So, is the HX5 still the Sony P&S to get? Update please.

davemj98 said:

Figures, they just announced the upgrade at CES.

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a real upgrade remains to be seen it offers more MP ..yes thats a upgrade for me a upgrade is better image quality in all kind of circumstances.

more manual control over shooting parameters ect.

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All my Post Processing is done with Capture NX2

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

That garden snowscape photo looks fantastic! I see no evidence of the noise suppression that I sometimes see in my photos. Maybe it's true that the modes have different NR settings. I always shoot in P or M mode, which may be a mistake when taking landscape photos.

Here's one straight out of the camera, which has a "haziness" to it (possibly due to overexposure, or high humidity?) and a lack of apparent detail in the background, and one with edited contrast, sharpness, and saturation:

5

I haven't used a P&S since my Coolpix 995 like 7 years ago, but the quality on our new HX5 surprises me. This taken with HDR mode.

It shows the image twice, is there a way to avoid that?

I'm very impressed with the sharpness of that photo of the cat. Do you remember which size you used for that shot? Was it the full 10 megapixels? Did you do any post-processing?

I think your photos are showing twice because there's one link from flickr and one from dpreview. Deleting one of the two of them should prevent that. I'll delete the flickr one:

VarmintCong said:

I haven't used a P&S since my Coolpix 995 like 7 years ago, but the quality on our new HX5 surprises me. This taken with HDR mode.

It shows the image twice, is there a way to avoid that?

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Thanks, you're right - though I can't edit the post anymore.

It was the full 10 MP, and I just resized in capture NX2 - I did adjust the levels slightly but it didn't really affect the image. No unsharp mask or any sharpening, it doesn't seem to need it - guess the camera does a lot of in-camera sharpening.

Ollie_P said:

I'm very impressed with the sharpness of that photo of the cat. Do you remember which size you used for that shot? Was it the full 10 megapixels? Did you do any post-processing?

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Hmm. Maybe resizing the image added that much sharpness. Or maybe it was the use of the flash (which I never use). However you did it, you restored my confidence that this camera can take sharp photos! Thanks!

There was no flash - and the original is just as sharp if you just open it in Windows preview - the Capture NX2 doesn't do any sharpening when you resize.

It was HDR mode, and I was close to the subject, about a foot.

I had the HX5 for 14 days last summer. I ended up returning it because of the bad video recording sound quality.

Of cause I took a lot of photos with. And if I was in perfect sunlight outside, and I was lucky holding my hand very still, the cam could take some impressive photos. But I was often let down because of - soft photos, noisy ISO1600/3200 photos using modes or just photos that wasn't sharp but a little blurred. Most of my photos were hand held, and I often has to take more photos of the same thing, to be sure to get a really good photo.

What I want to say it, that I think many of those posted photos here on the forum is post processed in some why, to remove noise and improve sharpness. But I also know, that many photos here are that good out of the cam. I'm just saying, that I really doubt some of all those shiny, noise free HX5 photos here, even though people says that they are post untouched

Sometimes I've even thought, that Sony's own employees takes part trying to sell some extra cams

I could be mistaken. But I've seen tons of fantastic photos from the HX5. So impressive that I asked myself more times, what did I do wrong, nothing. My cam just couldn't do the same as others HX5.

-------
Moef

A lot of it is technique - I've got plenty of less sharp photos I could post. The cat photo I took is the sharpest to date - he was well lit by early morning sunlight, shot from only 1 foot away, zoomed in a bit (I think the camera is sharper zoomed in a little). And HDR mode, which may not help sharpness but helps the colors. Gotta have steady hands too.

Other people may be posting tripod shots too, which always look sharper than handheld.

I'm a long time Canon P&S shooter (SX 110IS and A570IS), and have ordered
the Sony HX5V. The Sony apparently senses when the camera is on
a tripod, and turns off image stabilization automatically. That eliminates
one step which is necessary, and often forgotten by me, with my Canons.

Canon hasn't included GPS in any of its P&S cameras, and GPS is important
to me because when other people view my shots they will know where

the pictures were taken, even if I'm not there to tell them(assuming I remember).

So Canon has some catching up to do, and I'm tired of waiting.

Bruce Dunkle

VarmintCong said:

Other people may be posting tripod shots too, which always look sharper than handheld.

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--
Bruce Dunkle

Bruce Dunkle said:

I'm a long time Canon P&S shooter (SX 110IS and A570IS), and have ordered
the Sony HX5V. The Sony apparently senses when the camera is on
a tripod, and turns off image stabilization automatically. That eliminates
one step which is necessary, and often forgotten by me, with my Canons.

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Yes, it does detect when you're using a tripod in iAuto mode. It brings down the ISO to 125 and greatly slows the shutter speed, at the very least.

Bruce Dunkle said:

Canon hasn't included GPS in any of its P&S cameras, and GPS is important
to me because when other people view my shots they will know where

the pictures were taken, even if I'm not there to tell them(assuming I remember).

Click to expand...

When you're on vacation or in an unknown area taking photos, it's great to know that later you'll be able to see exactly where you took each shot (and even which direction you were facing). If you upload your photos to Panoramio, they'll be reviewed and some will likely end up in Google Earth.

Bruce Dunkle said:

So Canon has some catching up to do, and I'm tired of waiting.

Bruce Dunkle

Bruce Dunkle said:

Other people may be posting tripod shots too, which always look sharper than handheld.

Click to expand...

--
Bruce Dunkle

Click to expand...

Ollie_P said:

When you're on vacation or in an unknown area taking photos, it's great to know that later you'll be able to see exactly where you took each shot (and even which direction you were facing). If you upload your photos to Panoramio, they'll be reviewed and some will likely end up in Google Earth.

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Or rather where you were when the camera was last switched on long enough to gain a fix on the satellites...

It is a little frustrating when you get home only to find locations stored against photos that are way out of date. Don't get me wrong, I think the HX5V is a great little camera and I'm glad it has GPS. But very often I want to take the camera out of my pocket, switch it on, grab the shot (without attracting too much attention), and then turn it off and put it back out of sight... [Just to explain, I use it as the backup to my Sony A55 SLR, mainly when I want to keep that out of sight and not attract unwanted attention with an expensive looking camera]

It would be good to have the option of the GPS periodically updating itself while the camera was turned off. The A55 does this continuously which is a big drain on the battery. But there must be some middle ground...

It takes (on average, in my town) 17 seconds to get a GPS fix when the GPS feature is turned on in the menus. Perhaps it takes this long, also, when GPS is on but the camera is off and then you turn the camera on. (Grammatical brilliance there, for sure.) It's not been an issue for me, because I only use the GPS feature when I'm on vacation taking photos of the scenery and such. I leave the GPS off when doing street photography. But yes, ideally there should be an option for it to update even when the camera is off.

AntonyJ said:

Ollie_P said:

When you're on vacation or in an unknown area taking photos, it's great to know that later you'll be able to see exactly where you took each shot (and even which direction you were facing). If you upload your photos to Panoramio, they'll be reviewed and some will likely end up in Google Earth.

Click to expand...

Or rather where you were when the camera was last switched on long enough to gain a fix on the satellites...

It is a little frustrating when you get home only to find locations stored against photos that are way out of date. Don't get me wrong, I think the HX5V is a great little camera and I'm glad it has GPS. But very often I want to take the camera out of my pocket, switch it on, grab the shot (without attracting too much attention), and then turn it off and put it back out of sight... [Just to explain, I use it as the backup to my Sony A55 SLR, mainly when I want to keep that out of sight and not attract unwanted attention with an expensive looking camera]

It would be good to have the option of the GPS periodically updating itself while the camera was turned off. The A55 does this continuously which is a big drain on the battery. But there must be some middle ground...

Click to expand...

Is GPS data automatically embedded in the image, so if you post an image people can see where it was taken? I have mine disabled cause I wasn't sure.

I own a HX5V and the S95. Even though the S95 takes really nice pictures in RAW, I found myself using the Sony more on my vacations. My GF would get mad at me when I take it from her. I just love the features and the video mode. Also the 25mm is a huge difference from the 28mm on the Canon. Got more wider shots and of course able to zoom in at 10x optical in video and shot mode.

Now the HX9V is coming out next month with a 24mm and a 16x optical zoom! I think its worth waiting to see the reviews on this camera. I am going to sell the S95 to get this new Sony.

Yes. If the GPS feature is turned on, latitude, longitude, and altitude will be embedded in the EXIF data. If it's off, no GPS data will be included in the EXIF.

VarmintCong said:

Is GPS data automatically embedded in the image, so if you post an image people can see where it was taken? I have mine disabled cause I wasn't sure.

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Why would any photographer examine his/her pictures at pixel level?!!

Only crime scene photographers would need to pixel peep for post examination but for the rest of us, we want to see the big picture in vivid and vibrant color..imagine examining the work of Van Gough using a magnifying glass, it will look like crap..!

People take pictures to capture the moment and if the pictures are excellent at normal print sizes then they pass the image quality test!

I bought the HX5 four days ago and took more than 200 pictures and I am just amazed how good the image quality in terms of color and sharpness. My other camera is Nikon D7000 which is superb in every aspect but I just can't carry it around as much as this small wonder of a camera. Kudos to Sony for cramping so many features and innovations in such a small package.
Stop pixel peeping folks and enjoy photography !

I couldn't agree more! I think our hd monitors have shaped opinions on camera performance more than many people realize. Back with CRT monitors--pictures looked much better--well actually they didn't look better--you just couldn't see all the tiny imperfections.
As far as portability goes--I love my TX-1--it goes everywhere with me.
--
Paul N12
A500,SX30,TX1,A200,H20,FZ18,F30,c8080

The arrival of the HX9V will push down the price of the HX5V.

Once below $275, it's a pretty safe bet that you'll get your money's worth for a P&S.

If you don't mind paying more, or an extra wait, maybe the HX9V is suitable. However, I vaguely fear that its changes don't add much, and that the still photo IQ will still be about the same, if not worse. A hands-on review could do no harm.

My main beef about the HX5V is that its sensor has become a magnet for dust, whether drawn in through the lens seams from pocket lint, or arising from internal decomposition. I'll need to do a third cleaning (DIY, no guide) before I take it on any important outing. The blotches are back and appear in any zoom shot against a bright background. Sometimes a thwack with the hand works, but now it looks like I'll need to unscrew the thing, pull it half apart, and use some clean lens tissue. Another solution might be to buy an HX9V, which might serve 6 months until dust gloms on its sensor too. The HX100 might be different, though, since my H1 has been on many a dustry adventure and never shown any dust.

HX5 is down to $250 at Amazon, fyi.