Sony DSC H10 Review

The Sony DSC H10 is one of the increasing numbers of smaller super zoom cameras. Although not exactly small enough to fit into a pocket it is still significantly smaller than many digital cameras with a large zoom lens. The DSC H10 has 8 megapixels and a 10x optical zoom.

As mentioned above the DSC H10 gives you plenty of zoom, but in a relatively compact body. It has a good range of features including a manual exposure mode. I found the picture quality to be roughly in line with that produced by other similar models and I was impressed by the ease of use and handling of the camera. As with other Sony cameras shutter lag times were very impressive.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
This is a good effort on a number of accounts. The colours work well, sharpness is above average and the glare from the sun is handled well. This leads to a photo with high levels of detail and true colours.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
Compared to many other cameras the DSC H10 focuses well with the lens zoomed all the way out. The colours are vivid too. There is some purple fringing in the shot.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
Purple fringing is certainly an issue in this shot as well. This is where a thin purple line appears around the edges of light coloured objects. Focusing also slips on the edges of the shot.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
Cameras with a longer zoom lens have an advantage with this shot. I only need to zoom in half way for the shot. This should coincide with the sweet spot of the lens and give it the best opportunity to take a super sharp picture. This Sony digital camera is not bad at all, but there is a fall off in focusing on the left hand side of the photo.

Outdoor Portrait
The colours in this shot have a warm glow to them. Focusing is sharp too with the face detection focusing doing its job well.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
One of the advantages of these larger cameras where the flash unit pops up on top of the camera is that they tend to have a bit more power than those found on smaller compacts. This helps them to spread the light more evenly as you can see in this test picture. The positioning of the flash away from the lens also helps to cut down on the problem of red eye.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
This test shot is a bit darker than I have seen from other cameras. This suggests that as soon as the light starts to dip flash will be required to get the best out of this Sony digital camera.

Colours
I like the colours produced by the DSC H10. There is plenty of strength to them without going over the top. There is a good balance to the colours too.

Macro
An advantage of the larger lens appears to be a better quality macro shot than I have managed with some of the smaller compacts in the Sony range. This photo may not be quite up there with the very best, but it is still a worthy effort.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
There is nothing much to report with this shot. There is the usual drop in overall quality. This is inline with expectations.

Overall
Overall I am pleased with my test shots. There are one or two issues such as the purple fringing that holds back the DSC H10, but this is a common problem with super zoom cameras.

Shutter lag times are impressive both with and without flash. Without flash the times were 0.15 seconds for a single photo and 6.76 seconds for 5. With flash it was 0.33 seconds for a single photo and 8.25 seconds for five. This is much faster than most cameras manage.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The DSC H10 is like a cut down SLR camera. It is available in black.

106 x 68.5 x 48.9mm

264g

Lithium Ion (NP-BG1). Sony supplies both a battery and a charger with the DSC H10. They also suggest you should be able to take in the region of 310 shots in between charges.

Sony has built 31MB of storage into the DSC H10. I was able to take 12 photos before the memory was full. It is also compatible with Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Duo Pro cards.

Click here to save money on Memory Stick.

I had no problems with ease of use. The controls are laid out well and the menu system makes sense.

Ease of use - shutter lag times - overall picture quality

Purple fringing

An even smaller super zoom worth looking at is the Panasonic DMC TZ5. The next camera up in this series is the Sony DSC H50.

I like the Sony DSC H10. It is a handy size for a camera with such a long lens. It takes a good photo in most circumstances and has very low shutter lag times.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Sony DSC H10