Camera Test: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3

Not to be outdone by Canon and Panasonic, Sony offers up the new 8.1-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-H3 (street: $269), a retro-styled but thoroughly modern 10x optically stabilized compact camera packing a 38-380mm f/3.5-4.4 (35mm equivalent) Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, full manual controls, 1080i still image HD output with an optional HD cable, Dynamic Range Optimization, Face Detection autofocus and autoexposure, and polyphonic sounds that will either delight or annoy you. Inside, it's got a Bionz engine, like its Alpha-line big brothers, and this helps it burst 100 shots at nearly 2 frames per second at full resolution. But unfortunately, it doesn't have nearly as gorgeous an LCD as the Sony A700. Nope, there's just a grainy 115,000 pixel 2.5 inch LCD beneath an SLR-style prism and strobe bump. But as is typical of the 10x pocket camera, there's neither an optical viewfinder, nor an EVF on the H3.

The obvious question is: does the Sony H3 have what it takes to be a serious contender in the growing 10x pocket zoom category? There's serious competition from the 7-megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3, the 8-megapixel Canon PowerShot SX100 IS, and let's not forget about Nikon's shape-shifting 6-megapixel Coolpix S10.

We'll spare you the suspense. Yes, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 is a mostly impressive 10x pocket camera, offering a lot of performance in a not-too-expensive little package, although high ISO image quality is lacking.

IN THE HANDS

The Sony H3 comes with a two-point neck strap which balances the camera nicely when the removable lenshood is attached. Without the lenshood, this camera will be pocketable by most folks, but add the oversized two-piece lens hood, and only a circus clown could stash this camera away in his pants pockets. The smaller section of the lenshood screws securely to the camera body, but the second piece of the lenshood doesn't lock tightly enough onto the shorter barrel. You might think to consider skipping the bigger barrel, unless you're in serious lens flare situations, but it does provide a good left-hand anchor for bracing the camera for long-reach opportunities (and also helps keep stray fingers into the shot at wider angles!). And the two-piece design allows it to be partially reversed, for slightly more compactness.

The composite body feels solid enough, and most buttons and dials are well-damped -- but we'd like a bit more resistance on the mode dial. The camera feels designed for easy one-handed operation -- the sole exception being the Playback button, which is placed above the LCD screen, probably to avoid accidental switching to playback mode while shooting.

Despite the low pixel count on the LCD monitor, the menus and icons are clean and crisp gray tones, backed by white bounding boxes, and the interface is elegantly modern and easy to read and navigate. Most of the image quality adjustments are menu-driven, though the four-way array does allow for macro or normal focusing, strobe settings, and self-timer. This helps keep the external lines of the camera relatively uncluttered by dedicated buttons, and the menu-driven items are laid out well enough for easy, intuitive switching between adjustments. It's one of the better laid-out menu systems we've seen recently.

IN THE POPPHOTO LAB

The Sony H3 has excellent image quality at ISOs 100-200. Noise is Very Low at ISOs 100 (1.2) and 200 (1.4) and Low at ISO 400 (1.9), 800 (1.9) and 1600 (1.9), and just Moderately Low at ISO 3200 (2.0). Obviously, there's noise filtering going on at ISO 800 and above, and it shows in the Resolution results: Extremely High at ISO 100 (1725), but dropping to Acceptable at ISO 1600 (1160) and further to Unacceptable at 3200 (975). Color Accuracy is Excellent, with an Average Delta E of 7.95, ISO 100, Auto White Balanced.

Shadow and Highlight detail is very good at low ISOs, particularly when Dynamic Range Optimization is activated, although there might be a touch more noise in those opened-up shadows and midtones at higher ISOs. Also, even with DRO activated, deep shadow detail gets blocked up at high ISOs. At the default settings, contrast and saturation are average at all ISOs, getting less saturated and contrasty as the ISOs rise.

We're not very impressed with the wide-angle distortion results, which show Visible Barrel Distortion at 38mm (.48%). At 190mm (5x), there's Imperceptible Barrel distortion (.03%), and at 380mm (10x), there's Imperceptible Pincushion Distortion (.08%).

In our telephoto stabilization field experiments, we were able to get acceptably sharp edges down to about 1/80 second -- just about two full stops based on the reciprocal focal length rule. Video capture at full zoom with Image Stabilization did a very good job handling typical camera drift, but if it's cold enough to shiver, it'll show up in your video as shakes. At wide angle, stabilization is very effective in handling typical camera drift and sway, and even a case of the shivers is handled OK. Although it cannot totally get rid of the shivers, it handles them well enough.

Also, the rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery is CIPA rated at 330 shots.

NO STROBE POP-UP SWITCH?

One thing that's noticeably missing from the Sony H3? A flash pop-up switch.

You can manually pull open the strobe, but it's not the most graceful of solutions. If you set the camera to a mode where the camera decides on flash or not, it'll automatically spring open if the camera thinks flash necessary. You can force the flash to pop up in Manual mode by selecting "Flash On," and when you push the shutter button, the strobe will pop up to reveal a very powerful little strobe that's adjustable to +/-2 in third-stop increments for creative flash exposure compensation, along with forced flash, and slow-sync settings.

At ISO 3200, at wide-angle, it can throw a lot of light. Sony claims about 45 feet -- "Strong flash up to 14m (ISO 3200/Wide end)" per an on-camera sticker -- and from what we've seen, they're not far off. Sure, as you boost the ISOs you'll gain more reach with any strobe unit, but the H3 can throw a lot of light at high ISOs, even in telephoto. We had no problems lighting up a framed print from 25 feet away at 380mm at ISO 3200, for a perfect exposure. At ISO 3200 at 38mm we also were able to light up an entire 50-foot wide front yard, including a very mature maple tree. While it's not the most exciting image we've ever shot, it does lend credence to the on-camera sticker's claim. Yes, you lose a good deal of resolution and there's some noise, particularly in the blocked-up shadow areas, but that Bionz engine handles it pretty well. For long-reach, low-light situations, the powerful strobe and/or image stabilization should help you nail must-have shots when other cameras will simply leave you in the dark. Of course, with any camera, it's the low ISOs that have the absolute best image quality, but there are times we'd rather bring home must-have shot at high ISOs, warts and all, than no shot at all. You'll want to lose the whole lenshood for wide-angle shots with strobe at all ISOs, or you'll get barrel shadows in the bottom of the frame. Also, there's no flash burst mode whatsoever.