I bought this as a gift for my mom to replace her nice, but bulky digital SLR. Her requirements were the camera must take excellent pictures, be user friendly or intuitive, and also be easy to grasp and hold while taking a photo.
The Sony DSC-H70 passed all three by me, and more importantly by my technologically declined mom.
The 10x optical zoom on the camera is sweet, while it isn't as flawless as the alpha models lenses or carl zeiss lenses it comes really close. It has a very high-quality lens and internal components. For the price/quality tradeoff I think this camera beats out all camera's under $300 currently on the market. I think the 16 MP is probably overkill, but it doesn't seem to sacrifice image richness so the more the merrier. Also, the blue color looks classy.
A huge selling point is the smart design of the camera. It has a groove for your thumb on the back, and the front has a slightly raised and concave area opposite of the lens side to grip. With the really thin cameras it seems people end up pinching the edges or hold the camera in an awkward position. You can grip this with a more natural grasp which helps keep the camera steady (although it does have a really good image stabilizer on it).
I was instantly a fan of the option for the auto setting that takes two shots at slightly different settings when light conditions are low or there is abnormal backlight conditions. When I tested it under a variety of poor light conditions one of the two pictures always turned out great (the other was good too, but one was just more ideal). That feature alone is worth buying the camera for. Saves a ton of time knowing you'll have a good snapshot when light conditions are less than ideal. The smile recognizer actually does work well and I can see it coming in handy quite often. The panorama setting works better than any camera I've seen to date. I weebled and wobbled the camera on purpose and the panorama still would turn out really well.
Those are the main items noticeably better than other digital point-and-shoots. It does come with an digital instruction manual on the camera if your curious about what something is when you are away from home.
I've been playing with my FujiFilm 3D camera recently, which if you are a photography geek I recommend scoping out. I went with 3D over high-quality 2D, but after seeing this in action I'm seriously considering the H70. Before this I was eyeing the alpha line (a55) from sony, which is an amazing camera in its own right. Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H70 16.1 MP Digital Still Camera with 10x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom G Lens and 3.0-inch LCD (Black)
This is my 3rd Sony camera and like the others it takes great pictures. What I mainly like about the camera is the SteadyShot stabilization and the Active mode that is available for videos. Other cameras usually only have an electronic stabilization which doesn't really do anything. Sony's actually physically moves the sensor. Getting up in years, my hands are not as steady as they used to be and at full zoom, taking a picture or video with other cameras at full zoom is very jumpy. Another cool feature is the Sweep Panorama which creates some great shots. Unfortunately the only way I have found to view them in sweep mode is using the included PMB software. Viewing them in a slideshow only gives a static image though. All-in-all, you can't go wrong with this camera.
PRO's - Steadyshot, great pictures. zoom range
CON's - Zoom noise is very prevalent in videos
Bought this camera five days ago. Paid full retail which was around $229.00 and I had to buy a memory card, it did not come with one. The picture quality is great and it is very simple to use. The panorama actually works pretty good and I got it to take a panoramic photo on the 3rd try. The movie quality is outstanding, and again, easy to use. There are some settings I've yet to figure out. To me, it seems like a lot of camera fo the money. Plus, I've not had many problems with Sony products.
I bought the camera this past weekend, used it at my sons baseball game the pictures came out nice, just wish the zoom was a little bit longer, for having 10x zoom the camera is small and slim, it might not have touch screen and all the other little nice features but it does what a camera should do take nice pictures. I use to use a olypmus 10x zoom and a kodak 10x zoom but this little camera in my opinion takes nicer looking photos and is a lot smaller then those other bulker cameras i use to use, I think this camera is a bang for the buck.
I really like this Sony. I bought it because I needed a portable camera. I use a Canon S10 IS but it is too big to carry around on vacation or casual events. I was wary because the reviews on Amazon were varied but a digital camera review site gave it extremely high marks. After having this camera for 3 weeks, here are the pros and cons:
PROS:
The best auto - mode I have seen anywhere. I took pics in Disney world in daytime and low light conditions, indoor and out, and the pictures came out great with no flash needed...ISO adjusted automatically
Burst mode - press and hold button to take 3 consecutive shots
10x zoom - almost unheard of for a camera this small
Shutter speed is great, yes really. But if you are in auto mode and the setting has changed (daytime to twilight for example) your first shot will be delayed while it changes to the new mode
Portrait mode will recognize up to 8 faces in your picture, great for families or group shots
Sony now has a slot for an SD card in addition to their Memory Stick, this was a big selling point for me
CONS:
Shutter speed for changing modes as above. You can manually set the mode to bypass that.
I have not yet figured out how to stop the preview after a pic. Not sure that is Sony's fault.
No optical viewfinder. They are more rare in small cameras but help when it's sunny out.
This camera takes some practice. Not a lot, but you really do need to look at the online manual to get the best use from it.
MY CONCLUSION:
Overall I am very happy with my purchase. If you want a point and shoot that is easy out of the box, there are better suited cameras out there. If you want a camera that's a few steps up from a basic point and shoot, this one is great if you are willing to take the time to learn how to use it. Once you do, changing the settings is fast and easy. - Sd Cards - Digital Photo - Digital Frames - Digital Camera Case'
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