Product Description

The Sony DSC-H50 is a full-featured point-and-shoot with outstanding high-power zoom capability and fast shutter speed. It includes Smile Shutter technology which capture smiles the moment they happen, as well as Face Detection technology to optimize flash, focus, exposure and white balance for up to eight faces. Capture detailed images with 9.1 megapixel resolution, and get in close to the action with the 15x optical zoom Carl Zeiss lens. Intelligent Scene Recognition helps avoid picture failure by taking a shot with optimal settings, while Sony’s Double Anti-Blur solution helps keep your images blur-free. The DSC-H50 completes the package with a tiltable 3.0” ClearPhoto LCD Plus display that lets you easily view your images and menu options.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #157 in Camera & Photo
• Color: Black
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DSC-H50/B
• Dimensions: 4.56" h x 3.37" w x 3.18" l, 1.33 pounds
• Memory: 15MB
• Display size: 3

Features

• Smile Shutter technology captures smiles
• Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization
• HD Photo Viewing capability
• Face Detection controls flash/focus/exposure/white bal
• 15x optical zoom/30x digital zoom

Manufacturer Description

Beauty is in the details, and this model captures them all. The DSC-H50 is a full-featured point-and-shoot with outstanding high-power zoom capability. It includes Smile Shutter technology which captures smile the moment they happen, as well as Face Detection technology to optimize focus, exposure and color for up to eight faces. Shoot detailed images with 9.1-megapixel resolution, and bring your subjects closer with the 15x optical zoom Carl Zeiss lens. Intelligent Scene Recognition automatically selects your camera's settings based on detected lighting conditions, while Sony's Double Anti-Blur solution helps keep your images blur-free. The DSC-H50 completes the package with a 3.0-inch ClearPhoto LCD Plus display that lets you easily view your images and menu options.

Cyber-shot DSC-H50 Highlights

9.1-megapixel Super HAD CCD More megapixels give you more detail and definition when you make big prints or crop in tight on your subject. The advanced Sony Super HAD (Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD design allows more light to pass to each pixel, increasing sensitivity and reducing noise.

Carl Zeiss 15x optical zoom lens 15x optical zoom provides a superb ability to bring long-distance subjects up close -- a significant advantage for situations where you can’t be near the action, such as sporting events or wildlife photography.

3.0-inch tilt-up Clear Photo LCD Plus Display The large, bright tiltable 3.0-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus display (230K pixels) tilts up for comfortable low-angle shooting, and an anti-reflective coating provides for excellent visibility to help you compose, view, and share photos with superb clarity and color reproduction, even in bright sunlight.

Face Detection Face Detection technology automatically controls flash, focus, exposure, and white balance to help reveal faces in shadows, make skin tones look more natural, reduce red-eye, and eliminates harsh facial glare.

Smile Shutter technology Smile Shutter technology captures smiles the moment they happen. The mode can be set to capture when your subject laughs, smiles or even grins, and like Face Detection is able to differentiate children and adults to set priority.

Sony Double Anti-Blur Solution The combination of Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization and high ISO sensitivity helps compensate for shaky hands, minimizes blur, and allow flash-free shooting to preserve the mood.

Super SteadyShot Optical Image Stabilization Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization compensates for shaky hands and minimizes blur with a built-in gyro that detects camera movement and sends correcting signals to a stabilization lens -- so there’s no need to crop in on your shot to reduce blur.

High Sensitivity (ISO 3200) mode With high sensitivity of ISO 3200, you can shoot effectively in low light without flash to preserve the mood, while the Sony Clear RAW Noise Reduction system helps suppress the color noise that can degrade low-light shots.

Intelligent Scene Recognition mode Intelligent Scene Recognition mode automatically detects 5 different types of scenes and selects the appropriate camera setting: Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, and Twilight using a Tripod. Intelligent Scene Recognition has two different modes, advanced and auto. Advanced mode takes one with the standard automatic settings and the other with optimized settings. Auto mode takes a single shot, utilizing the camera's optimal settings.

Dynamic Range Optimization Standard & Plus Powered by the exclusive Sony BIONZ high-speed processing engine, Dynamic Range Optimization preserves image data in bright highlights and reveals more detail in shadows or backlit areas -- for great results even in difficult lighting conditions. New DRO Plus mode enhances optimization, analyzing each region of an image and performing additional image processing.

NightShot Infrared System Sony’s NightShot Infrared System lets you shoot photos in near-dark or totally dark (0 lux) conditions without using a flash, so you can capture creative night scenes that lie beyond the power of conventional cameras.

Variable Noise Reduction (NR Level Setting) To allow greater control over NR, three NR Level Settings are available -- High, Low and Standard -- allowing you to select the optimal setting depending on the scene and individual tastes. For example, applying high NR helps obtain smoothly textured images for portraits or dark scenes, while the low setting is helps reduce noise without sacrificing resolution, making it especially useful for landscapes, detailed subjects, and contoured surfaces.

Advanced Sports Shooting mode Advance Sports Shooting mode is ideal for shooting fast-moving subjects. Just choose Advanced Sports Shooting mode with the mode dial. The camera will then automatically use Auto Focus to analyze subject motion and predict the next move while the shutter button is halfway pressed. A high shutter speed (up to 1/4000 sec.) helps ensure you capture the moment clearly even if the subject is moving at high speed.

Bracket Shooting mode In addition to standard exposure bracketing, Bracket Shooting mode now includes settings for white balance and color modes. This function records three images with one shot, each with a different white balance or color mode applied, making it easy to capture the ambience and feeling of the original scene.

Convenient Photo modes To adjust quickly for specific shooting situations, you can choose from several convenient photo modes, including Auto, Program Auto, and Scene Selections such as Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Portrait, Snow, High Sensitivity, Smile Shutter, Advance Sports Shooting, Fireworks, and Beach environments.

MPEG Movie VX Fine mode Capture VGA (640 x 480) audio/video clips at a high frame rate (up to 30 frames per second), with the length of your video limited only by the capacity of your media. The maximum length of time you can shoot continuously is about 10 minutes. Plus, optical zoom is available during movie recording.

High contrast and low chromatic aberration The ED lens used is manufactured from super low-dispersion glass, which drastically reduces chromatic aberration. This yields sharp, high contrast images and decreases color fringing, especially on the edges of images shot with telephoto lenses.

Versatile long distance flash Versatile long distance flash is powerful enough to illuminate subjects up to 55 meters away (at wide angle and ISO 3200 settings). Additionally, an Auto Daylight Synchro provides effective fill-in flash illumination for backlit subjects.

Automatic macro shooting Standard Auto Focus now covers the macro focus range, eliminating the need to manually change focus modes for close-up photography.

9-point auto focus Because an off-center subject can make your shot more interesting, a 9-point auto focus measures auto-focus at 9 precision points instead of 5 -- giving you greater creative freedom to compose your image.

Smart Zoom feature The Sony Smart Zoom feature intelligently "crops into" the central portion of interest in your photo, helping avoid the image degradation of other digital zooms.

Burst mode You can fire off 100 shots automatically at .64-second intervals (at any resolution: VGA to full resolution mode) -- a great way to capture a child’s first steps or a pet’s best tricks.

Color filter kit Five color filter effects -- including Red, Green, Blue, Warm, and Cool -- provide the same effects via in-camera image processing that are typically achieved with colored lens filters. Each effect provides increased creative control when shooting.

Color Mode "Real" For users who want to retouch their images after shooting, Color Mode "Real" helps enable faithful color reproduction by minimizing in-camera image processing. The color modes available are Real, Normal, Vivid, Sepia, and Black & White.

Wheel Dial for manual exposure modes For more creative freedom, a simple wheel-dial control lets you quickly change camera settings in manual modes (shutter speed priority, aperture priority, manual exposure) and also control ISO sensitivity, focus area, and exposure value. In play mode, the wheel dial provides a quick way to view your next or previous shot.

Remote control function In both shooting and play mode, you can use a supplied remote control unit to control basic camera functions -- including zoom, menu settings, etc. -- so you can put yourself in the picture when shooting with a tripod or sit back and enjoy the show when you share images on your home TV screen.

Easy Shooting mode A simplified camera environment especially attractive to beginners or digital camera users who want to keep things simple, Easy Shooting provides easy-to-read, on-screen instructions and limits the number of camera settings to help prevent misuse of the camera while still providing excellent results.

Function guide This beginner-friendly function helps manage various functions and settings by displaying the description of chosen functions or settings on the LCD screen. The Function Guide can also be switched off.

Electronic color viewfinder In addition to the LCD screen, a built-in electronic color viewfinder lets you shoot in traditional camera style and save battery power by turning your LCD screen off.

15MB internal memory Even if you forget your flash memory card, you can get the shot because 15 MB7 internal memory lets you capture a limited number of shots with in-camera convenience, then easily transfer your shots to a PC or optional Memory Stick Duo media.

Memory Stick Duo Media convenience A built-in slot accepts optional Memory Stick Duo media or Memory Stick PRO Duo media -- the compact, high-capacity storage media that make it easily to upload photos to your PC and are compatible with millions of devices worldwide.

Stamina Battery Power Provides extended battery life and shooting capacity when using a fully charged Lithium Ion battery-- enough to cover a long weekend or a whole vacation.

Easy image management To help you find the right image among many, Date View and Favorites have been added to the standard Folder View. Date View displays a calendar view, while Favorites shows only user selected images. Furthermore, you can filter photos by face types such as portrait, child, baby, and smile.

HDTV compatibility High-resolution images can be enjoyed in all their beauty simply by connecting the camera directly to a Sony BRAVIA HDTV or other compatible HDTV. This provides an excellent alternative to viewing photos as prints or on a computer monitor, and is ideal for users who want to share photos in the comfort of their living room. Optional HD solutions include a Cyber-shot cradle/charger with component cable output, or component cable directly to your HDTV.

PhotoTV HD PhotoTV HD compatibility allows the camera to be connected to a PhotoTV HD-capable Sony BRAVIA HDTV via the optional HD output adaptor, for highly detailed, high-definition color images displayed in unprecedented realism and full-HD quality.

16:9 high-resolution mode In addition to the standard 2-megapixel size, the convenient 16:9 aspect ratio shooting mode for HDTV display can now be shot in 6-megapixel resolution, making it possible to obtain beautiful, high-definition prints with the same aspect ratio as HDTV.

Wide Zoom Display To use the entire image area of compatible HDTV screens, Wide Zoom automatically expands standard 4:3 and 3:2 images to 16:9.

PHOTOMUSIC Expanding the HD Slide Show with Music feature, PHOTOMUSIC combines images with music to produce fun and entertaining slide shows. The five standard visual effects (Simple, Basic, Nostalgic, Active and Stylish) have been supplemented with Face1: Basic, Face2: Nostalgic and Face3: Stylish for a total of eight effects. Additionally, the number of music tracks stored in the camera memory has been doubled from four to eight, and music playback time has been extended from three to five minutes per track. More personalized slide shows are also possible by transferring music from a PC to the camera.

In-camera retouching Add creative effects to photos after you shoot using any of 10 retouching functions, including: Trimming, Red-Eye adjustment, Soft Focus filter, Unsharp Mask, Cross filter, Partial Color filter, Fish-eye filter, Retro, Radial Blur and Happy Face. The Happy Face effect uses photo retouching to put a smile on faces, with smile levels adjustable from 1 to 5.

In-camera red-eye correction Irritating "glowing eyes" can ruin even the most creative photos, but in-camera red eye reduction corrects your photos at the touch of a button to reduce lingering red-eye effect that other systems might miss.

Multi-resizing function Resize your photos in-camera for virtually any purpose! Any size picture images can be resized to widescreen 16:9 and 2 MP resolution for display on an HDTV. Conversely, high resolution, widescreen 16:9 images or any size picture can be resized to 4:3 size with VGA (640x480) resolution -- perfect for sharing with friends and family via e-mail (internet connection required).

Picture Motion Browser Software Supplied software makes it easier to upload, organize, and search photos on your PC. When shooting photos using your camera and an optional GPS unit, the software even provides a convenient map view function that lets you sort photos by location and display their origin on a world map.

BIONZ BIONZ image processor delivers speed and precision.

What's in the box

DSC-H50 digital camera, NP-BG1 rechargeable battery, BC-CSG battery charger, Flower Lens Hood, Lens Adaptor Ring, Lens cap with strap, A/V and USB multi-connector cables, Shoulder strap, Remote Commander, Software CD-ROM, Note: No Memory Stick PRO Duo Media or adaptors are included.

Customer Reviews

Sony's Latest "Bridge" Camera
The Sony DSC-H50 Cybershot camera has generated significant interest in the photographic community for a number of reasons. First, there is the ever-present hope that this new model may move us closer to that "gold standard" camera of our imagination, the point-and-shoot camera that rivals DSLR performance in terms of picture quality, containing a single lens that spans all the way from a true wide-angle to high telephoto range, with good overall performance, customizable features, and low weight. Then, there is the large, bright, and articulated screen that so many photographers desire, yet is strikingly absent from most recent models. And, of course, there is the interest always garnered in the technology upgrades that new models typically possess, such as support for ever-larger memory cards, more sophisticated processor algorithms, and improved photographic features that help make everyday photo-taking easier and more successful.

After owning this camera for a few days, I can report that from the usability standpoint, the DSC-H50 is a gem. The camera is lightweight, easy to hold, and has a comfortable grip. Sony's implementation of a bright, clear, articulating 3-inch LCD screen makes the camera particularly easy to use, and only a short time using the camera is required to find that the camera's shape "works." Controls are laid out in clear, easy to understand manner, and users of previous Cybershot models will recognize the trademark Sony approach to controls on point and shoot cameras. A new, self-explanatory menu system explains each menu option, and the system is mastered in short time. The camera feels solid and well-built in spite of its light 15-oz. weight. Beyond the normal rotary knob that places the camera in its various modes, a number of dedicated buttons control image playback, burst mode, slideshow mode, and "night shot" mode.

Picture quality also appears to be generally good. The DSC-H50 may be of interest to more demanding photographers who are looking for a secondary camera when not wishing to lug around a full set of lenses and a DSLR, albeit with a necessary amount of post processing to remove sensor noise and the chromatic aberration that appears in some shots. Macro performance is excellent, and the "Steady Shot" technology appears to work well. It is important to remember that this camera, though having a full 15x telephoto lens, is not a "true" wide-angle lens, with the wide end only reaching 31mm. Nevertheless, this is wider than most point and shoot cameras, with only a very few select models reaching the 28mm width so usefulfor landscape and close-up group shots. The DSC-H50 is a coated Zeiss Vario-Tessar, and seems well suited to take high-quality shots, as long as one understands the limitations of the unit.

The camera is designed to make general point and shoot photography very easy, and the camera certainly meets those goals. There is automatic scene detection, face detection, ISO detection, and many other features that will appeal to the typical home user. When shooting in automatic mode, the camera produces good quality images that will satisfy the average user. From my preliminary results, it looks as though the DSC-H50 will make happy a large number of users who are looking for this type of a camera.

There are also a few other unusual "plusses" for this camera. First, the camera comes standard with a wireless remote control, which is almost unheard of. And the remote control is not a simple shutter release control: you can do almost anything you can do by holding the camera, including using the menus, with this remote. Next, the camera comes standard with a lens adapter, which in the past has been a $30 or $40 accessory necessary if you wish to use add-on lenses. Further, both a wide-angle and an additional telephoto lens are available for the camera. And last, but certainly not least, Sony has finally adopted a small and lightweight battery charger that does not use the cable-and-brick approach, but rather, plugs directly into a wall socket. All of these are welcome additions to the camera.

PROS
- Very good optical lens range, from somewhat-wide (31mm) to 15x zoom (465mm)
- Generally good image quality
- Excellent macro performance
- Effective image stabilization
- Outstanding, pivoting 3" LCD screen
- Feels solid and well-built
- Lightweight
- Good ergonomics
- Full set of customizable photographic settings
- Extrememly bright flash (strongest I've seen on a point-and-shoot)
- Intuitive, redesigned user interface/menu system with descriptions
- Can use up to 16Gb Memory Stick Duo
- Very easy to use, even for novice users
- Comes with remote control and other accessories
- Both super zoom lens and wide-angle lens are available accessories

CONS
- Not quite wide-enough short end (only 31mm, not 28mm)
- Small sensor makes noise both inevitable and present, even at low ISO levels (noise reduction can be adjusted in-camera)
- Chromatic aberration/purple fringing under certain conditions
- No true HD video (compare Panasonic DMC-TZ5)
- No RAW mode (but commonly missing now in "bridge" cameras)
- Camera carrying case not included
- Can turn camera on with lens cap in place, allowing lens to push into lens cap; lens cap also pops off occasioanlly


In summary, this lightweight camera with loads of features, generally good picture quality, and aggressive pricing makes the DSC-H50 appear to have hit all the major marks quite well, particularly for the average user who wants to shoot decent pictures with little effort.

Amazing camera
Okay, so I originally had a Sony Mauvica digital camera. That was my first taste of Sony camera's. My husband and I decided that the Carl Zeiss name was enough to invest in a camera. That camera was amazing. I then went to the Sony Cybershot DSC-W80 because I wanted something smaller and those little bitty pocket cameras came out from everywhere. That is a good camera as well, but nothing like the mauvica and especially this H50. I was a little worried buying this camera because it had so little reviews out there. I'm glad I did. It's really great. The zoom feature is wonderful. I have children and we really need a good zoom for their school concerts and musicals. I have tried this zoom in every atmosphere I can think of. It does so good outside. The steady feature is great because I don't always have a steady hand. Inside in low light, the zoom is good and doesn't look too grainy on the computer unless you zoom into the picture really close. Good for printing 8 x 10's. I haven't tried anything over that.

The portrait mode is fabulous. I love taking close up pictures of flowers, the kids and animals with this.

The new smile detecting feature is really cool. I didn't really think it would work, but it does. I tried this by having my kids not smiling and then waiting a second to smile. It does seem to detect a smile. There is a setting you can change to detect smiles, low, medium and high. It is suppose to have an editing feature to be able to add smiles after you take the picture... I couldn't get this to work. If I do get it to work, I will add more later.

The editing program that this camera has is very cool. You can change the photos you've taken to black & white and the other basics like red eye and sepia also, but it has an option to select one object to stay in color and put the rest of the picture in black and white. It's a really cool feature in my opinion. There are other effects also like blurring everything around one center item. I posted some pics that I took and edited. I will also say that once you upload those pics to Amazon, they lose a lot of their quality.

One of the reasons I love sony cameras is because it has a night shot option. It's infrared and lets you shoot in complete dark areas. You can also record video in night shot. I have used night shot in the past with a Sony camera when I couldn't use a flash and it worked great in Disney's "It's a Small World" ride.

Another cool feature is when you view your pictures, you can do so with music. Now what I like about this is you can upload your own songs to the camera from your PC.

There is a noise reduction feature that lets you automatically set to low, medium or high. This is a great feature once you learn what you need to use. It eliminates a lot of the grainy photos.

I can't say enough about face detection, it makes photos of people turn out better. It has no problem detecting faces for me.

The LCD screen comes out and tilts. I really don't know what I will use that for, I wish that it would turn around for self portraits.

It comes with a lens hood, I have to admit that I haven't even tried using this yet.

I hope I have listed enough to tell you about the features of this camera. I usually look at user reviews as well as professional ones to determine what camera I purchase. There is more to talk about, but for the semi-novice user that I am, I feel like these are some important qualities. Overall, I believe this is well worth the money. I do believe it will come down in price after time, just like everything else. Next to a DSLR, this is a camera worth having.

So far....
...I'm ambivalent about this camera. I loved the earlier version (the DSC-H2) which I'm still using, but decided to replace it because the viewfinder isn't working well.

About the camera:

I bought the camera to have an all-purpose camera light enough to take backpacking (which my digital SLR with it's lenses isn't). It's a little bulky, but light (although it feels sturdy) and it's versatile enough to take long-distance wildlife shots or macros of flowers in virtually the same moment.

The camera takes very good photos, but is not a huge change from the earlier version of this camera, even though it has half again as many megapixels. If the ISO is left on auto, as it is when using the fully automatic modes, I find the photos can be noisy, which may be part of the problem other reviewers are describing. I recommend using the adjustable settings, like the "P" program and setting the ISO on 80 or 100 to keep noise level to a minimum, especially in outdoor light. This camera has settings for in-camera noise reduction, which I don't use since I prefer using computer software for noise removal if it's necessary. This series of camera excels at outstanding macros. The image stabilization works well on the zoom, and long distance photos taken with the zoom are generally very good.

The menus are very easy to see and navigate, in fact I've barely read the instruction manual because it is so self-explanatory. The DSC-H50 offers some manual controls including shutter and aperture settings, which is great for more advanced users. The optical viewfinder mirrors the view through the lens and is clear and sharp enough to compose a photo, or to make sure you got the optimum shot. Many cameras are doing away with their optical viewfinders, much to the detriment of outdoor photographers. It can be hard to compose a decent photo in bright sunlight using an LCD alone. However, the LCD on the DSC-H50 is large and bright, and can be positioned up or down, which is nice when taking a photo at an awkward angle or close to the ground. Unfortunately, it does not swivel or enable storage with the LCD hidden. The display seems quite vulnerable to damage as the glass surface is exposed all the way to the corners and is not recessed at all.

I don't understand why point and shoot cameras have gotten away from offering a choice of image formats instead of only jpeg. No matter how many megapixels the camera is, you will still end up with artifacts related to jpeg compression.

Main issue:

What really bothers me about this camera and the biggest reason for the 3 star review (it would get 4 otherwise), is that Sony made the accompanying ring/hood in a non-standard size (74mm). The newer flared end design of the filter ring is an improvement over the old ring, since it means no lens vignetting at wider angles, but it seriously irritates me that Sony couldn't have made the opening to fit a standard 72mm filter. This means that the reasonably priced Hoya or Tiffen filters will not fit, and that you must buy the costly Sony brand ($90-$100 for a polarizer) if you want a filter on your camera. I tried the inferior quality 74mm Opteka filters (apparently hastily made just for Sony), and the polarizer came apart while I was cleaning it to put on the camera. Faced with the prospect of buying pricey, odd-sized Sony filters for a point and shoot camera, especially when indications are they may not fit future models, I managed to find a $7 off-brand 74-72mm step down ring (made by Bower for Sony products), which is supposed to fit the Hoya filters I just ordered (about $40 for both). The $120 Sony telephoto extension I bought for my DSC-H2 camera a year and a half ago is completely useless for the DSC-H50, which is a further irritation.

Sony's apparently increasing level of specific and non-interchangeable accessories will make me think twice about buying Sony cameras in the future. They make a good product, but I won't buy from them if I am forced to purchase a whole new set of accessories every time they update a model. I was unable to find the specs about the end sizes of the hood and ring for the DSC-H50 prior to purchase, but there was no reason to assume that the opening of the ring would be anything but standard. I thought I'd be able to incorporate the accessories I had already purchased for my DSC-H2 by using step-up step-down rings, which are easily available, as long as the diameters are standard sizes, which was the case with the DSC-H2.

Also, as of the date of this review, Amazon's technical specification information on this product is pitifully inadequate, even though I gave them feedback regarding their lack of usable information at least two weeks ago. I had to go to the B & H photo website to get some decent specs on this camera, and probably would have bought it there, if Amazon hadn't been $20 less expensive with free shipping.