With the birth of my youngest son Tristan, I went camera shopping to upgrade from my old Canon point-and-shoot.

Price was not really an issue as I really wanted a camera that could give me the ability to capture more family magic moments more vividly. You know, the time at home, playing with my son, holidays and other activities.

Immediately, I thought about getting a DSLR camera. In which case, I considered the Canon EOS 500D and the Nikkon D5000. In the end, after much analysis, I decided to go with the Sony DSC-HX1.

Now, I know there’s going to be a lot of hue and cry especially from pro photographers that I had asked advice from. A lot of people were telling me to just get a DSLR camera. That’s what I thought too. But, I always go with my own analysis and I want to explain why I got the Sony DSC-HX1. Here are just some of the reasons:

Reason 1: Aperture Adjustments for Portraits

The first thing I wanted to be able to do was to create an “aperture” effect where my subject is in focus and the background is blurred. I was told that it would be hard to do without a good lens with a DSLR camera. But with the Sony DSC-HX1, I found that I could do this in many ways. I could use the “Aperture” mode and blow up the aperture while I used the point focus to zoom in on my subject. I could also use the “Scene” mode and choose “Portrait” and let the face detection feature focus in on the faces.

Whilst I agree the photos are not as good as a DSLR, its pretty damn close. When I view the shots projected through my HD projector onto a 90 inch screen, they are pretty close to perfect! I could zoom in and see tiny freckle and moles and all! (Not sure if my wife thinks this is a good feature!)

Reason 2: Powerful 20x Optical Zoom

The built-in 20x optical zoom on the Sony DSC-HX1 is nothing short of amazing. The most powerful feature about the zoom is the anti-shake and anti-blur feature. Because the shutter speed is super fast, I can zoom in on a distant object and snap once. The camera takes 6 separate shots in that instant and it puts it back together to give a very clear picture that is free of motion blur. Just take a look at the amazing zoom on the picture I took below:

Before zoom:

After zoom:

Yes. The zoom looks as though I was right outside the window but I was very very far away. See how clear the photo is. The anti-shake mechanism does work extremely well. This allows for a LOT of options during composition.

Reason 3: 1080P HD Video Recording with 20x Zoom

The fact that this camera came with a full HD feature was very compelling for me. I do make a lot of home videos and this means I don’t need to carry a separate video recorder. Just take a look at the video quality and zoom capabilities in the video below:

Reason 4: Instant Panorama Photos

One of the most unique feature of this Sony DSC-HX1 is the instant panorama features. This is like a no-brainer way to make really good panorama shots without having to mess with any post-production. Just pick a starting point, press and hold the shutter button, pan to the left or right (or up or down), then release when you reach the end of your composition.

The software stitches the photos together and instantly creates a stitched panorama shot. Cool eh? This really does save a lot of time and therefore I find that I actually use it a lot now!

Click the photo below to see the full panorama image

This feature also really helps to take a picture of a compact room too. For example if there’s a shot where you just can’t squeeze everyone in, you can use the panorama feature to solve the problem.

Like I said, I am already using this a lot and I can see where this will really come in handy on our family holidays for capturing the feel of scenic locations.

Reason 5: The Price

I got this camera for a lot less than the DSLRs and the closest rival, the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS. The decision was easy for me because despite having more features, it was the lowest priced camera among the one I was looking at.

Also, because it has a full HD video camera mode, I also no longer need to purchase a HD Video Camera as I had originally planned to do.

Conclusion

There’s a lot of other little features that make this the ideal camera for non-professionals like myself. I like the face detection and smile detection features. It also has a “twilight mode” that takes great shots at night and automatically removes any blurriness in low light conditions. It has a 10 shot per second shutter speed to capture fast action. And a lot more really.

I think Sony needs to pay me for this review. I normally don’t buy Sony products (aside from my PS3) because I am a Mac fan and Sony has been notoriously non-compatible with Macs. But I must say, they did a great job with this camera. So much so, that I am now recommending it to others.

Especially for people like me who want to upgrade to a much better photo quality but not quite ready to go for the DSLR range. Honestly, I want great photos but I’m really not into buying new equipment like lenses and different types of filters to get different types of shot. I also don’t like to fiddle with too many manual settings. I just want a compact solution to get great shots easily.

So, if you’re like me then I highly recommend this camera.

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