This is my first review on MS, and I will try and give a omplete and to the point review for this product. After doing a research for almomst 3 months, I finally settled on the DSC H50.
A lot of folks told me to go in for a Canon or a Nikon or some reputed Camera manufacturer. Sony, they said was for TVs, and other such electronics. Not cameras.
Anyways, I went in and bought the Sony DSC H50. This is a Digital camera, that looks, and to some extent has some features that you would probably find in a more expensive DSLR.
It weighs about 450 gms, and is not too heavy while shooting for a long time. The camera fits well in the palm, and doesnt feel to bulky while handling.
The H50 is a 9.1 MP camera, with a Vario Sonnar lens. The 3" screen is a blessing. Shots can be seen with very good clarity even in bright light. The controls are placed at the right hand side, and if one has bever used a digital camera before, these features dont take long to get used to. The clicker is neatly located to suit the index finger use.
The 15x optical zoom holds it;s own ground at max zoom. Pictures taken have surprising clarity.
The battery life is good to take about 300 pictures (provided one has the memory space for it), and I am satisfied with the current battery levels. More would be god sent, but then again, who doesnt want more of a good thing!!
It has a lot of inbuilt photo editing options like photo cropping, fixing etc. The night shots are superbly captured. The ISO range is upto 3200. The camera is fast interms of picture clicking timing.This camera comes with a 1GB memory duo (Sony proprietary) card, the only fallacy of this being that one cannot use any other brand of memory chip. Only Sony.
The closest competitor to this was the Ninkon P-80, and the fact that I chose Sony over the Nikon, with due inputs from some experts at the store. The nikon P-80 is a 10.1 MP, 18x camera, but pictures taken at max zoom had a lot of noise. Features wise SOny is richer, at least in this segment.
I waited atleast 3 months before posting this review. So far I am not disappointed with the H50, and would strongly recommend it to anyone considering buying a camera for personal use as well as amateur hobby.