camera can do, but so far it's a blast to play with.
