I bought this camera last Friday to replace a DSC-V1 which was sadly stolen from me a little while ago as I could find no V3 to replace it with. As such, I am effectively comparing the DSC-H1's performance with that of the V1 (also a 5.1 megapixel digicam, albeit built for a different clientele). I took several hundered pictures under varying conditions and with a number of settings and took the H1 back to the shop for a refund this morning.
From a functionality/usability perspective I personally appreciated four points in the H1 vs. the V1.
1) the very large zoom range,
2) the larger LCD display,
3) the burst shot mode and
4) standard rechargable batteries.
There are other differences but these are the ones I found useful.
Problems:
This section weighs in a little heavier. The first four issues are ones I consider to be real problems - in the sense that I do not believe them to be "works as designed". The last four I consider to be design shortcomings and therefore not really surprises (except perhaps for issue 7, referenced in the manual which most people probably don't read until after their purchase).
Here's why I returned the DSC-H1 to the store. In descending order of degree of personal annoyance:
1) The vast majority of the several hundred pictures I took with the H1 (99% with AF), were slightly out of focus - just enough to be annoying. This was true even in very sunny, high contrast situations, regardless of the AF mode and focus method selected, the focal length used, the sharpness setting and whether steady shot was active or not. Not sure whether this is down to a fair-to-middling lens or faulty camera logic. I did not try the digital zoom. At longer focal ranges I did steady the shots with a tripod or against walls, lamp posts, etc. so it's not down to camera jitter. Also, I took all pictures at the the camera's maximum 5.1 megapixel fine setting.
2) In a very large percentage of all shots, highlights were overexposed and (in the same shots!) lowlights were underexposed. This was true largely irrespective of the contrast setting (which I played around with in hopes of rectifying the issue), ISO (which I usually left on auto) and whether the flash fired or not. Photoshop's shadow/highlight adjustments helped here but it was still a major nuisance.
3) At the seams between high contrast areas, the color fringing is quite prominent and becomes really annoying when issue 2 above makes it necessary to pump up shadows and tune down highlights as this aggravates the situation.
4) Low light performance is not very convincing. Both chroma and luminance noise (again - compared with the V1) are quite noticable, especially at ISO 200 and above.
5) The upper ceiling of ISO 400 is very limiting for available light photography.
6) No night framing (let alone night shots - except for flash, see below).
7) The adaptor ring needed for the lens hood and converters blocks the flash and the illuminator light, producing a shadow when the flash is fired at wider angle settings.
8) No hot shoe - especially annoying in light of issue 7 above.
Sorry, Sony, but IMHO this is not one of your high lights.
I do however very much look forward to the DSC-R1 which, given the previews I have seen and the very considerable sums of money I have spent on Memory Sticks, I will be buying as soon as it hits the streets (and posting my opinion on here at dpreview.com).
From a functionality/usability perspective I personally appreciated four points in the H1 vs. the V1.
1) the very large zoom range,
2) the larger LCD display,
3) the burst shot mode and
4) standard rechargable batteries.
There are other differences but these are the ones I found useful.
Problems:
This section weighs in a little heavier. The first four issues are ones I consider to be real problems - in the sense that I do not believe them to be "works as designed". The last four I consider to be design shortcomings and therefore not really surprises (except perhaps for issue 7, referenced in the manual which most people probably don't read until after their purchase).
Here's why I returned the DSC-H1 to the store. In descending order of degree of personal annoyance:
1) The vast majority of the several hundred pictures I took with the H1 (99% with AF), were slightly out of focus - just enough to be annoying. This was true even in very sunny, high contrast situations, regardless of the AF mode and focus method selected, the focal length used, the sharpness setting and whether steady shot was active or not. Not sure whether this is down to a fair-to-middling lens or faulty camera logic. I did not try the digital zoom. At longer focal ranges I did steady the shots with a tripod or against walls, lamp posts, etc. so it's not down to camera jitter. Also, I took all pictures at the the camera's maximum 5.1 megapixel fine setting.
2) In a very large percentage of all shots, highlights were overexposed and (in the same shots!) lowlights were underexposed. This was true largely irrespective of the contrast setting (which I played around with in hopes of rectifying the issue), ISO (which I usually left on auto) and whether the flash fired or not. Photoshop's shadow/highlight adjustments helped here but it was still a major nuisance.
3) At the seams between high contrast areas, the color fringing is quite prominent and becomes really annoying when issue 2 above makes it necessary to pump up shadows and tune down highlights as this aggravates the situation.
4) Low light performance is not very convincing. Both chroma and luminance noise (again - compared with the V1) are quite noticable, especially at ISO 200 and above.
5) The upper ceiling of ISO 400 is very limiting for available light photography.
6) No night framing (let alone night shots - except for flash, see below).
7) The adaptor ring needed for the lens hood and converters blocks the flash and the illuminator light, producing a shadow when the flash is fired at wider angle settings.
8) No hot shoe - especially annoying in light of issue 7 above.
Sorry, Sony, but IMHO this is not one of your high lights.
I do however very much look forward to the DSC-R1 which, given the previews I have seen and the very considerable sums of money I have spent on Memory Sticks, I will be buying as soon as it hits the streets (and posting my opinion on here at dpreview.com).