Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50

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Features

The H50 has an impressive amount of tweakable options. Hitting the menu button gave us instant access to white balance, bracketing level, flash intensity, dynamic range, noise reduction, color settings--the list goes on. Even in fully automatic mode, we could adjust face detection, red-eye reduction and scene recognition.

This crop, taken at the maximum ISO 3,200, shows the noise reduction system settings, from left to right: Off, Standard and Plus.
(click for larger image)

The 15x optical zoom lens has a 31-465mm focal length (35mm-equivalent). A 1/2.3-inch CCD and Bionz processor handle the thinking, while features include face detection with high-speed subject tracking, an adjustable smile shutter, and dual anti-blur with Sony's Super SteadyShot image stabilization. Besides JPEG, the H50 can also capture in RAW file format and high-definition still images, but video is only VGA and sound is in mono.

Photo slideshows can be played back on your television with music via a one-touch slideshow button. Yet again, a proprietary HDMI cable is required. In playback mode, the camera can filter images by whether there are faces or even just children's faces in the picture. Another interesting feature we associate more with camcorders than cameras is infrared NightShot mode.

The camera records to Sony's Memory Stick PRO or PRO Duo format, which may be useful if you already own a Sony point-and-shoot.

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