Sony cyber

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 is an affordable super-zoom camera, offering a 63x, 24.5-1550mm zoom lens, 20.1 megapixel Super HAD CCD sensor, 720p HD video clip recording with stereo sound, and Sweep Panoramas. Other key features of the Sony H400 include a 3 inch LCD screen, electronic viewfinder, ISO range of 80-6400, Optical SteadyShot with Active Mode which cuts camera-shake while you"re shooting handheld HD video, Intelligent Auto, Program and full Manual shooting modes, a range of Picture Effects, tư vấn for both Memory Stick PRO Duo và Secure Digital cards, and a lithium-ion battery. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 is available in black for £250 / $299.

Bạn đang xem: Sony cyber


Ease of Use

Sony"s new Cyber-shot DSC-H400 is styled very much lượt thích an entry-level DSLR camera, complete with a viewfinder và mock-pentaprism housing on top. It"s definitely a camera lớn be worn around the neck, slung over a shoulder - with a strap provided for both purposes - or tucked away in a suitable bag. The generous rubberized handgrip is large enough lớn squeeze three fingers comfortably around và usefully has indentations for your vị trí cao nhất two fingers, và when loaded with the supplied lithium-ion battery và an SD or Memory Stick Pro Duo card, it weighs 655g, which although on the heavy side for a modern bridge camera helps to provide a steadier hold when shooting towards the telephoto kết thúc of the zoom. Lớn further help prevent blurred shots in such circumstances & in low light, Sony has also provided optical "SteadyShot" image stabilization.

The build và finish is of good quality, with the all-black matt finish lớn the body toàn thân and various DSLR-like dials and controls on initial inspection lending it an impression of being a "serious" enthusiasts" model. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400"s relatively compact form size also means that locating the right control is never a stretch for forefinger or thumb. Most of the features you want to lớn access are literally at your fingertip, which of course makes for speedier overall operation. Overall dimensions are 129.6mm x 95.0mm x 122.3mm, not bad for a camera with a 63x zoom!

The front of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 is dominated by that huge Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens, here boasting a maximum aperture of f/3.4 & a focal range the equivalent of an ultra-wide angle 24.5mm to lớn a super-telephoto 1550mm in 35mm film terms, providing more than enough reach for those paparazzi style candid portraits at full zoom, as well as landscapes và group portraits at the wider end. It does seem that zoom length has replaced the number of megapixels in the race to be the "best", at least for bridge cameras, although in our view trying to lớn keep the camera steady enough to take a sharp picture at such long focal lengths is almost impossible when hand-holding the camera, and tricky even when mounting it ona tripod. We also get an AF assist/self time lamp porthole top left of the lens when viewing the camera front on.

The vị trí cao nhất plate of the camera extends the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400"s sophisticated look & feel, with a chunky stereo microphone sitting just behind the otherwise hidden pop-up flash. Khổng lồ the right of this, when looking down at the camera as you grip it in both hands, is the narrow lozenge shaped on/off button, with an embedded lamp that glows green when the camera is switched on, or orange if the battery is low và the unit is being recharged. Incidentally we don"t get a separate mains charger here. Instead there"s a mains lead, adapter & plug, meaning that the lithium ion pack is charged in-camera. When your battery is down, so therefore is the camera, so it"s a good idea to lớn invest in at least one spare battery.

*
*
FrontRear

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 takes just over one second lớn power up, the lens extending a little beyond its protective housing to lớn arrive at maximum 24.5mm wideangle setting while the image on the rear LCD pops into life. While a little slower than an actual DSLR, that"s very respectable for this class of bridge camera.

The DSC-H400 is commendably swift lớn determine focus and exposure at the wider focal lengths, with the AF point/s highlighted in green on screen almost the instant your finger presses down on the shutter release button và finds the half-way point. It"s a different story at full telephoto, however, where it takes at least a few seconds for the camera to lớn lock focus, so don"t expect to lớn be able lớn track fast-moving animals or the like. Press down fully to take the shot và a full resolution trăng tròn megapixel JPEG is committed to removable media card in just over three seconds.

Keep a forefinger on the zoom lever that encircles the shutter release button & the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 powers through its 63x optical zoom range from wide angle to telephoto in about eight seconds. Continue holding down the lever & it will continue zooming digitally to lớn a 126x equivalent setting (if Digital Zoom is enabled và set to lớn Precision in the menu). If this option is taken the camera deploys the fantastically named pixel Super Resolution giải pháp công nghệ that automatically enhances imagery lớn avoid the usual blocky appearance of conventional digital zooms.

Next khổng lồ the power button is a raised, ridged-edged shooting mode button with an kích hoạt that is isn"t quite stiff enough khổng lồ prevent the user accidentally slipping from one setting to lớn the next in the thick of it. There are 8 options on this dial. We get the creative options of program, aperture-priority, shutter-priority and manual mode settings, plus Sony"s now ubiquitous Sweep Panorama function, whereby the user pans through an arc as directed by the on-screen arrows - the resulting elongated shot automatically stitched together in camera. It"s both very effective & very easy khổng lồ use.

*
*
FrontSide

Also on the dial is a dedicated High Definition đoạn clip mode for up khổng lồ 720p 1280x720 px clips at 30fps (Fine or Standard quality), but no 1080p/i mode. There"s a dedicated đoạn clip record button on the rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400, or you can choose the đoạn phim mode on the shooting mode dial và then press the shutter button to begin recording. A press of menu when in video mode summons up a variety of options for adjusting the video clip resolution and frame rate, và also switch from intelligent tự động video recording to lớn applying picture effects, as we more usually can with stills photography. There"s also the ability lớn set exposure compensation & white balance. Another bonus is that full use of the optical zoom is provided in movie mode, as is automatic focus adjustment if you alter framing or swap subjects mid-sequence.

Scene modes are up next and there are 11 user selectable options on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400, covering everything from the usual portraits to shooting landscapes by night và even handheld; pet, beach, snow and fireworks mode round out the more usual suspects. Rounding off the shooting mode options is the scene and subject recognizing & thereby automatically adjusting Intelligent auto mode.

With the shutter release button & the zoom lever that encircles it comfortably sloping forward at the top of the handgrip, the last control on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400"s minimalist top plate is the Finder/Monitor button for switching between the EVF và the rear LCD screen. The EVF is unfortunately tiny and of low-resolution - it"s so poor that we only used it at the very long focal lengths as a neccessary means of trying khổng lồ steady the camera, or in very bright sunlight when we struggled to lớn see the rear LCD screen. There is also a very stiff & imprecise dioptre control for glasses wearers.

The rear of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 is dominated by the 3-inch, 460k dot resolution LCD screen. In terms of controls the back of the camera looks slightly sparse mainly due to lớn the small dimensions of the actual buttons, though in fact most of the essentials are here. A dedicated movie record button sits to the top- right of the LCD screen, alongside the textured và generously-sized thumb-grip.

*
*
Memory card SlotBattery Compartment

Beneath is the thực đơn button, a press of which summons a toolbar. This appears ranged lớn the left hand side of the screen. It"s here that we have access to most of the camera"s shooting and cài đặt options - surprisingly missing a function reset button but otherwise offering all the regulars - & the in-camera help guide for beginners.

A familiar four-way control pad at the bottom right of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400"s backplate features options for controlling the rear display, flash settings (with red eye reduction turned on or off via the menu screens), exposure compensation, and the self timer (two or 10 seconds). Completing the rear of the DSC-H400 are the self-explanatory Playback và Delete buttons.

On either flank of the camera is a metal lug for attaching the provided shoulder strap, while on the left hand flank there is a flip-open door protecting the camera"s AV Out / USB port. Incidentally battery life of the lithium-ion cell inserted in the base of the handgrip is around 300 shots. Finally a metal screw thread is located dead centre of the camera"s base plate.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this đánh giá were taken using the đôi mươi megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image form size of around 5Mb.

Xem thêm: Bình Giữ Nhiệt Zojirushi 1000Ml, Bình Giữ Nhiệt Zojirushi Sj

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 produced images of fairly good chất lượng during the review period. It didn"t handle noise that well, becoming all too obvious at ISO 400, & then becoming progressively worse at the faster settings of ISO 800 & 1600, và finally the unusable ISO 3200 setting.

Chromatic aberrations were in evidence but were well-controlled, with some limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The 20 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the mặc định sharpen setting and require some further sharpening in an application lượt thích Adobe Photoshop, or you can increase the in-camera sharpening level.

Macro performance is excellent only allowing you to lớn focus as close as 1cm away from the subject. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye và adequate overall exposure. The maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds allows the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.

The DRO feature dramatically increases the detail in the shadow và highlight areas, there"s a handful of creative Picture Effects on offer, while the Sweep Panorama mode makes it simple to lớn take wide-vista shots.

Noise

There are 7 ISO settings available on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 80 (100% Crop)

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

*
*
  

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

*
*
  

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

*
*
  

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

 
*
 

Focal Range

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400"s 63x zoom lens offers an incredibly versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

24.5mm

1550mm

*
*

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as web - unique 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are just a little soft và ideally benefit from some further sharpening in a program lượt thích Adobe Photoshop. Alternatively you can change the in-camera sharpening level.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

*
*
  
*
*

Chromatic Aberrations

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 handled chromatic aberrations fairly well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

*
*

Macro

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 allows you to lớn focus on a subject that is 1cm away from the camera when the lens is set lớn wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get lớn the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro

Macro (100% Crop)

*
*

Flash

The flash settings on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 are Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Syncro, No Flash, with a Red-eye Reduction option in the Main menu. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Suppressed Flash - Wide Angle (24.5mm)

Forced Flash - Wide Angle (24.5mm)

*
*
  

Suppressed Flash - Telephoto (1550mm)

Forced Flash - Telephoto (1550mm)

*
*

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Forced Flash setting or the Red-Eye Correction option caused any amount of red-eye.

Forced Flash

Forced Flash (100% Crop)
*
*
  

Red-eye Reduction

Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

*
*

Night

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400"s maximum shutter tốc độ is 30 seconds, which is great news if you"re seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter tốc độ of 30 seconds at ISO 80.

Night

Night (100% Crop)

*
*

Dynamic Range Optimisation (DRO)

DRO is Sony"s solution for improving shadow and highlight detail in photos taken in contrasty light, significantly increasing the image"s dynamic range. The examples below show the effect of turning this feature on.

Off

Standard

*
*
  

Plus

 
*
 

Picture Effects

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 offers a limited range of 4 creative Picture Effects.

Off

Toy Camera

*
*
  

Pop Color

Partial Color

*
*
  

Soft High-Key

 
*
 

Intelligent Sweep Panorama

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 allows you lớn take panoramic images very easily, by "sweeping" with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing & stitching và even successfully compensates for moving subjects.

Standard
*
 
Wide
*
 
360
*

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400 camera, which were all taken using the 20.1 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below links to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.