A little about the Cyber-Shot DSC-H50B I just got. Mini Review.

[jack54]

I decided to get the Sony last Saturday.:thumbsup: I was picking between the Nikon P80 & Sony DSC-H50/B and after playing with both for over an hour, the Sony was clearly the better camera. Much sharper low light hand-held photo's and faster and crisper photo's. I like the remote for the Sony and the flip out LCD which Nikon has neither of. I never forgot when I first bought the sony DSC-H1. That was a great camera... I used it for 2 years.

My camera before this new Sony? The Canon S5is
which I just sold Saturday on craiglist. I tend to keep these cameras only 6 months at a time, then get the latest one out. The Sony H1 was the only camera I EVER kept longer than 6 months... it was that good. I thought I'd try the Canon S5is and it was a good camera, but I missed the Sony... so I got the latest one.

Once again I toyed with getting a DSLR, but it just doesn't justify the bulk and price, compared to these superzooms. Try packing around 3 lenses that will reach the 31 - 465 mm range that the DSC-50 has! With the loads of exposure control and a 15x stabilized optical zoom, this model is thousands of dollars cheaper than the equivalent options on a dSLR with an image stabilized lens. NOPE, no DSLR for me.

I was excited to get mine. Here is what to expect for those of you who plan to get one:

The BOX that I couldn't wait to open!!!


What you see when you first open the box:


What you see when you first open the box after taking the manual & software out:


Everthing out of box and srpead out. Lots'of goodies.


It's going to go well with my XPS notebook. I do a lot of on site photography at car shows:


My 3rd or 4th photo shown on LCD screen "crystal clear"!


This was the 3rd or 4th photo I took! Not bad at all. Resized for posting.




....the properites:

[susaan]

Hey jack54,
Agree with you,these Sony super zooms are amazing-I have the H-9,did you ever own one ?
-think yours is a step ot two up.
-Expect the entry DSLR s will get around to articulated screens,one day..when mine finally dies,will be replacing it.

[sutherland]

Nice Camera! I picked up the H50 about a week ago and it will be my primary shooter for upcoming trips (Yosemite, Next Week). I too, made several comparisons, the other major consideration was the Canon G9.

After using a W80, I've grown to love the PSP based interface and pleasantly surprised to see the expansion of this system within the H50. Side to side and head to head, I couldn't sell myself on the G9 (although I must admit, the camera has a sexy retro look), the H50 just offered so much more at a lower price point!

Look forward to seeing some more pics!

[jack54]

Some more shots with new camera!
Interesting shots of the same plane! I love those old engines!
Wifey posing...






right below the chrome prop hub:


Shooting into that highly polished prop hub!

[Anbesol]

Good job on the symmetry of the 2 plane shots. You should do a horizontal flip on the last shot so we can read the sony and cabelas logos.

[jack54]

Good job on the symmetry of the 2 plane shots. You should do a horizontal flip on the last shot so we can read the sony and cabelas logos.

DONE! Uhhh... why didn't I think of that?

[Photo-John]

That's a mini review? Looks pretty detailed to me. Just in case you don't know about our user review section, there's a Sony Cybershot H50 review page here:

Sony Cybershot DSC-H50 Uers Reviews >>

I hope you'll post a review there, too. It's cool to post here on the Sony forum. But for ratings, searchability, and to keep all H50 reviews in one place, it's best to use the review section. But you should definitely include a link to this thread in your review.

Thanks for sharing!

[jack54]

That's a mini review? Looks pretty detailed to me. Just in case you don't know about our user review section, there's a Sony Cybershot H50 review page here:

Sony Cybershot DSC-H50 Uers Reviews >>

I hope you'll post a review there, too. It's cool to post here on the Sony forum. But for ratings, searchability, and to keep all H50 reviews in one place, it's best to use the review section. But you should definitely include a link to this thread in your review.

Thanks for sharing!

Ok, I'll go over there and make a review soon.

Here are some more shots taken with this fantastic camera. My very first Rose bloom from outside. Same rose, different types of lighting, outdoor, indoors, all hand-held, only one with flash, resized for here. You couldn't hand hold a camera a couple years ago and get shots like these.

The ROSE inside with flash.


The ROSE outside in sunlight.


The ROSE inside with window light, no flash.


The ROSE inside with window light behind it, no flash.

[sutherland]

These look great! I just got back from my trip to Yosemite with my H50 and will post some pictures to this thread as well! I must say, one incredible camera!

[jack54]

These look great! I just got back from my trip to Yosemite with my H50 and will post some pictures to this thread as well! I must say, one incredible camera!

I'd love to see some of those photos! I'm sure others would too!

[Photo-John]

The second-to-last window light rose is beautiful. I have tons of roses right now. I always just shoot them on the bush. I really should try cutting some and bringing them indoors and shooting with controlled light.

Thanks again for sharing so much about your new camera!

[jack54]

I thought I'd add a little bit on how/why I picked the Sony H50.

First... it is the photographer that "makes/takes" the photo's and dictates how the photo's come out. All the camera is, is a 'tool' to acheive that.

That said, it is a matter of preference, so I'd suggest going down to Best Buy like I did and spend an hour trying the big three they have parked next to each other, the Sony H50, Canon S5is & Nikon P80. I spent over an hour there twice playing with all three. I'd pick out an object way accross the store and zoon in and take the picture with all three cameras and compare. Do the same taking a photo of a nearby camera, then try the macro out. Take some flash shots and non-flash shots. Trying shooting as fast as you can with all three cameras.

You get the idea! When I did that, for me the Sony was the easy winner.

I did notice that of the three, the Sony had the fastest shutter times between shots. That can be important. Also the Sony's photos were sharper with hand held no flash shots than the other two. The Flash shot recovery time is faster with the Sony too. However, the Canon has a flash shoe for adding a flash and that is a plus for Canon.

[jack54]

That's a mini review? Looks pretty detailed to me. Just in case you don't know about our user review section, there's a Sony Cybershot H50 review page here:

Sony Cybershot DSC-H50 Uers Reviews >>

I hope you'll post a review there, too. It's cool to post here on the Sony forum. But for ratings, searchability, and to keep all H50 reviews in one place, it's best to use the review section. But you should definitely include a link to this thread in your review.

Thanks for sharing!

I posted my review there. I hope it is acceptable.
http://www.photographyreview.com/cat...249916crx.aspx

[jack54]

Here is another outdoor, bright sunlight flower shot in my garden:
It is NOT macro, stead shot with my zoom at 45mm, F5, 1/500sec, 100 ISO, program mode resized to 800 pixel width with 20% compression.

[jack54]

Earlier in this post I had said one of the reasons I got this Sony DSC-H50 was that I liked the original H1 series so well. I have a habit of getting a new camera every 6 months, but this one I hung onto for over 2 years and the only reason I got the Canon was to try something new and I had dropped my H1 on the pavement, OUCH! I bought a few cameras while I had the H1 and ended up taking them all back, (except the canon) as the H1 was better made and did the job just fine. Here is a photo I took with that H1 and you will see what I mean.



The specs:

[sutherland]

Looks Great Jack! As promised, here is my H50 in action!
http://sutherland.vox.com/library/po...osemite-1.html

[jack54]

Looks Great Jack! As promised, here is my H50 in action!
http://sutherland.vox.com/library/po...osemite-1.html

Beautiful shots in a beautiful place! Say... on the "Rock, Down in Front" photo, did you use a polarizer to get that deep blue sky and extremely white clouds? I'm a heavy user of polarizer in outdoor shots.

[sutherland]

Nope! I did some post level adjustments as the lighting was changing constantly.

[jack54]

Nope! I did some post level adjustments as the lighting was changing constantly.

Please explain what you did... in camera adjustment and/or photoshop?

[jack54]

Here is what the Sony H50 is good at, the zoom range.
Mt. Rainier from Downtown Tacoma, WA

[jack54]

Here is a hand-held shot taken with available light in my living-room. This was unheard of a couple years ago.

[jack54]

Here is a variety of shots I took over the weekend with this great little camera!

[jack54]

Now let's see how good the Sony DCS-H50 zoom is!

Here are some comparisions so you can see just how much zoom the Sony H50 has!

All shots are HANDHELD! No tripod as I forgot it.

This was shot from the 14th Floor of my folks retirement condo. The yellow arrow is where the ships show up later. I had forgot to shoot wide then... just zoomed in.









I'm telling you folks... to get a DSLR zoom lens that goes that wide and then zooms that far out you have to buy two lenses and it would set you back a couple thousand at least and yet, they won't really get any better quality than this $400 camera!!! AND I don't have a backache from carrying around all those lenses and tripod.

[jack54]

Here is using the Scene/Fireworks mode... works pretty well.

This was shot from my bedroom balcony overlooking Tacoma, WA




This was shot from my backyard balcony.

[jack54]

Here is what I think anyone should get when they get the camera. (what I got at least) I tend to stay with SONY products that are made specifically for that model.

* Sony LCS-HB Soft Carrying Case: This is a matter of choice!

* Sony 2GB & 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo Media (one each) If you don't shoot that much, 2GB is enough.

* Sony NP-BG1 Type G Lithium Ion Rechargeable Battery Pack for Sony W Series. (If you shoot much at all, you WILL need an extra battery) Not cheap and I wish it was like the H1 that had the double AA batteries.

* Lens cleaning kits of your choice. (I buy 2-3 of them, because I'm finding that that LCD needs constant cleaning as it easily gets smudges & dust on it and I can't stand that.)

* Tripod of your choice for sure and a mono-pod. I use both. There will be times that hand-holding won't cut it, such as night shots etc.

Tip... I feel one should always have a circular polarizer, but not the one the camera maker is push as then you have to by the adapter and then your forced to buy the very large and expensive circular filter. On my last 5 cameras I have used the same 58mm circular polarizer filter. I simply hold it against the lense when I shoot. A tad bit of a hazzle but better than spending the $100+ for the above setup.

Later on I "may" buy a slave flash and the Tele-extender.