Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 gallery

Support this site by price checking below


Support this site by price checking below
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8


Support this site by shopping via these links

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Landscape: 2.31MB, Program, 1/500, f5.6, ISO 100, 5.2-78mm at 5.2mm (equivalent to 31mm)

Norfolk Island landscape - Sony Cyber-Shot H9 at 5.2mm f5.6     This landscape shot was taken with the H9 zoomed-out to its widest angle and at a low sensitivity of 100 ISO.

The H9’s 31mm equivalent wide angle may not be as wide as the 28mm on some cameras, but it’s a lot wider in practice than those with an equivalent of 36mm.

The crops are pretty detailed, although there’s a lack of ultimate detail and evidence of some purple fringing in the corners.

     
   
     
   


Portrait: 1.96MB, Portrait preset, 1/1000, f5, ISO 100, 5.2-78mm at 16mm (equivalent to 95mm)

Portrait - Sony Cyber-Shot H9 at 16mm f5   This portrait shot was also taken at 100 ISO, but with the H9 zoomed-in to around the 3x mark.

We switched to the Portrait preset upon which the H9’s Face Detection kicked-in and tracked the person with ease.

The H9’s Portrait mode also sensibly opened the aperture in an attempt to throw the background out of focus, but for a greater effect you’ll need to step-back and zoom-in further.

     

Macro: 2.45MB, Program, 1/50, f3.2, ISO 250, 5.2-78mm at 9mm (equivalent to 54mm)

Macro - Sony Cyber-Shot H9 at 9mm f3.2   These fish were photographed using the H9’s macro mode which allows you to focus as close as 1cm – although here we were at a more comfortable distance and zoomed-into 2x.

Set to Auto ISO, the H9 selected a sensitivity of 250 ISO and while there’s an increase in noise and noise reduction, the crops still reveal a decent degree of detail.

     

Wildlife: 1.78MB, Program, 1/125, f4.5, ISO 400, 5.2-78mm at 78mm (equivalent to 465mm)

Norfolk Island wildlife - Sony Cyber-Shot H9 at 78mm f4.5   We’ve kept you waiting long enough, so here’s our first example of the H9 zoomed all the way into its 15x equivalent of 465mm.

This allowed us to grab a shot of a tiny Pacific Robin from a distance of around 8m.

The H9’s quick focusing grabbed the moment before the bird flew off, and the camera sensibly increased the ISO to 400 for the early evening light.

The focusing speed was impressive for a non-DSLR, but unfortunately the crops reveal significant smearing of detail through noise reduction, and this cannot be adjusted.

     

Landscape: 2.37MB, Program, 1/500, f5.6, ISO 100, 5.2-78mm at 78mm (equivalent to 465mm)

Norfolk Island landscape - Sony Cyber-Shot H9 at 78mm f5.6   Long focal lengths can be equally useful for landscape shots. Here’s another example with the H9 fully zoomed-in to 15x and its allowed us to fill the frame with this distant island.

The H9’s Super SteadyShot may not have been necessary at the shutter speed of 1/500, but it certainly made framing the shot much easier.

Despite the low 100 ISO sensitivity though, there’s still smearing of some detail, especially on the low contrast areas of the distant island.

     

Night: 2.00MB, Program, 1/2, f3.2, ISO 400, 5.2-78mm at 10mm (equivalent to 60mm)

Auckland night - Sony Cyber-Shot H9 at 10mm f3.2   This half-second night shot was taken with the H9 in Program mode and Auto ISO, with the camera resting on a ledge for balance.

The H9 had no difficulty focusing and the metering has done a great job, but at 400 ISO, there’s plenty of noise and noise reduction artefacts visible in the crops.

To see how a DSLR handles the same scene – and at 800 ISO – check our Nikon D40x Gallery.

     

Indoor: 1.97MB, Program, 1/80, f4, ISO 800, 5.2-78mm at 5.2mm (equivalent to 31mm)

Indoor - Sony Cyber-Shot H9 at 5.2mm f4   This indoor shot was taken with the H9 zoomed-out to wide angle and in Program mode with the sensitivity manually increased to 800 ISO.

At this higher sensitivity, the crops reveal a noticeable drop in quality with noise clearly visible.

High contrast areas in other parts of the image, such as white magazine headlines in the corners, also reveal some purple fringing.

     

Indoor: 2.63MB, Program, 1/20, f2.7, ISO 1600, 5.2-78mm at 5.2mm (equivalent to 31mm)

Indoor - Sony Cyber-Shot H9 at 5.2mm f2.7     For our final image here we increased the H9’s sensitivity to 1600 ISO. Low light in the room still required an exposure of 1/20, but the H9’s Super SteadyShot eliminated any camera shake.

Unsurprisingly at this sensitivity there’s a further drop in quality with noise seriously reducing detail.

To see how a DSLR handles this same scene at the same sensitivity, check our Nikon D40x Gallery.

     
   
     
   

The following images were taken with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9. The H9 was set to 8M JPEG mode with Auto White Balance, Balanced metering and the default D-R Contrast and Normal Colour modes.

The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High quality preset.

The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Featured Reviews

Feisol TT-15 Mark II mini tripod review

Fujifilm INSTAX mini Link 2 review

Sony A7 IV review

Buy Gordon a coffee to support cameralabs!

Like my reviews? Buy me a coffee!

More Camera Labs

Buyers’ Guide

Manufacturers

About Camera Labs

Follow Gordon Laing

All words, images, videos and layout, copyright 2005-2022 Gordon Laing. May not be used without permission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Website design by Coolgrey

X