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SONY H3: FOCUSING AND FACE-CHASING
In daylight conditions, Autofocus is very fast and accurate, turning the focus boxes green and chirping focus confirmation quickly. Indoors and in darker conditions, Autofocus may be quick with the AF assist beam, or it may search for over a second to achieve focus, depending on the overall scene contrast and detail. The predictive focus in the Advanced Sports mode is impressive, and it did a good job of tracking and capturing moving subjects that were moving at a constant speed -- something that many compact digital cameras struggle with. But even with instant review off, in burst mode with Advanced Sports, you don't have a live scene on the LCD after the first shot. This requires you to chase, rather than truly frame, action bursts. Also, when using burst mode, the maximum user-selectable ISO is 400, although when the camera is set to Advanced Sports mode plus burst, the camera may choose ISOs higher than 400.
Face Detection, which in the Sony CyberShot DSC-H3 claims to recognize up to eight faces, is only an option in “Soft Snap” and Full Auto Modes. It was quick to find and track a single face in our experiments, and the skintone exposures are right where they are supposed to be. Why Sony chose to not allow for Face Detection AF in Regular Program and the rest of the shooting modes is an oversight, especially considering that it is running in the background anyway when “Auto Redeye Reduction” is selected.
The Sony H3 supports three speakers and sounds settings: On, Off, or Shutter. If you want to hear the focus confirm beep, you must also endure the full array of annoying chirps squawking away at you with every button and menu option you select. We like the focus confirm beep, and wish that the focus beep was bundled with the Shutter-only option. Quite honestly, an auditory focus confirmation is much more useful than an electronic shutter sound, especially considering that when the camera's review mode is activated, you've got visual shot confirmation right after the shot. After a couple of dives into submenus the chirping sounds grated on our nerves to much we turned the sound completely off.
MODES AND SCENES
We've wanted a 10x pocket rocket with full manual controls, and the Sony almost delivers. Mind you, your aperture is limited to either “wide open (f/3.5-f/4.4)” or “stopped down (f/8-f/10)” with no steps in between at any given focal length, but shutter speeds are selectable in third-stop increments. Combine this with the variable-output strobe at +/-2 in third stops, and it gets closer to total creative control than most cameras in this class, though we'd prefer a few more aperture steps along the way. It will also allow for a three-shot Auto Bracket burst, but at a maximum spacing of +/-1, not really enough for serious HDR image spacing, but it is enough to get a decent variation in exposure on challengingly lit scenes.
As far as Scene modes go, we've seen cameras with more. The Sony H3 offers Beach, Snow, Fireworks, and Twilight, along with dedicated modes for Landscape, Night Portrait, ISO booster (ISO 3200, 8.1 megapixels), Soft Snap (basically a portrait mode with Red-eye preflash, face detection, and a wide aperture), and an Advanced Sports Mode with Predictive Autofocus. It's a pretty basic set, but it will cover most of the usual challenging shooting situations. And really, we can do without “Cuisine” or “Online Auction” on at least one camera this year! It can also shoot stills in 16:9 format, which is particularly useful for displaying on HD TVs with the accessory HD output cable.
But don't think for a moment that you're getting a pocketable HD camcorder! Video capture is simply good old-fashioned VGA resolution (640x480 pixels at 30 frames per second). Like most of its competitors, the H3 doesn't offer optical zoom during video capture, although you can shoot at any focal length, again, like most of its competitors. We also think it's an oversight that a camera that touts its 16:9 still aspect ratio and 1080i still image output doesn't shoot video in any 16:9 format, even if it's only 848x480 px @ 30fps, and not true HD video.
HAVING FUN WITH PHOTOS IN PLAYBACK MODE
Remember that annoyingly speaker that we turned off as soon as we started testing this camera? During playback, it can play one of four “canned music” soundtracks for slideshows, or you can swap out any of the included tracks for your own MP3s up to 180 seconds in length (but depending on the Digital Rights Management of the MP3 file, some might not work). And that speaker is loud and crisp. We're not talking Bose SoundDock quality or volume, but as far as single speakers on a compact digital camera goes, it's probably the best we've seen this year. And of course, those slideshows can be organized by folders, and feature different transition effects, depending on the mood and feeling you want to convey. And with the optional HD cable, the slideshows can be output to an HDTV at full 1080i resolution.
As far as in-camera tweaks that can be applied to your shots, the Sony H3 offers cropping, resizing, DPOF printer settings, trash, and protect, and a couple of silly and fun adjustments. “Serious” photographers probably won't touch the Fisheye Effect, Soft Focus, Cross (4-point starburst) filter, or Partial Color (a circular Desaturation gradient mask) with a 2GB Memory Stick, but we'll bet their kids will love it! Best of all? These are non-destructive to the original file, and can be stacked on top of each other for especially exaggerated effects.
Full-screen thumbnails scroll very quickly in a reduced resolution mode, but once a photo is selected, it pops to full crispness in an instant. Small thumbs can also be scrolled through in 6-up or 12-up display modes, and images can be zoomed up to 5x for detailed focus inspection, although on the low-pixel count LCD, it's tough to really get a feel if the edges are truly razor-sharp.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 is a serious player in the 10x pocket zoom category. The design aesthetic is both modern and classic, and a clean and simple interface makes this camera a lot of fun to shoot. Its low ISO image quality is extremely high, although we'd recommend staying at ISO 400 and below when fine detail is a must. At high ISO, aggressive noise filtering makes for smooth images without obnoxious amounts of noise, although this does come at the serious expense of resolution. But there are times when we are willing to make this tradeoff, and unless there is superfine detail that is critical to the image integrity, we'd rather have a smoother, lower resolution image a lot of times than a speckled, noisy mess that we've got to apply post-production noise fixes to anyway.
We wish the 10x zoom was a little wider at the wide end (and with less barrel distortion) for landscape and touring photography, but we do love the nearly 400mm (35mm equiv) reach. There are times when the light is extremely low and not getting the shot is simply not an option. In these situations, the Sony Cyber-shot H3 has a nice feature set that can help make the can't-miss shot.
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