Sony Cybershot DSC-H3

Other than poping up the flash manually,a default right from the store,this camera is packed with features,at 8 mps it will print out a size of 11 by 17 inch print at full resolutions,a big 10 x optical zoom,not counting the digital zoom,it also has a conversion for close up lens ,micro lens and telephoto lens all currently the same thread size of the sony h5 accessories,.it has face detection up to 8 faces,even if the people move about,the sensor will track all faces and move with the subject.this camera has no view finder to look thru,other than the 2.5 inch live view lcd screen, that has a extra bright screen mode,it also incorporates a grid line on your screen optional of course,but very useful for squaring up your shots.It has many modes of braketing, and ev settings, 5 modes of color,iso from 100 to 3200, three metering modes, three focus modes,as well as five more settable focus modes from 1.7 feet to 3.3,10,23,and unlimited distance.8 white balance settings as well as a flash level settings from +2. to -2.0. red eye reduction, adjustable contrast and sharpness, and best of all three modes of steady shoot. At 8.1 mega pixels the strong flash is good up to 14 meters at iso 3200.The camera comes with a lens cap adapter ring with a hood and the usb/video cord, and the battery and charging dock.playback on the tv has viewing time selectabilty.On manual mode the f/stop goes from 3.5 to 10.

what i also find unique with this small compact yet powerful little point and shoot are the in camera abilities , such as its in camera retouch features such as soft focus,partial color, where you pin point a area in the image then it reformats that image in black and white except for your selected area that remains its true color. fish eye effect,again you pin point a area ,once selected you are able to select the degree from 1 to 9 increasing its intensisty then saving it as a new image.cross filter that makes your bright lights stand more out.and trimming effect,enabling you to zoom in 5x then saving that image and allowing you to reasign its own megapixel strength.and finally red eye correction.this camera has three modes of recording video,based on your memory card, with the playback feature of having full 1080 HD viewing, you have the ability to download 4 thirty second songs on playback,and slideshow.maual shooting and priority with the auto and six other shooting modes with extra twilight selection beach,snow,and fireworks.it records sounds while film motion that has three selections of recording quality,based on your memory.the camera does have a tripod screw in at the bottom.I believe one of its biggest strength is its size,so compact and yet powerful.this camera has macro selection and three modes of flash and a 2 second and 10 second timer,great for tripod use,a menu button as well as home,and bright button that controls the histogram on live view.this camera would be great for those outdoorsmans, fishing trips camping or even viewing events in arena's, its so compact and yet so powerful,having live view,and able to make changes,and to see your changes before you snap the picture really makes this camera so user friendly, its the main reason why I bought it for my 12 year old son,who uses it in both manual and auto modes. the in camera feature makes it even more fun to use.

the weakness i see is the battery,taking nearly four hours to charge and the cost of a replacement nearing a third of the camera cost. the battery is a type G lithium ion, NP-BG1.The kit came with a brief operating manual, you need to download the full manual from sony's website, I wish they provided the copy at least then you can take it with you to use as reference.one weakness i found is on its manual settings , it goes from lowest aperature setting to its extreme setting,virtually no middle ground,other than resetting the exposure times,the most you can set it too is thirty seconds to 2000 th of a second.

I also own the sony h5,having the accessories for this camera and having the same thread size for the h3,has allowed me to share all my polarizer lens and nuetral density filters along with my tele zoom lens that fits on the supplied conversion lens and hood. having two camera's sharing the same accessories is quite handy.

I contacted customer service about the flash not poping up on its own,they responded with solutions to try right away,but resetting the camera back to factory settings did nothing,they suggested to take it back to the store or send it to a qualified repair store,they told me about three weeks sending it out,i decided to flip it up manually myself instead of having other people poking their hands in the camera.even with my little inconvenience, i would reccomend this little power zoom, for its price and user friendly ,its a great little camera.