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| Click photo for more images of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3. |
Sony has added an 8.1-megapixel camera to its Cyber-shot H line. The Cyber-shot DSC-H3 provides a more compact and affordable option than pricier H-series cameras, while still offering a modestly high zoom range and some advanced controls. Its optically stabilized f/3.5-4.4, 38mm-380mm (35mm camera equivalent) 10x Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar zoom lens favors telephoto shooting, and in addition to the lens, the camera's design, resolution, and price put it into close competition with Canon's new PowerShot SX100 IS. Like that camera, the H3 breaks from the typical high-zoom camera design by providing an LCD viewfinder only, in this case a 115,000-pixel, 2.5-inch screen.
The H3 offers manual and automatic exposure modes, but does not provide priority modes. For automatic shooting, the H3 provides nine scene modes, including an Advanced Sports Mode that speeds up autofocus. It has a shutter speed range of 1/2000 to 30 seconds and a top light-sensitivity setting of ISO 3200, and its exposure controls include spot and center-weighted metering modes. For flash exposures, there is an adjustable output level, slow-sync, and redeye correction. Exposure problems can also be addressed through image processing by Sony's Dynamic Range Optimizer, which opens up dark shadow areas. In addition to center autofocus, the camera provides nine-point and continuous AF modes
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Other automatic tools include a face-detection mode that can identify as many as eight faces in a photo and accordingly adjust exposure, focus, flash intensity, and white balance. Like other recent H-series models, the H3 can apply photo effects such as fisheye distortion, a star filter, a partial color filter that retains color in the subject and converts the background to black-and-white, and a soft-edge filter that blurs the background. The H3 records VGA video with sound, and can play photo slide shows with music and customized transitions. For high-speed photography, it provides a 2-frame-per-second continuous shooting mode.
The $299.95 DSC-H3 will be available in Fall 2007. It is compatible with telephoto, wide, and closeup lens converters, as well as 58mm filters and Sony's VMC-HD1 high-definition component cable for 1080i photo output to an HDTV.
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