Sony HX5 - personal log

Well the Olympus SZ-30MR proved again that technical data are just a guide line in the initial choice. I was very disappointed with the results an keep my HX5 happily for another year.

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I stumbled today over an Olympus SZ-30MR today sitting next to a Canon SX230 for the same price of 329 Euro. For that price I thought I give it a test run and compare it with a 10 MP Sony HX5V and a 5 MP Canon S2
more at: http://sz30mr.blogspot.com/


2011.5.15
I decided against buying a HX9V so this blog will be active again.

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You have noticed my new toy below and while before on a 1280x800 notebook screen or my ACER P1265 XGA projector the 720p HX5 videos looked gorgeous now with a 1920x1080 resolution on a 3m (120") screen I notice where the detail is missing. Comparing that with some 1080 p samples from the HX9V downloaded from You Tube, I look forward to the 1080 p 50fps mode with the better resolution and more fluid motion in the fast movements..

Epson EH-TW3200 shows a tour on the Malaguti Spidermax through our mountains captured by the Sony HX5

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I started a new blog about Home Cinema. If this might interest you, come and see me at:

Home Cinema: 25 years imax@home

Epson EH-TW3200

2011-2-27
This blog will come to an end, since I decided to replace my faithful Sony HX5 with the more advanced Sony HX9V.
The 16MP sensor combined with some clever image processing of the Bionz processor actually manage to improve the pictures in most situations.
So i will be seeing you at my HX9V blog then.

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I just realized that my first digital camera was not the Nikon Coolpix E950 (0.8 MP) from 2001 but I actually had one of the first digital cameras on the market 9 year earlier. It was a Canon ion RC-260 from 1991 with 0.26MP.
The pictures were awful and took forever to download via RS232. The whole experience was so bad that for digital pictures I had my films developt and then put on Kodak Photo CD.
Later on while touring the USA I had my films developt by Seattle Film Works who scanned the pictures and put them on a 3.5" floppy.

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If you are in the market for a new travel zoom camera, or want to check if the HX5 is still up to date, head over to my Sony HX9V insider blog where I compare all the new pocket super zoom cameras.

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Your GPS might not work right:
FAA warns of ongoing GPS issues in southeastern US due to Defense Department 'tests'

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My favorite quick and simple image viewer and manipulator Faststone just got better.
 Version 4.3 (January 14, 2011)
Added Clone Stamp and Healing Brush
Added "Auto-Adjust Colors" to Colors menu.
Added "Adjust Lighting" to lighten or darken shadows and highlights
Added "Adjust Levels"
Added "Adjust Curves"
Added USM (Unsharp Mask) option to Sharpen/Blur
Added Sketch and Oil Painting effects
Added outward-pointing tails to text objects in Draw Board
Now images in Slide Show Builder, Multi-page File Builder, Image Strip Builder and Email list can be drag-and-dropped to rearrange the order
Supported EPS format by displaying the preview image
Updated the RAW format library. Sony SR2 raw format is supported
Improved memory management to handle larger images
Other minor bug fixes and improvements

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The HX9V is the replacement of the HX5 with the new 1/2.3 type "Exmor R" CMOS sensor 16.8 million pixel - used pixels 16.2 million, a 16x zoom from 24 mm to 384 mm and a 0.1sec focus time.

Every thing else about the HX9V will be covered at her own blog http://hx9v.blogspot.com/.

The HX100v will replace the HX1, has the same features, more manual settings and a 30x zoom.

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The future of hybrid video recording.
With the new Intel Sandy Bridge processors 1080p will become the new standard. Sony already has new technology in the DSC-TX100V with 60fps 1080p. While the replacement of the former pocket zoom video resolution king HX5  goes the way towards mediocrecy with a reduced price and nothing exiting new. 
For me that means waiting until this technology hits the next gen of APS-C cameras before I might be tempted for something to step up from my HX1.


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HX7

  The DSC-HX7V will be available in black, white, red and blue this March for about $300. Features include:
Full HD 1080@60i with Dual Rec of stills and movies
Sony® G lens with 10x optical zoom in a compact camera body
Fast capture with up to 10fps at full 16.2-megapixel resolution; "Exmor R" CMOS sensor for exceptional low-light performance
3D Still Image and 3D Sweep Panorama modes change the way you view your world
GPS and Compass record shot location and direction

3-inch LCD display with 921,600 pixels

So between the DSC-HX9V (HX5 replacement) $350 and the DSC-H70 (H55 replacement) $230 there is now a third camera the DSC-HX7V $300
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Greetings from the island, and y´all  have a good year.
When I heard this contraption singing there´s a yellow rose in Texas I had to capture this, since I spend some winters down in Harlingen, TX.

P.S. my wind filter MK-F works like a charm. Even with the wind at the coast here the sound from the Santa 15 meters away is captured quite well.






The last days I took a closer look at the Sony A55 since she has a lot I want in a bigger camera. I read through all the reviews and looked a lot at pictures, panoramas, videos and learned a lot about sharpness, resolution and quality of lenses. Pew - that is a lot to digest.
To sum it up, the kit lens is not too good, if you want a nice zoom like 18-200, 18-250 or so there are lots of drawbacks in loss of sharpness at certain areas or loss of quality in certain settings etc. If you want to have a nice macro close up you better get a special lens and if you want to shoot videos keep the stabilizer off or shoot for less than 10 minutes.
The more I read the more I appreciate my HX5.
Always with me, no matter what I throw at her she can capture it.
From a super macro shot to 30 minutes video on a motorcycle with the best stabilizer there is.
From passing by a dirt race and stopping to snap some gorgeous shots at 10 frames per second to just mark a spot via GPS to locate it later on Google Earth.
From just snapping some street shots without looking at the display to capture the whole scene with the panorama function.

The important thing is, since the HX5 is always with me to capture the moment and so far has never let me down, in fact my HX1 is collecting dust and only gets grabbed when I need the 20x zoom.

I totally concur with PCWorld - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V: MacGyver's Pocket Megazoom


Doing some research on the rolling shutter problem (much less in the HX5) Google came up with this funny result I marked in yellow.

Finally took the time to go through my HX1 and HX5 video files.
Since we have some awesome scenery here on the island I love to shoot it while riding on the bike. Well my wife actually does the shooting while I do the driving. Comparing the same routes from the HX1 and the HX5 there is a HUGE difference. It is between getting motion sick and having a mostly pleasant recreation of the ride. Since my main medium to watch is a 120" (3 meter) diagonal projector screen it is like I am there. Sadly above 50 km/h the wind noise gets more prominent but in 2011 I will work on a deflector solution.
Back to compare the image stabilisation from the HX5, it is one of the best out there and the best of all pocket, superzooms or exchangeable lens cameras up to $2500. I can not compare to the best of the camcorders, since this is nothing I have.
The automatic mode for capturing video works satisfactory in most situations and after long testing of resolutions and quality I shoot 95% in 720p and recompress the files with HandBrake from 80% (high motion) up to 20% (low motion) of the original size with no visible difference (at least for my eyes).
For more info see my VICONCO blog.
Often when walking I just have my HX5 in the hand and forget about it.
The other day while doing so I smacked her backside across something hard and protruding. Normally that would have cost me a new display - but thanks to the armored backside (the super magic mirror) the metal caught the full impact what left a scratch on the metal but did no damage the mirror behind the metal. Best 5 Euro I ever spend!


As you noticed there is a new background image. I wanted to show the star of this HX5 blog and some of the highlights we had so far with her (wife calls my HX5 Ernie because of the wild hair on top, I have to check if Ernie is also a girl´s name).

Like taking a picture of the body painting model (forced flash HDR),
a fly super macro (2.4 x zoom 5 cm closeup with forced flash),
the panorama mode in action (AIDA and Gorch Fock in one picture),
a flea marked descendant of my first real computer (well the first one was actually the Sinclair ZX81 as a solder yourself kit but the second computer was a Sinclair Spectrum 48k with color, sound and some fun games like Manic Miner - leaving memory lane now)
and some more - also I could not help myself, had to include my first digital camera with a whopping 1.3 megapixel resolution.


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Sony HX5 metal or plastic?
For the real answer we need to take the HX5 apart.
The HX5 has a plastic body with a very thin metal cover as the front plate.
The thin metal cover is actually screwed and glued to the plastic front body.

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With the most tests of my waterproof Samsung WP10 I am through now, and the result is:
I am glad I got this nice camera, even if she behaves sometimes a bit odd and to be on the safe side I need to take several shots.

Samsung you just need to add a mechanical stabilisation and a few more controls and you can move her to a higher league.
In the low budget waterproof camera she is quite number 1 for me.

Now let´s see what else I can do with the HX5.

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I was just thinking, that with the price from 150€ all the pocket HD cameras (Flip Mino HD, Sony Bloggie, JVC Picsio, Kodak Zi8, Kodak Playsport Zx3, etc) are now obsolete. The 720p from the WP10 surpasses their full HD and we have a real 5 x zoom a good camera and are waterproof.
Way to eradicate a whole segment of low quality pocket cams Samsung, well done!



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The Samsung WP10 is an interesting little camera what makes astonishing good pictures. The next few days will occupy me in figuring out how to get the most out of her. For the 149 € she is a must have if you want to shoot in wet weather. After dpreview ranked the HX5 on the second place and the Samsung on the first in their travel zoom comparison (what I do not agree with but their Sony conclusion pointed out some flaws I have to agree with) it seems Samsung might be a brand to look into now. If you want to get an idea what the WP10 is capable of, visit us at:



So the next time we have weather like on that foto below again, my Sony´s will stay at home and I do not need to worry any more how to keep my camera dry and can get into the action.

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2 days my pc´s were blocked from accessing blogger. I could not open any blog site, could not check the status at http://status.blogger.com/ and it spread to most Wordpress blogs too. I tried several  browsers, computers, used other IP addresses via my modem stick - nothing worked.

In my home network all computers have fixed local IP addresses, except for my windows 7 pc (can´t get it to work there). The windows 7 pc had no login cookies for my blogs and could open the blogs.

When I put my other pc´s to automatic IP address the worked also with most blogspot blogs. Then I tried to log into this blog with my login data and that was when all pc´s stopped working with all blogspot pages.

I asked a friend of mine in the USA to check if he could access my blogs and he had no problem. Using a free proxy server all of blogspot blogs were access

2010-7-17 now that is interesting, somebody deleted the rest of this posting and it was not me!