Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsI have also become quite adept at producing some surprisingly good pictures from my iPhone 6S
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2016
For years, I've been a dedicated DSLR user, with my Canon 40D and a slew of lenses being my "serious" camera. I have also become quite adept at producing some surprisingly good pictures from my iPhone 6S, which I have often used as my travel camera. Looking for something much smaller than my Canon DSLR, and more versatile than my smartphone, I purchased the Sony HX90V. It was a toss-up between this camera and the Panasonic Lumix, but I did not need RAW shooting and thought the GPS on the Sony was a nice feature, and one not offered in the Panasonic.
I have now put this camera through a couple of weeks of use and, I must admit, am quite impressed with its feature set and image quality. Using either of its two "auto" modes, the images are crisp with excellent exposure, focus, and color saturation. It has a variety of shooting modes available, and all seem to work well. I was surprised at how simple things were, with macro and anti-shake functions engaging when needed. The control ring on the lens is smooth and acts as a manual zoom in auto mode. It's function changes with the mode being used, and it works well as a manual focus ring when in that mode. The pop-up EVF is clear and has a simple diopter adjustment. It can be set to activate when it senses your eye next to it, which is the default setting. It can also be set to turn off the camera when closed. The EVF must be pulled to the rear after it's opened, which can be awkward.
The buttons on the rear of the camera are rather small; much smaller than any other camera I've used. This means that the easiest way to access the functions you want is with a fingernail rather than just pressing a button with your finger. It is different, but not very difficult to adjust to. The on/off button is recessed, and also really requires a push with a nail.
The wifi software provided is enough to pair your phone with the camera, but it is anything but intuitive to use. With an IOS device, it requires several steps. The Fn button on the camera must be pushed while in view mode, and a picture or pictures selected for transfer. After you initialize the transfer process, you must then go to your phone's settings menu and select the Sony SSID. After that is checked, you then close your settings and open the Sony app on the phone. At that point, the pictures will start loading on to your iPhone. The transfer itself is very fast, and the new photos show right up in your All Photos folder. The Sony app to remotely control your camera is very awkward and not at all user friendly.
One excellent feature is the "selfie" feature, which i part of the pivoting LCD screen. When you flip the screen up fully, the "selfie" mode is enabled and a time delay is part of that mode. It is quite clever.
Low light shooting is this camera's supposed Achilles heel, but I have yet to experience any significant noise at higher ISO settings. In normal shooting, and at reasonable ISO levels, this is a non-issue anyway. The 30x optical zoom is amazing, but I would advise against using the extended digital zoom, which can degrade or crop the image. In any case, it can be quite challenging to keep this tiny camera steady at very high zoom ranges.
I think this is a fantastic little camera, offering virtually every feature any photographer would want. I don't see the lack of RAW format as a real disadvantage for this camera's intended audience, since most would find the JPEG quality to be more than acceptable.
One recommendation to anyone buying this camera would be to immediately go to the Sony online manual for this camera. It is a very inclusive and well written description of every function of this camera. The documentation with the camera is basic and not very informative.
Small size, formidable zoom, excellent image quality, versatile preset modes, manual controls, GPS, a very usable EVF, and wifi image transfers make this one of the finest compact cameras in its class. In my opinion, it is worth the price and produces images that can rival the finest DSLR cameras out there. It gets my strong recommendation.