First impressions of the Sony HX9V digital camera
This compact camera features 16x optical zoom and 1080p recording so it had to be worth investigating. it has sony's "G" glass so the optical specification should be good. It has things I love and things I don't like but its hard adapting after years of Panasonic cameras. The video mode is, well better than the panasonic TZ20 and the FZ100 cameras as they are only 1080i and the bit rate of the Sony is a full 28mbps so it beats the panasonic at 17Mbps and delivers this with great clarity. Stills mode is a little bit more restricted. You have only 2 apertures to work with and no Aperture or shutter priority modes. swept panoramas create a new dimension in wide angle photography - you can do landscape or portrait high resolution images. Image stabilisation is good and noise seems controlled upto iso 800 where Panasonic maxes out (for me) at iso 400. there is some scope for customisation of colour saturation, contrast and in camera sharpening as well as the usual film modes of standard, vibrant, realistic etc so there is plenty of options to create ideal profiles for different situations. Todays shots were all taken in very overcast lighting so the camera hasn't had a full dynamic lighting thrown at it. It does "blow" highlights very easily ( notice the white swan and geese) so it may be necessary to underexpose slightly and compensate in post edit. Audio seems good but no manual control or mike input but you would expect that on a travel zoom type of camera.
January 18th, 2012 - 06:18
I really enjoyed this series of vids for the HX9V. Keep up the good work!
January 18th, 2012 - 07:09
great video
January 18th, 2012 - 07:15
You can use Manual focus if you select one of the manual scene mode (eg landscape or portrait mode)
January 18th, 2012 - 08:03
@fishycomics Thanks for your comment
January 18th, 2012 - 08:39
Job well done.
January 18th, 2012 - 09:16
@ghough12 Thanks!
January 18th, 2012 - 09:56
@catascouts Yes for video certainly, the stills are just lacking that crispness given by other compact cameras like the TX20 and LX5 from Panasonic. I haven’t been able to find a way to rack focus with this camera. It has manual focus but it is not available in video recording mode.
January 18th, 2012 - 10:40
Do you recommend it? Can I do DOF while recording video? Can I unfocus and then refocus background in the scene while shooting? Thanks!
January 18th, 2012 - 10:59
@MikeLowell93 a border collie i think
January 18th, 2012 - 11:16
What kind if dog was that in the water?
January 18th, 2012 - 11:48
@Lheonnar Yes all from the HX9v, good video quality!
January 18th, 2012 - 12:00
those pictures were made with hx9v?if so no doubt i’m gonna buy one!thanks!
January 18th, 2012 - 12:35
@Kye2 dont try samsung, the worst company ever
January 18th, 2012 - 13:32
Man! Just when I was set on the Samsung st700, I see this and now I’m not so sure X_X
January 18th, 2012 - 13:37
stills and video look wonderful … is it the camera or the photographer?
January 18th, 2012 - 14:00
@AZOROJO Hello again, yes first impressions are very good for the video mode.
January 18th, 2012 - 14:35
@Roolooth99 The grand house is Astley Hall near Chorley in Lancashire. It’s quite impressive inside as well. I did a very quick comparison with the TZ20 in video mode and the HX9 seems to be holding more detail but it wasn’t scientific and I really didn’t set either camera up with any thought of doing such a test (yet!) There is more options with the TZ20 for manual shooting but the HX9 has the brilliant panorama sweep mode and if you hold the camera vertical you get a suoer wide 1280 image!
January 18th, 2012 - 15:02
Nice video with some great photos and video shots. Some of the video shots were fantastic quality. I know the lighting conditions on the day can make a big difference in results so it would be interesting to see comparison of this camera and another one used at the same time. Where is that nice looking grand house?
January 18th, 2012 - 15:55
spectacular, stunning, great video and photos.
January 18th, 2012 - 16:22
@N0Limbo Hi Herwig, yes the video is very good and the panorama sweep is excellent for creating wide angle views. It has some bad design ideas but overall, so far it is exciting me.
January 18th, 2012 - 16:33
A Great video, Graham. I really like this camera.
January 18th, 2012 - 17:09
@theTechLife Well for video the aperture is quite wide anyway ( around f3.3/4) so with slight telephoto you will get the background out of focus. At that point(4:15) I wanted to show the autofocus speed from one subject distance to another so the “focus pull” of the camera is about 2 seconds. You can switch to manual focus and control the rate of effect by using the jog wheel. Stay tuned for some crazy adaptors to expand on this acmeras capability.
January 18th, 2012 - 17:28
@ghough12 Okay, well I wanted to ask at least
January 18th, 2012 - 18:08
I will be ordering this camera tomorrow, partly from your recommendations from last week! Now I see you have bought one yourself! I noticed at 4:15 you seemed to have captured a DOF shot (is that what they are called?) how easy is it to get this effect considering it isn’t a DSLR?
January 18th, 2012 - 19:00
@orthusnet Well limited to the ability to change the EV level, white balance, and metering options and turn on either standard SteadyShot or the new Active Mode mode which provides greater stabilisation. With only 2 apertures available it’s going to be limited however it does seem to be able to handle it. I’ll keep on experimenting to see what it can do!