Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H1 July 18th, 2005 | by David Elrich

Setup and Use

Sony is to be complimented for making this camera very easy to use.  When you open the carton, a Read This First brochure walks you through the initial setup of charging the two supplied AA NiMH batteries, setting the clock, adjusting resolution, selecting and changing modes, and so on.  It covers the vast majority of typical photographic situations. 

A 108-page User's Guide, written by someone whose first language is not English, goes into the nitty-gritty details of adjusting all of the camera's many parameters including focusing and metering modes, picture effects...it's a long, solid list.

The camera is supplied with the usual list of accessories including a shoulder strap, A/V and USB cables, lens cap with attaching cord, two NiMH batteries, and charger.  It's also supplied with a lens hood and adapter to connect it (more on this later).  Although the camera has 32MB of internal memory (good for an emergency if your card is full) it does not come with a Memory Stick card.  The company states that only Memory Stick Pro delivers MPEG Movie VX top movie quality (640 x 480 pixels, 30 frames per second).  Being dutiful consumers, we went to Costco and picked up a 512MB MS Pro card for $59. 

Performance

The DSC-H1 is quite a performer.  Once the two NiMH batteries were charged (a long six hours) and loaded, the camera was ready to go in less than two seconds.  We shot a variety of images at the maximum 5MP JPEG fine mode (there's no TIFF or RAW modes, unfortunately), and we were generally pleased with the outcome. 

The SteadyShot system worked well, letting me take images at a slower shutter speed without blur.  For the most part, the amount of noise was acceptable until we went above 200 ISO (400 is the maximum).

The movie mode is quite good, especially when shooting in 640 fine.  The only problem is that it gobbles up space on the Memory Stick Pro card; our 512MB card could save around six minutes of footage.  Dropping it down to a much more pixilated 640 standard gives you almost 22 minutes.  This is definitely not a camcorder replacement, but you can grab a hopefully memorable clip.  The supplied A/V cable makes it easy to check out your work (videos and stills) on your TV screen.

As mentioned earlier, the camera is supplied with an adaptor and lens hood.  We suggest you leave them at home.  Although they work fine for faraway outdoor shots, they are nothing but trouble for close-ups with a flash, as they give you terrible vignetting.  I'd rather deal with some errant rays of sunshine.  The camera looks less clunky without the lens hood, anyway, and it's a bit more compact.  

The camera is rated 290 shots with the LCD on by the Camera and Imaging Products Association, an excellent number given the large LCD screen.  We did a lot of zooming, kept the optical image stabilization on and used the LCD screen all of the time and had no trouble doing a day's worth of shooting with the supplied batteries.  We suggest you get another set to keep on hand, just in case.  You can always throw in two AA alkalines if you're desperate. 

Image Courtesy of Sony

Transferring photos is easy, but I suggest buying a card reader to handle everyone's collection of flash memory cards.  It also eliminates connecting the camera via a USB cable.  The supplied editing software is worse than useless; it caused my computer to crash the first time I loaded it.  Once it was safely on the hard drive, it was scarcely worth the effort; editing capability was "challenged," to say the least—it has minimal editing tools.  If you choose this camera and do not have a solid editing suite, budget for a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 for around $90.  It's a great program and should be an object lesson for Sony engineers as how to design really good software.