Travel Photography - Reviews on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V

Does anyone have reviews on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V? I am thinking about getting it to replace my current Canon G9. I want to find out reviews especially in image quality, video quality, sound quality in videos, and ease of use. Thanks :)

i would recommend you read the 1-3* reviews on amazon. most of the 4&5* reviews just bought the camera, and are just thrilled to death.

I don't have that specific camera, but I do have a small Sony and it is fantastic. My little Cybershot takes photos of fireworks better than any camera I have ever owned.

I have had mine since last August and it is my most used camera - I take it with me as my number one travel camera - light and I can carry it in my pocket. As I have back problems, I leave my DSLRs at home.

Video and sound are excellent. Picture quality is good and on par with other P&S - not pretty to pixel peep at 100% due to heavy noise reduction smearing but good enough for travel, especially at iso below 400.

I use the panoramas and stacked low light pic features frequently on my travels.

Easy to use. A tad slow on startup.

I have the 9V. I bought it after buying the 5V for my wife and having nothing but good experiences with it. She wanted something with less shutter-lag than the Nikon Coolpix I'd bought her a year or two earlier.

The only thing I can think of missing from the 9V might be time-lapse/animation and remote settings. Other than that, I *love* this camera. I wanted something that could fit in a shirt pocket (ok, it's a BIT bulky for that but I don't mind) and still have lots of optical zoom. I love the panorama settings (though they took a little bit of 'trial and error' to work properly) and someday might have a 3D display to test the 3D samples I tried.

With the larger capacity SD cards, I run out of battery long before I run out of space - and that's with the movies set at a full 1080p HD.

One knock? The GPS lock-on can take a while but I LOVE having the pictures geotagged.

I bought mine to replace a very old 5mp exilim for a trip to Yellowstone last summer.

As the above posters, I love it and now take far more photos than I used to.

Main pros for me;

Great image quality
V Good optical zoom
Panoramas are fantastic I had two blown up onto canvas and the detail is amazing.
3D Panoramas work really well, less impressed by standard 3D shots
Low light shooting is great
Great range of programs and settings
HD Video quality is, 'to me,' exceptional. Far better than any of the dedicated video cams I have used previously.
I was also happy with the price £239 including the £40 cashback offer from Sony (purchased July 2011) which came very quickly once i sent the paperwork.

Some cons

Lack of manual settings (Although for me this is not really an issue as the changeable settings are enough for me.)
Slow GPS lock on in a new destination, once it has locked it is pretty quick, until you move to a new area.

I was thinking of buying this one for my trip to US this summer. It has great reviews, and it's listed as number 1 on the recent CNET review list of this type cameras.

Anyone else would like to share their experience of HX9V?


I was also happy with the price £239 including the £40 cashback offer from Sony (purchased July 2011) which came very quickly once i sent the paperwork.


Where did you find this offer?