Who doesn't love the Sony HX9V? It's a fairly small pocketable camera that provides a full 1080/60p and probably the best image stabilization you'll find in a point and shoot. The Sony HX9V was such a great camera, that we decided to use it for our entire coverage at PMA at CES2012.
Hard to believe, but Sony has made a good thing even better with the announcements of a few new cameras including the HX10V and HX20V. The HX9V had 16x Zoom, while the new HX20V has an incredible 20x zoom. They've even managed to make upgrades to the already impressive Image Stabilization, and enhanced Digital Zoom quality. You'll have to skip towards the end of the video (above) to get information about the new cams. Both HX10V and HX20V digital cameras are already available for Pre-Order.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX10V Digital Camera
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX20V Digital Camera
If all that is not enough for you, they're even throwing in an HX30V camera with 20x Optical Zoom and built in Wi-Fi. While most camera phones lack the features of a solid Point and Shoot camera, the Wi-Fi addition in the HX30V lets you take advantage of all it's features and then sync up with your smart phone so that you can immediately share it through your Photo Galleries and Social Networks (Instagram?).
Emm
Post author@John - I don't think it's possible. Sony finally put manual controls in RX100 during video, and hopefully that means manual focus too. I should have mine in a few days.
John
Anyone know if there is a way to lock the focus in video mode on the Sony HX20v? I know it can do a tracking focus. The manual focus in photo mode is great but is disabled once you hit video record button. When I go into the internal camera guide it says I should be able to set to manual focus while in the video mode (top dial selection) but the focus options are not in the menu when in video mode!?? Anyone figure this out yet? I've tried it under various other top dial settings and didn't find one that works yet.
Emm
Post author@Steve - You can't do manual iris, but you can do custom white balance settings in video mode once you change 'scene' setting. For my HX9V I have to first set it to ISO scene and then it allows me to do a custom white balance in video mode.
Steve
I really would like to know if the Sony HX20v has manual white balance control in video mode. Can anyone tell me this? I would also like to know if it has manual iris control in video mode. On my HX9v there are no manual controls and the white balance is always way off. If the 20v has this I will buy it tomorrow.
Thanks
Emm
Post author@SG - Just took my HX20V on the Universal Studios (Hollywood) Tram Tour. Some highlights from the little Sony point and shoot camera.
SG
Ramzy, I'm in a similar boat.. not sure if I should go for the HX10V or fork out an extra $130 and go for the slightly thicker yet snazzy HX30V.
Anyone got any suggestions? Will I really make use of the extra 4x zoom on the HX30V and the GPS and WIFI? I love the 20x zoom! but don't know if i'll miss it if I don't have it..
Ramzy
Jason, I totally agree with you on the video button and the slow response when pressing it. Originally I thought my SD card is slow or not fully compatible, but it's a Sandisk Extreme Class 10.
I'm thinking about returning the 9V and getting the 20V... I'm so confused...
Jason Lam
Oh yeah, if anyone from Sony is listening ...a touch-screen for subject focusing like their NEX cameras would be cool for future HX9V successors!
Jason Lam
I love my HX9V. Here's hoping to some good improvements in the next cameras. I'm hoping they are much faster to shoot with. I always feel like I'm missing the moment. I really have nightmares of using this camera and I can't shoot anything in time and there's a crazy tray of dessert and I'm back in school. No joke.
Also I hope the video record button is bigger and quicker to start recording. I don't like those couple of seconds when I can't tell if I'm recording. I often press it again because I'm unsure, then it stops recording.
Anyway, enough of my gripes. I'm just hoping Sony reads user feedback here. Thanks Cheesycam for showing me the HX9V. Even with it's flaws, I still use it more than my other point and shoots and DSLR.
Emm
Post author@Apostolos - As far as I know all the cameras have auto exposure in Video mode. Only the higher end cameras will allow you to have 'manual exposure' in video mode. Every small point and shoot will change on the fly with video including the Sony NEX5n and Sony NEX7 if you take it out of 'manual' video mode and use one of the programmable modes.
Apostolos
Hey Emm:
This might be a naive question, but is there currently a DSLR, or even one of those smaller mirrorless cameras that offers autoexposure in video, like the HX9V, or the 5N or any of those. In other words, if you wanted to throw one of these on a camera stabilizer and follow a person from indoors to outdoors, where the exposure will change drastically, can you do it?
Bob Krist
I hope the HX10V is really a total upgrade of the Hx9v...love that little camera. But if the "upgrade" of the Sony NEX VG10 to VG20 is any indication, they will put in some new features, but take away previously useful features.
Before anybody dumps their Hx9v, I'd make sure the HX10v doesn't take away any of the features we've come to love in the HX9v....speaking from experience here. I could choke Sony for the NEX VG10 features that they left out of the VG20! Maddening.
Tony
Thanks, I'll take a gander.
Emm
Post author@Tony - The video with Olivia was shot on a Canon 5D Mark II + sliding shots with Sony HX9V on Varavon's new Slidecam Slider: https://oliviatech.com/gear-ill-be-showing-from-maui
The lack of shallow depth of field makes it obvious, but it's fairly clean with lots of light available.
Tony
Emm, which dSLR camera you found that cuts well with the HX9V? I want to build a mulit-cam setup with a couple of these with the least amount of postproduction color correction fuss as possible.
Emm
Post author@Bobby - The Canon S100 only records at 24fps. The Sony cameras record at 60fps so I find it better for moving shots. Looks smoother.
Bobby
How do these compare to the Canon S100?