Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 Digital Camera: Super Picture Quality in a Compact Shooter at a Compact Price
Many digital photographer experts, reviewers and bloggers are quick to proclaim the demise of the compact camera, but the manufacturers seem to defy the odds with new models that deserve serious attention from a large range of photographers. The Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-H200 digital camera is one of the many new models announced during mid-January 2013, but it has the features and capabilities to distinguish itself from many of the rest.
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What Sony has been able to accomplish with the H200 is to design a compact camera that doesn’t look like a compact camera, except for its size, and give it the picture-taking technologies to produce images of a quality one would only expect from a much more expensive camera. This should make the H200 appealing both to casual photographers who want the “traditional” compact camera’s ease of use and serious enthusiasts, amateurs and even professionals as a second camera. They can leave the heavy, cumbersome cropped-sensor or full-frame DSLR at home and shoot with the H200 during travel, vacation, family and sports events and leisure activities.
Sony has built the Cyber-shot H200 with a DSLR body design that includes quite a deep and well-formed handgrip. The various controls and buttons are ergonomically placed for the beginner’s inexperienced fingers as well as the photographer whose fingers know the exact movements to make to reach those controls, unconsciously. The rear of the H200 displays a large, 3.0-inch, 460,000-dot Clear Photo™ LCD monitor for quick and easy framing and clear playback even in bright sunlight.
It’s Sony’s large sensor and enormous optical zoom lens that will immediately attract the attention of many photographers. Here is a digital camera with an MSRP of $249.99 that has a 20.1-MP CCD image sensor AND a 26x optical zoom lens, which is a 24–633mm focal length range for still pictures in equivalent 35mm format. (The range changes as you select different picture ratios and shoot video.) Not only does this fill the frame with sports, travel and street photography subjects, but also delivers rather amazingly sharp, color-saturated images.
Adding to that sharpness, especially when shooting at the longest telephoto focal length, is Sony’s Optical SteadyShot™ (OSS) image stabilization system. On the Cyber-shot H200 digital camera, this technology is enhanced with the 2-way Active Mode. You’re able to shoot video while you are walking or running because this mode stabilizes your movies for vertical and horizontal motion.
The H200 includes a built-in flash, records 1280 x 720 HD video at 30 fps and has many advanced features: Sweep Panorama, Face Detection of 8 faces, Smile Shutter™ technology, In-Camera editing and Picture Effects. Beauty Effects is an editing mode to improve skin tones and even widen eyes and whiten teeth. The H200 also has Multi (AV/USB) and High-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity, so you can view your movies immediately, transfer them to your computer and upload to your Facebook page to share with the world.
The Sony Cyber-shot H200 digital camera weighs only 15.2 oz. (430g) and its small dimensions make it easy to carry anywhere: 4 7/8 x 3 3/8 x 3 ½” (122.9 x 83.2 x 87.2mm).
Sony plans to release the Cyber-shot DSC-H200 Digital Camera during March 2012. Check with Amazon.com periodically to order in advance.
Photo Copyright © 2012 Sony Electronics Inc
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