Sony Cybershot DSC-H1

Boxy but well-balanced and sporting a large 2.5-inch nonarticulating LCD screen, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 delivers a wide array of features, shooting modes, and performance for just under $500. The camera sports a long 12X optical zoom lens, which is quickly becoming the new standard for superzoom cameras. The one glaring problem was the camera's shutter lag—a big hindrance if you're trying to capture that fleeting moment.

We liked the option of using either the LCD panel or the electronic viewfinder (EVF); both worked well and had brightness settings to increase image illumination. Enthusiasts will also enjoy the live histogram available in one of the display settings.

Other modes that worked well in our real-world testing included burst mode, which lets you capture nine frames at the highest-quality setting in a steady burst. Though it worked well, we'd like to see it yield even more pictures, like we get from the burst mode of the Canon PowerShot S2 IS. The same button lets you capture images in a rather gimmicky mode called Multi Burst, which displays as a slow-motion movie of 16 frames on the viewfinder (though we couldn't get the movie to play on our PC, even using Sony's proprietary software). When the JPEG is brought into an image-editing program like Photoshop, it appears as a single-layer checkerboard montage of 16 images, which we think will simply confuse the photographer. We also liked the useful Bracketing mode (again on the same button), which can be used with most other settings and lets you pick your favorite shot.

Our daylight test shots looked quite good. There was very little noise and the overall exposure was good, but we saw some fringing in the color chart. In the flash image, the flash was too strong and resulted in a loss of detail and blown-out highlights. Bear in mind that our test flash shots are taken in a controlled setting, with the camera in auto mode—the flash is adjustable, though we suspect that most users won't get around to adjusting it. The camera also sends out a pre-flash signal that sets the exposure properly. In all, though we found the flash to be overpowering in our studio, you can get different results in real-world shooting situations.

The DSC-H1 averaged 1,450 lines of resolution, which is very good for a 5MP camera. It had an excellent boot-up time of 2.1 seconds and a recycle time of 3.2 seconds, which is also quite good. But our testing revealed significant shutter lag in the flash shots, which can make it very difficult to capture action when you need to.

When testing lens quality, we saw just a bit of barrel distortion but no pincushion distortion. Tests of image stabilization revealed that it helped eliminate some but not all of the blur in both low light and bright light.

This superzoom shoots video using MPEG-1 video clips but not MPEG-4, so we didn't classify it as a hybrid camera. (MPEG-1 files take up much more space than MPEG-4 on your memory card, decreasing the amount of video you can shoot.) Still, the video footage, in its highest fine mode, looked smooth and had minimal aberrations.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 is a decent buy, especially considering the superzoom's price. But shutter lag and problems with the flash shots hold it back. We'd still recommend the Editors' Choice–winning Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 for its excellent image quality and multitude of manual options for advanced users.

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