oak just bought this camera from Costco for $ 275, along with a Sony case and a 4GB Class 4 SDHC card. I've played with it the last three or four days - which really is not enough time to give a full review, but I want to give my first thoughts. As background, I am a "junior" shutterbug. I think that the quality of the images. but I'm more a photographer - I have a Canon HG10, with a JVC Everio GZ-HM300 as a backup. My wife and I have shot with the Panasonic TZ5, which we bought a few years ago, and I also shoot with a Nikon D60 and a 1984 model Minolta X-700 (I learned to shoot with this child).
I wanted a compact mega zoom for my wife who takes excellent pictures in all conditions and was able to sub in for a full HD camcorder in a pinch - and one that my wife could use to take pictures of our new baby (soon to be born). This camera seems to do the trick - with some reservations. For the first camera takes good pictures. Set the camera for superior AF mode and you get the best shot 90 percent of the time. In bright sunlight, the sun will cause glare on the picture - the camera does a decent job of adjusting for this, but it can screw up your image. I can not dock points for this camera yourself, as I have not yet seen the compact camera to do better. In my opinion the pictures are very sharp, accurate colors - even though red may be a bit over saturated. Most cameras have a bias --- PANASONIC zs10 blown out greens. You will not receive $ 2,000.00 DSLR-type performance from a $ 275 compact camera but it does a good job. Now I've read some reviews, both consumers and professionals who took the pictures to be on the soft side. I can not see it. Maybe if you blow prints up to 16x20 or 20x40 or something like that it's "softness", but consumers often do not do anything bigger than 8x10. Consumers who complained about the softness is probably just reflect what they read in the professional reviewer - for even with my picky eyes, I just do not see what they're talking about.
In addition to taking good pictures, this is a speed camera ---- very quick for a compact. Use the automatic focus function, I could shoot 8 shots in about 2.5 seconds (shooting at 10 MP, not max 16mp) - with seven of the shots that come out very good and veil. The camera can also take a burst of ten images in a second - even if the quality is down. I shot indoors with incandescent lamps at night, with flash off, and I got some of the best indoor low light images of any camera - the camera will take six pictures of the same scene with a shot and then stitch together images to form a composite image that is shockingly good. Say hello to the low light photos that are not blown out by the flash on a compact! Unbelievable! The camera handles low light well and the flash just washes out the picture.
In terms of image quality, this camera can produce very solid video (and above average sound for a compact camera). Honest is the video quality on par with my JVC Everio GZ-HM300 - which is a dedicated mid-range HD camera! Now I had some problems with picture quality when shooting in low light - there's a lot of noise, especially indoors with halogen lighting. Shoot the same scene with my JVC, I noticed JVC also struggled with the lighting and the final product was only marginally better than the Sony. Since this is a P & S camera first, which also happens to record HD video, it's pretty unique things. With a few adjustments to the EV levels, I could get a good picture quality even in low light conditions, but the colors were slightly washed out look - is still very interesting. In the daytime, so the same scenes as well or better than the movie is for JVC (using Sony's excellent image stabilization) and not far away from my $ 1000 Canon HG10. The sound quality was also very good for a compact camera, with good stereo separation. I had some problems with playback of high-profile test video taken at 17mbps and 24 Mbps. I am using a Dell Inspiron running a Core 2 Duo P8600 processor with ATI HD 4600 dedicated graphics card and 17MB and 24MB per second AVCHD video is broken havoc with the computer and was not watchable - for choppy. I can play it in the same 17mbps AVCHD format from JVC and Canon camcorders, so I do not really know what they are prolbem. But with a lower profile 9Mbps AVCHD or 1080p MP4 format (30 fps) at 12Mbps gave more than adequate video quality for my needs. I do not blame the camera for the choppiness of the higher profile, AVCHD files - these files are a challenge for most computers (unless you have a top of the line gaming computer). Please note, I recommend using a Class 6 or higher SDHC cards with this camera (even thought Sony says you can use a class 4). I have noticed that the video quality was noticeably smoother faster card (I use a Transcend 16GB Class 10 SDHC card).
As regards the build quality goes, it seems pretty good to me - AE reserves they own. The camera is comfortable to hold and Sony was kind enough to use soft rubber grip on the camera to reduce slip and make it more comfortable. Anyway, it's my first thoughts and I will be adding and updating this review as I play with the camera more in the coming weeks.
Update 6/28/11: This camera just gets better and better the more I get comfortable with it. Our little girl was born on 6 / 2 Since then I have taken about 3000 pictures and 5 hours of video (it will obviously be heavily edited when I find time). The picture quality is very good to excellent. I can recommend to use the Intelligent Auto mode most of the time and only by Superior automatic recording static images in low light. Superior Auto by default to HDR in what the camera decides to be a low light (with several images of the same scene and merge them into one composite). If the subject is moving you are left with a mess. Using Intelligent Zoom allows the camera by default a higher ISO instead, unless you have Flash set to auto. After a while you get a feel for when the Superior or Smart will give a better picture. Alternatively, you can switch to program mode or full manual mode. I think the whole manual implementation to be a bit clumsy in this camera - not a big fan of the job wheel. Program mode allows you to make the most of the choices you would make in the manual, but the camera control focus and shutter speed - and will often make better choices than I would do when left to my own devices. These conditions, if you take the time to master them, allowing you to take some great pictures. Sticking to the automatic mode is good too. I can now see what some people complain when they argue that the images on the soft side. This can be easily fixed by using one of a series of Selections Photo Shop software, or with Sony PMB software that came with the camera (which is not bad at all for a freebie). I'm still very happy with picture quality and shooting almost exclusively with Sony - it's just so much easier to carry around and use it as an all in one instead of pulling any of my video cameras. When the video is set to a higher bit rate in AVCHD is good enough that I do not feel the extra effort to carry the Canon is worth bartering.
I have posted a video review on YouTube. I tried to write a link, but it was edited by the Amazon from one reason or another. If you are interested, go to youtube and search for "set2374 hx7v review" and it will pop up. After completing the review, I mailed a couple of sample images and video. Hope they help you with your decision.
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