Sony H5, small review

Michiel de Brieder

Hiya Dgrin,

having purchased an H5 last week I thought I'd take it for a small spin through the garden. I've also taken the cam on a 3 day festival, I will show some of my pics later on.
My 'story' / 'history' in digital cameras isn't that huge, but for what it's worth, I've used a minolta S404, Sony V1, Canon D30, Sony F828, Casio Ex Z750 and I'm currently the owner of a Canon 20D (and that sexy H5 )
Impressions of the H5:

* Let's begin with the camera on sight.. The build quality is excellent, very sturdy indeed and it feels very solid. Even though it is plastic, I'm not afraid to take this camera out to a 3-day rock festival (as I did ) The screen is beautiful as many have commented, the resolution of it is stunning... It smudges quickly though... I need some screen protectors The layout of the buttons is quite intuitive, I like it, and I didn't need the manual to start shooting in A-mode, make adjustments etc. It is a very appealing camera when ergonomics are concerned.

* Usability: the camera is very responsive, when you consider there is a 12x zoom lens on it. The zoom works very well for me (responsive and accurately where I want it). I like the every single button on the camera, they're placed well and swift to use. You get used to it quickly and I think it is a matter of some time before I can use the buttons 'blindly', but not a very long time The IS suffices for me, I can only compare to a lens for my DSLR, but I don't see a need to, both are for different purposes, the H5 IS works well for me.

* Focus: I would normally put this one with the usability text, but I'd like to mention it separately for several reasons. First of all, I have sometimes trouble focussing, maybe I need to get acquinted with the mechanism or the minimum focus distance for several focal lengths. But the MF peaking is a rare beauty, I love it!!!!!
AF is still tricky for me, for the moment I will ascribe this to user error.

* image quality: Normal ISO (80-400) pictures are just stunning for such a little camera. I've used the auto ISO and I'm satisfied with the results that I've got. Using ISO 800 and 1000 at the festival rendered usable results, albeit quite noisy and a bit smudgy, nonetheless, the results are amazing for a camera with such a small sensor.

* Fun factor: I've read a lot about the fun factor of the H series, I would like to attest to that. This camera is *FUN* to use! It makes you want to go out and shoot (what *am* I doing typing this ) .

* accessories: The lens cap is quite nice but the lens hood appears a bit bulky to carry alongside the camera (I don't use it for the moment, I'll try it out at different time). I've got a small bag, a bit bigger one would suffice to carry it along, it only needs to be slightly bigger, so no real problems there. The strap is okay and the lack of additional memory 'in the box' is well replaced by the internal memory of the camera. The batteries should be okay, but I didn't use them yet, I had some charged and ready when I bought the cam but they're 2500 mAh, so they should make a fine set.
I'll reply to this post with some pictures. Questions are allowed, additions to the 'review' most welcome


Cheers people!

Michiel de Brieder

Some flower pictures:
Blossom Beauty:

Saturation of the Rose:

Petal Temptation:


Some Arrow Classic Rock festival pics:
Queensryche female guest singer:

Festival main stage at sunset:

Queensryche singer, theatrical moment:

Uriah Heap:

The singers are ISO 1000, a bit smudgy, perhaps some motion blur and camera shake alongside it, I'm happy though, for a first shootout, I know I can do better with practice

wxwax

Excellent quick review!

And I really, really like this shot.



In fact, I like all the concert shots.

The yellow rose is blown out. Did you have some kind of exposure compensation turned on at the time?

USAIR

Michiel thanks for the great review
Good photos too
Those boys from Uriah Heap aint get any younger are they.

Thanks
Fred

Michiel de Brieder

wxwax wrote:

Excellent quick review!
The yellow rose is blown out. Did you have some kind of exposure compensation turned on at the time?

Hiya Waxy!

Thanks for the comments! As for the rose, I did not use exposure compensation, but I've blown the front rose out in post to get mroe contrast on the more saturated rose. I do have a different version (as people have commented on it on dpreview) How's this:


Cheers mate

Michiel de Brieder

USAIR wrote:

Michiel thanks for the great review
Good photos too
Those boys from Uriah Heap aint get any younger are they.

Thanks Fred!!! Uriah Heap Rocks though, they really kick it off and are so full of energy. Even though I'm only 26, I love their work!!!! They ended their concert with a great accoustic version of black lady which was so very good!!

Thanks for your reply!

Awais Yaqub

Great purchase picture quality is great another blast from sony
what you paid for it ?

Michiel de Brieder

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Great purchase picture quality is great another blast from sony
what you paid for it ?

Hi Awais!

I paid €409 in a Dutch store

Cheers