On the Nightshift

What makes the Sony HX1 so special?
Let´s take a dark corner in one you need all the ISO you can get and a very sturdy hand because the intelligent mode wants to use 1/4 second.

this is a lossless crop and you see it in all its glory when you click at the picture. ISO 3200 sure ain´t pretty, but you have the shot. People, this is 1/4 sec HANDHELD! Belive me my hands are not the sturdiest anymore.For a fast comparison here is a 400 pixel crop.




Now lets try the twilight mode


and the 400 pixel crop



Both use ISO 3200 the twilight mode just uses 1/2 second.
The stabilizer does very good work


Let´s compare a real night shot

Same shot whit twilight mode. Both are ISO 3200


So you get the idea. I would like see any other superzoom deliver these out of the camera results.
Here is a little feller who was just sticking on my ceiling. The gecko was shot with the lens on his nose or at least as close as 1" or 2.5 cm. With 1/13 sec and 400 ISO. Look at the fine pastel colors and you can see every detail of the skin. Now look for noise since all these superzooms are already bad at ISO 400 with noise.


Well? Didn´t find any? Neither did I. Good Sony! Have a cracker.

When 4 years ago I tried the Sony H1, I was impressed with the far reaching flash.
Lucky for me the HX1 still has the same powerful flash.
Let me show you what I mean:

We take a Yucca palm tree what is 12 meters away (that is roughly 12 yards). It is midnight with a full moon (you know that guy from an earlier posting) and one a far away street light.
Setting is Intelligent Auto mode and lets top it off with 20x zoom.


Since I am on 5 MP lets try the 26x smart zoom what actually uses the rest of the sensor to  zoom without quality loss.


So this is a 26x zoom on a distance from 12 meters and I can still see everything what is in the picture, even darker parts.


Here is a shot with 20x and it is around 10-11 meter distance.
When I was taking a picture from the little sticky feller earlier I also tried a close up flash. This is around 5x zoom and less than 50 cm away, that is less than a foot an a half.
The flash exposure is good, my ceiling and wall actually is yellow and the pastel skin color is beautiful captured.


Note to self: add very powerful flash to the good points.