Sony's CyberShot DSC-HX1 camera gets official, coming March for $500
By Ross Miller 
posted Mar 2nd 2009 8:51PM
posted Mar 2nd 2009 8:51PM
Sony has finally shown its cards for PMA this year, and that Ten of Clubs up its sleeve looks to be the CyberShot DSC-HX1 we heard about last week. According to the presser, it's the company's first digital camera with sweep panorama technology for up to 224-degree horizontal and 154-degree vertical panorama shots with the push of a button. It's also sporting a 20x optical zoom, 1/2.4-inch Exmor CMOS sensor for 10 frames per second at 9.1 megapixel resolution, a Sony G lens and 1080p HD movie recording. Look for it this March for around five Benjamins.
1080p !? thats crazy, than again i havent read engadget in like a month so that might be standard these days.
Sony 'G' Lens? What happened to their use of Carl Zeiss optics? I was honestly hoping for something along the lines of a replacement for the R1...
Looks to me like they are scraping of the H series after running out of all single digit numbers and now taking H into the HX series.
The form factor is a certainly a good indicator
Now that they have a strong interest in the dSLR market, I doubt there will ever be a successor to the R1.
The Sony Lens G is basically a highest-end (Konica) Minolta design. Remember that Sony acquired KM's camera business and technology a while back and with it these lenses.
These lenses should be equivalent to the previous Carl Zeiss glass produced by Sony for the H50 and older models. Plus, at least for Sony, they don't need to pay royalties to CZ for use of their name or tech. It seems that all new top-end cameras and camcorders for 2009 are using "G" lenses instead of CZ lenses (HVR-Z5/HDR-FX1000, HDR-XR520/500, and now this model).
From Dyxum.com http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/lens_glossary.asp :
G – Minolta; Sony,
stands for Gold and is supposed to describe lenses of the highest quality. It's a marketing mark that Minolta introduced at the same time as RS lenses.
Minolta is describing G-series lenses as:
"G-series lenses are Minolta's high-performance class optics. They have the best specifications, feature special advanced technology, and offer the best image quality of all Minolta lenses. G-series lenses are designed to meet the high expectations of the most demanding professional. The quality of the image they produce is among the finest in the industry."
GPS anyone? I would think this would be standard these days... ya know since Apple has made iPhoto perfect for it. duh.
Right, and Apple defines the standards for digital cameras.
Zoom doesn't matter 99 percent of the time. It's the wide end that's important, and this one comes in at a decent 28mm equivalent.
Will it have an interval timer for time lapse? That's gotta be one of the simplest features to add, but only Nikon has done it. Come on, vendors.
Word up to that. I'm holding for a decent priced dSLR with intervelometer and 1080p video and on a good sale. Looks like I may get my wish within the year.
The phrase you forget to mention is "to me", as in, does not matter "to me" 99% of the time. Looking at how well superzooms sell, the zoom amount does matter to quite a few people. To me, the more zoom the better, since with a P&S, you can't rip out the lens and change it, so the included lens had better be able to do the whole shebang. Your fetish is really wideangle? Then why bother with P&S's, which max out at 24mm, when you can get 16mm equivalent wide on DSLRs?
Only Nikon has that fancy timer stuff? My years-and-years-old Canon S1IS has an intervalometer. Perhaps it's actually a Nikon?
As for the HX1 itself, it's got a lot of nice features (movies, zoom), but it's nearly as big as a DSLR, and it's a Sony, so that means lame-o memory sticks, which are only one step above the king of lameness, xD cards, and you pay for Sony marketing, hence the bloated price. I'll hold judgment on what the CMOS sensor can do until actual reviews/samples come out.
"The phrase you forget to mention is "to me", as in, does not matter "to me" 99% of the time."
No, that was deliberate. If you take all consumers of cameras with non-interchangeable lenses, I'd bet that 99% of the time the zoom is not the important factor but wide angle is. Now, this camera definitely appeals to a more serious user than most P&S cameras, so if you're saying that buyers of this camera are more likely to actually use zoom then I'd agree.
"Looking at how well superzooms sell, the zoom amount does matter to quite a few people."
Not really. It's what's shoved down their throats by marketing hacks and what they buy because they don't know any better. Kind of like glossy screens on laptop computers. They will then use their camera most of the time in close quarters, trying to get that group shot of their friends at a restaurant or on a boat, and the result will suck because the widest angle is 38mm equivalent. Based on sales, you'd come to the conclusion that the vast majority of people are putting tiny Canon cameras on tripods and shooting bird-watching photos or sporting events. Doubtful.
"Only Nikon has that fancy timer stuff? My years-and-years-old Canon S1IS has an intervalometer. Perhaps it's actually a Nikon?"
Look at your statement: "My years-and-years-old Canon S1IS has an intervalometer." Right. Years and years old. Would you like to point out a current Canon that has an intervalometer? If there is even one, it doesn't make up for the fact that this simple feature is missing from pretty much their entire product line from top to bottom.
I wish we'd see something like the micro 4/3 retro concept floated by Olympus a while back...
Truly, if wide was indeed the holy grail, a must-have, the end-all, then why do zooms even exist? Why do SLRs have expensive zooms and superzooms that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars? Because, they serve a purpose. Because, not all people tend to take pics in small, enclosed spaces (doubtful). Hey, I've owned the gamut of digicams, from the idiotic 1 megapixel first-gens, to the mega-mega pixel DSLRs. And I love my zooms, and actually have rarely found myself wanting anything wider than 28mm. I've wanted more tele lots of times. But that's me, and you are you, and saying that your opinion is the opinion as the unwashed masses simply because you know better is pure arrogance. What, you mean that nearly all the pics you've taken have been group photos of your friends?
Yep, but what you first stated was "but only Nikon has done it." So my point is still valid, stick to what you say, don't change it. I didn't say that my current Canon has it, I said that it's been done before, by people other than Nikon, since you imply that only Nikon has ever done it.
You have a reading-comprehension problem. You're talking about SLRs, when I clearly said, "If you take all consumers of cameras with non-interchangeable lenses..."
Non-interchangeable lenses. Point-and-shoots. Cameras that aren't typically used by serious or even ambitious photographers, but rather slipped into a purse and pulled out at restaurants or other social events. I also conceded that zoom on THIS camera in the article was somewhat more likely to be used, since it's larger and better than the typical point-&-shoot.
And finally, you're truly grasping with your "point" about intervalometers. Only Nikon has made that feature available to the public IN THEIR CURRENT LINEUP, as far as I know. Who gives a crap if Canon had it years ago on a long-discontinued model? The point you should have made is how clueless they are for REMOVING it.
Why not spend more time letting manufacturers know that we want better products, instead of haranguing other enthusiasts for doing so?
way to costly
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/21649/sony-cybershot-hx1/
I hope Sony will release a high-end P&S with less Zoom and high Wide Angle on a compact body
Just like the LX3. More powerful than the LX3. :D
thats the h20
does it say anywhere if filters can be screwed on to the lens? doesn't appear so, which is a bit of a shame. but otherwise this camera does sound nice, especially that video rec.
Got it a few weeks ago and really upset about the image quality. Suffers badly from grainy images especially in artificial lighting and the sweep panorama feature takes a bit of time to get used to [either too slow or too fast] As for it's zoom it is quite good but I would not suggest buying this, I would go for the Canon / Panasonic equivalent any day or even better an entry level dslr.