Hands on review of Sony HX200V

Hands on review of the new cybershot camers - Sony HX200V
It's a "DSLR style and handling in a smaller bod"

By usual bridge camera standards the new Sony HX200V is a fairly large model, but compared to the Fuji X-S1 it's really quite small.

Nevertheless, the fingergrip is broad and comfortable, with the rubberised coating providing decent purchase.

On the back of the 18.2Mp camera there's a 3in 921,600-dot TFT Xtra Fine Trublack screen which can be tilted up or down for high or low-level shooting. The view is detailed, bright and crisp.

          Those who prefer to hold the camera to the eye when shooting can use the 0.2 in, 201,600-dot (equivalent) electronic viewfinder (EVF). It's not quite in the same EVF league as the OLED unit in the Sony NEX-7, but it's pretty good.

          We noticed the occasional flicker of red, green and blue in the EVF as the camera was lifted to the eye, but colour drag didn't seem to be an issue when we panned the camera around. Naturally, this is something we will look at more carefully when we have a sample in for a full test.

          For advanced users the HX200V offers program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual exposure modes, but there are also plenty of automatic options for less experienced photographers. The controls are sensibly arranged and although the interface is a little different from some of Sony's other cameras, it's easy to get to grips with.

For More Info and Sample Images See Inside..

Sample images

We were able to take a few shots with the at Sony's recent compact camera launch and although we will need to do much more testing, the initial results look promising. While there is some softening of detail, there's little sign of colour noise at ISO 800 and images look great when sized to make A3 prints.