Is Sony Cyber Shot Dsc H300 A Good Camera?

Sony’s Cyber-shot family of point-and-shoot cameras debuted in 1996. The DSC prefix stands for “Digital Still Camera”. The lenses used in many Cyber-shot cameras are Carl Zeiss branded lenses.

Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO Duo are Sony’s proprietary flash memory cards. Only a few models supported CompactFlash. Memory Stick PRO Duo, SD, SDHC, and SDXC are now supported.
Sony Ericsson utilized the Cyber-shot brand from 2006 to 2009.

Overview Of The Camera

Featuring a 50x optical zoom, 24-600mm equivalent focal length, a 20.4 megapixel back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor, Full HD video recording at 1920×1080 at 50p with stereo sound and HDMI output, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX300 is a new super-zoom camera.

In addition to fast autofocus, the Sony HX300 has a 3-inch tilting LCD screen with 921,000 dots, 10 frames per second burst mode at full resolution, ISO 100-12,800 range, improved optical SteadyShot with 3-way active mode, Intelligent Auto Plus mode, Superior Auto mode, program mode, full manual mode, a selection of Picture Effects, and support for Memory Stick PRO Duo and Secure Digital cards, among other things.

It costs £419.00 / $449.99 to purchase the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX300 in black.

Design And Features

Although the HX300’s lens is bigger, the camera’s body remains mostly identical to the HX200V’s, making it a huge and hefty camera, despite its plastic construction.

The bulk of the weight is concentrated in the lens, making the camera seem imbalanced. There is, however, enough lens and a well-designed right-hand grip to keep it stable.

Despite the fact that it doesn’t seem to have a lot of direct controls for settings, there are really quite a few. The barrel of the lens has a zoom control that may be used to make tiny zoom changes and to manually focus the lens.

It also has a customizable Custom button, which can be used for exposure lock, white balance/metering/Smile Shutter, Sony’s smile-activated shutter release on top of the shutter release, and zoom ring.

Picture Quality

A lot relies on your wants and expectations when it comes to photo quality. That said, you’d be disappointed if you bought this over a high-resolution digital SLR. Unsurprisingly, the camera’s images aren’t spectacular at full size, despite the sensor’s 20-megapixel capacity.

If you photograph in good light, there’s enough useful resolution. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX300 test shots. A 10×13 print is OK below ISO 400, but most people require larger prints.

It is also feasible to get a great 8×10 shot by expanding and cropping. Images from the HX300 look amazing on a PC or HDTV with slight cropping and enlargement.

Subjects become considerably softer at ISO 400, although photos are still useable up to ISO 1600 at tiny sizes. Handheld Twilight mode from Sony still provides some of the finest high-ISO photographs I’ve seen from a point-and-shoot in low-light situations.

But I wouldn’t use the two highest ISOs since they seem like artist representations with odd hues. A DSLR, the HX300 isn’t, but it does have a long lens and gives you more control over your shots than a typical point-and-shoot.

The HX300’s video matches its photography. Video recorded at the camera’s highest AVCHD resolution of 1080/60p looks beautiful and smooth when there is enough light. However, bigger screen sizes show slight trailing on moving things and juddering while rotating the camera.

It’s true that movies seem better in low light, but they’re still excellent. In calmer environments, you can hear the zoom lens moving. Unfortunately, you’re confined to the stereo mic on top for audio quality.

Shooting Performance

Overall, the HX300 is a quick camera. Like the picture quality, the performance isn’t SLR-like, but that’s to be expected from this type of camera. During that time, the camera must switch on, push the lens out, focus, and shoot.

In our testing, the HX300’s shutter lag is 0.2 seconds in good light and 0.4 seconds in low light. Shot-to-shot timings varied depending on the camera’s processing needs, but they seemed quick.
In our lab testing, the camera shot every 0.8 seconds.

Using a mode or high ISO level that needs additional processing might delay shooting for a few seconds. Using the flash increases the wait time to 3.8 seconds. Burst firing is also punishable.

Though the HX300 can shoot 10 frames per second at high definition, it takes around a second for each shot to save the photos.

There’s no option to shoot constantly with AF, so the initial shot sets focus and exposure. Also worth noticing is the zoom lens’ slow movement. That’s fine for movies that need more control. But while tracking a fast-moving topic, it might appear sluggish.

Conclusion

Unlike the Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR or Canon PowerShot SX50HS, the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX300 is more a point-and-shoot than a full-fledged bridge camera.

In terms of performance, the Sony is somewhat better than the Nikon, making it a better pick for casual photographers.

Additionally, the lens is longer.