Review: Simon

Hey all, it's Simon here.
I'm the last of the (X)ers in team number 5 to trial the HX20 cyber-shot camera.

Let me start off by saying thanks to Sony for an oppurtunity like this come along, for the second time - as I was privileged enough to be a part of the Tablet S trial last year (which resulted in me buying it!). I'm very grateful.

Now for my review.

I think it's worth noting that I did not do any prior research to this camera and this trial is the first experience I've had with it so I didn't have any high expectations for it or anything like that. With that in mind, I can already say that the camera is very easy to pick up and use straight away - great for novice photographers. The controls are simple and the wheel navigation is a nice touch.

First impressions were very good. I like how there's a grip for your thumb on the back. The interface is intuitive and easy to use. The camera even has a GPS for geo-tagging!

Another feature I found nifty was face detection that can even recognise blinks.

Onto my photos.. (Note that you can view the album in its entirety via my Facebook)

Unfortunately I didn't get to take too many as I was working over the weekend and hadn't gone out too much. But I did what I could and the results are quite impressive!

The auto-macro mode was perfect. It was able to focus on this flower in no time and resulted in this wonderful photo.

The colours are vibrant, and the photo was a true representation of what you could see with your own eyes.

In low light, the image is still decent. I like the orange tinge of the night sky, but of course you can change the way the photo is taken by choosing a different mode on the camera.

I started to mess around with 3D and panorama shots. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a 3DTV so I couldn't test that out, but I managed to get a panorama of a university computer lab. It's done with a continuous sweep of the camera in one direction, and the camera figures out the rest.

I am very impressed with the camera, even in the short time and little experience I had with it. The HX20 is great for casual photographers, but I bet the more seasoned photographers might like it as well.

Review: Lydia

Sony was nice enough to give me a go on the HX20. After receiving the camera I was able to discover the awesome capabilities of this camera. 

It allowed me to take shots with amazing focusing abilities and brought the best out of what I was shooting

It also had a automatic background de-focuser that worked incredibly well (this is one of my favourites!). I am prone to doing shots like this with my SLR and this camera was able to work at the same level.

There is another nifty feature that if first encountered 8 years ago when I first purchased a digital camera. I thought it was an amazing idea but it didn't really work that great on my ancient camera. Sony have brought this feature back to life and made it so simple. It makes only one colour appear in a photo and makes everything else grey scale. Perfect for making something great stand out even more, and Sony does this exceptionally well.

Another favourite was the spanning capabilities. 

This took advantage of great sunsets and spectacular sky's. It was a really simple process with little to fault.

This is an amazing digital camera that is really a step above the rest.

And because I can't resist one sneaky photo of my kitty cat.