MakuaMan Loc: Waianae, Hi.

Any opinions on this Super Zoom Camera.?
Mahalo, MakahaMan

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I have this camera, the Sony DSC-HX400V. Very happy with the results. This picture was taken at 1200mm hand held. The Kestrel was about 85 yards away. This was the actual crop.

American Kestrel

Jbat Loc: Charleston, SC

Thats a great hand-held shot.

kemo Loc: Tampa, FL

I have a love/hate relationship with this camera.
The Bad: It takes much too long to process the shot. After EVERY shot the camera displays "Processing" while it goes about it's business. It does this in every mode setting and with every conceivable speed affecting option turned off in the menu. It is not the card... it displays this message even with no card installed (and I use the fastest card on the planet anyway) It frustrates me so much that I use the camera only for specific roles where speed won't be required.
The Good: Image quality is simply first rate; it blows other bridge cameras away and compares favorably to DSLR (no RAW but I don't miss it). Stabilization works very well, battery life is much better than spec, it works well with third party flash, it feels great in the (male) hand and build quality is first rate.
If you an tolerate the slow processing speed it is a magnificent piece of engineering

billgdyoung Loc: Big Bear City, CA

I've taken about 2,000 shots with this camera... results are almost always great... even the moon shots with the camera's built in 10sec delay/3 exposures... works fine. I also like the rear curtain flash for good exposure thru the window, then fires flash for good exposure of the room's interior. The only gripe is that the accessory port on the side takes only Sony accessories... T'would be nice if that port were compatible with, say, Canon stuff...

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Like the other folks who have posted, I also have an HX400. It's a great walk around camera. My wife has pretty much taken mine over for shooting birds at the feeders outside out patio door. There are some negatives as voiced above but, the positives outweigh them by a long shot.

James56 Loc: Nashville, Tennessee

A great camera, here's a sample from it's predecessor the Hx300. Image quality is wonderful. I'm providing a unreduced image. I'm doing this because so many folks post greatly reduced images to sell their particular brand. Now this image has been processed in Photoshop Elements to bring out the color and detail...but even with that, the image came out very well. As far as lag time express by "kemo", with "processing" I don't experience that at all except when I'm doing long time exposures. Cycle time from shot-to shot is not bad for me. Yes there is a slight delay after all, it's writing a 20.4 mp image and some delay should be expected.

(Download)

Fifyboy Loc: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Agreed - I own one too.

Fifyboy Loc: Chicago, Illinois, USA

That's right, James.
A very nice image too! Love it.

James56 Loc: Nashville, Tennessee

Thanks Fifyboy, if you want to see more out of this camera, I have a link below. Click the view fullscreen icon at the lower right for best viewing. The Sony Superzoom is an amazing camera. Best general purpose camera I've ever run across. Really great sharp details.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/james-frazier/sets/72157646216293167/show

MakuaMan Loc: Waianae, Hi.

Mahalo to each of you for your responses. The images shown here and at DP Review plus Youtube tell me I should be happy with image quality, zoom reach plus the fact it has so many different modes and I'm old and sometimes just want the camera to do the work. Hopefully Kemo has a problem with his that causes the time lag. If the rest of you don't have that problem then it must be his camera. I've heard nothing about that problem as that would cause a bit of concern for me.
BTW, I'll be selling my Nikon D7000 system and will post it in the next few days on UHH. It has about 5000 shutter actuation's and would get a 9 or 9+ for condition. I just need to take some photo's of it.
Here's a list of what's in it. If any of you are interested please PM me.

1) D7000 body
2) NP-D11 Vertical Grip
3) 18-105mm 3.5-5.6
4) 80-400mm 4.5-5.6
5) SB-700 Flash
6) 67mm Hoya Pro Digital MC UV
7) 77mm Hoya Alpha Digital MC UV
8) Lowepro Fastpack 350, holds 17.3" laptop + system
9) Nikon wireless remote
Asking $1,800.00

It does need a cleaning after 4 years so I'll cover the shipping to cover that part. The images are great and only when blowing up blue sky can you see some spots. This is normal for that amount of time.

Aloha, MakahaMan

MakuaMan Loc: Waianae, Hi.

James56,
Excellent work. I'm even more impressed now with the camera's ability and not to mention your skill as a photographer. It looks more and more like this might be the camera for me.
Mahalo M.M.

Bill MN Loc: Western MN

I have the HX 400. It's a very good camera once I learned how to set and use it. Read the book and try some of the different settings. I didn't like it when I first got it but that was my fault. I turned off the HDR found on page 43 and 176 in the manual.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

What camera brand are you aware of that is compatible with accessories of other brands? I've never heard of such a thing except Fuji being compatible with Nikon flashes and the micro-4/3 bodies by Panasonic and Olympus being lens compatible.

I would think Sony would be vehemently opposed to being compatible with Canon anything since Canon is the only hold-out in the industry that doesn't buy its sensors from Sony.

Fifyboy Loc: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Amazingly sharp photos with your HX300! Excellent job, James!
For those concert photos, did you use (A) or (T) priority, or just (P)?