Would you buy another Cybershot?

[gazz1e]

It's been a while since I last visited this forum. It's sad to see that after months of users being unhappy about the firmware in the current batch of Cybershots (such as setting the level of compression, or lack of RAW), that Sony haven't addressed the issue. I expect they're not going to address the issue, and expect us to buy new hardware with the improved firmware.

I must admit my Cybershot HX7V has been sat in the back of the cupboard for a few months now. I find my iPhone 4s adequate for capturing adhoc photos and videos. To be brutely honest, I find see less compression artifacts on my iPhone photos that my Cybershot photos.

Based on your experience with Sony's Cybershot cameras, would you buy another Cybershot? I'm happy using my mobile, and if I had to buy another camera, I'd go with a company that invests in development of existing hardware, rather than expect users to buy a new camera for features that could easily be fixed in the firmware.

...expecting this post to get deleted by the moderators...

[nikkilim]

I would buy another one. An Iphone has only 2-3MP which is far from what cybershot offers. If you want a good qualtiy picture, you need to use cybershot.

[gazz1e]

My iPhone has a 8MP camera and can do full 1080p video. Also with it being always connected to the Internet, sharing photos with friends and family is a breeze. You'd expect the photos on an iPhone (or Android) to be of lower quality, due to the lens being smaller, but I find Cybershots HX are lower quality based on the terrible compression Sony have inflicted on them.

Thanks for your post though.

[Blencogo]

So does your iPhone shoot in RAW and have variable jpeg compression?

[gazz1e]

So does your iPhone shoot in RAW and have variable jpeg compression?

No, but the phone's jpeg compression is at a level that doesn't introduce noticable artifacts. I'd expect a Cybershot Camera (that can only do one thing - take pictures) to have more control over photo settings like the compression level.

[badgerme]

Hi,

According to http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/specs.html the iPhone 4s does "HD (1080p) up to 30 frames per second". That's half what the HX9V does - up to 60fps.

However, I'm not fussed about video so am very interested to hear that a phone outperforms a 'top of the range' camera. What I'd really like to see is some 'real world' comparison shots taken on the two devices - including both ends of their zoom range, and macro.

How about posting some on the web somewhere like Picasa for us gazz1e?

[gazz1e]

I think the FPS on my HX7V is 25, as I'm in the UK. There's a few sample images @ http://www.johnchow.com/iphone-4s-video-and-photo-quality-test/

[badgerme]

That link is just to iPhone samples - what I'd like to see is a comparison

That is same shots taken with Sony Hx and with iPhone

[badgerme]

Just remembed that http://www.imaging-resource.com/ has a comparison section and yes both 'culprits' are there.

On a quick look, the iPhone is pretty good for a phone, but the images are noisy even at low iso, and the grey background in the macro is a rather nice purple/pink.

Of course the iPhone has no zoom, etc

I'll stick to using a camera for taking pictures, and a phone for making calls, but I do agree that it would be nice to have our wish list of firmware updates listened to.

[vegeta340]

My Nokia N8 has compression settings I can disable compression at all, what's more I can record more than 30 minutes of movie and I have pause button during recording. software should be improved that's fact. Photos from 16MP Sony HX9V is about 4MB and from my Nokia N8  with 12MP is about 5-6MB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!