Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H10

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/digitalcameras/0,39030233,49296743,00.htm

Reviewed 1 May 2008

Reviewed by Lori Grunin

It's not a bird or a plane, but another superzoom camera from Sony. This budget Cyber-shot DSC-H10 model keeps things similar to Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-H3, but does this £219 younger sibling outdo its big brother? Let's test the rivalry. 

Design
At 380g with battery and Memory Stick Duo Pro card, the H10 is one of the lighter superzooms, and as compact as any of them. We found it comfortable to hold and use. It sports a 230,000-pixel, 76mm (3-inch) LCD, compared with the 115,000-pixel, 64mm (2.5-inch) version on the H3. The LCD is easy to see in direct sunlight -- an essential characteristic, since the H10 lacks an alternate viewfinder.

A mode dial on top lets you choose from the various exposure modes as well as the H10's handful of scene modes and movie mode

With zoom ranges as long as 18x, it seems odd to refer to a 10x lens as a 'superzoom', but the H10's f/3.5-4.4, 38-380mm-equivalent lens still seems a big reach. The smaller range as well as the relatively narrow angle of view and absence of an electronic viewfinder tend to be what distinguishes the budget models from more expensive siblings such as the H9.

Features
The 8-megapixel sensor and hardware image stabilisation -- optical, in the case of the H10 -- are typical for its class. As with its predecessor, the H10 only provides a choice between two aperture values at any given focal length: f/3.5, f/4.0 or f/4.4, and f/8 or f/10, depending on where you are in the zoom range.

The centre control button sticks up too high, making it difficult to navigate without accidentally pressing it

It seems to be that the camera doesn't have a controllable aperture at all; according to the manual, it sounds like it just toggles a neutral density filter to decrease exposure: "When the zoom is set fully to the W side, you can select an aperture F3.5 or F8.0 (using the internal ND filter)." If that's true, then you can't control the depth of field at all. All in all, these make the camera's manual exposure mode a joke.

Once you've scrolled all the way to the end of the menu, it doesn't take you back to the beginning -- you've got to scroll all the way back again

Performance
The H10 delivers above average, but not outstanding, performance, and comes in just slower than the H3 in most respects. It wakes and shoots in a reasonable 1.7 seconds. Its shutter lag for high- and low-contrast scenes -- 0.5 seconds and 1.1 seconds, respectively -- are typical for this class, as are its 1.7-second typical shot-to-shot time.

It does post a gain with its solid 1.8-second flash shot-to-shot performance. Similarly, its two frames per second burst performance exceeds many of its competitors. 

Photo quality ranges from great to not so great. Shots we took outdoors in good sunlight looked very nice: sharp, with accurate yet saturated colour and correct, even exposures. Indoor shots look murkier and softer, with significant noise and processing artefacts at ISO 800 and higher.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Smaller bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

1.7

1.5

0.8

0.4

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3

1.3

1.8

1

0.4

Canon PowerShot SX100 IS

1.7

2

1

0.5

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H10

1.4

1.7

1.1

0.5

Fujifilm FinePix S700

3.3

1.3

2.2

0.6

Furthermore, the lens displays far more distortion that we'd like. The H10's movies look good -- we only tested it outdoors -- but the audio sounds too muffled, and the camera can't zoom -- and didn't even seem to want to refocus -- during movie capture.

Conclusion
The H10 is a decent, but not outstanding option for those in search of a modestly priced superzoom. You might want to check out our list of best superzoom digital cameras before committing.