Do not be alarmed by the long list of pros and cons here, the Sony Cybershot DSC-H5 is a good camera. Since several technical review sites have seen this camera, it has been scrutinized quite a bit. The H5 does improve significantly on its predecessor, the H1and even does a few things better than the Sony Cybershot DSC-H2.

 

The Sony H5 performs well in typical conditions in terms of image quality and speed of operation. Image quality is good at ISO up to 200 with purple fringing being the biggest problem. Under artificial lighting, the automatic white balance distorts colors but this is easily corrected using custom white-balance which is quite accurate. Speed is also good except for focusing near the telephoto end of the lens.

 

Another subtle point in the evaluation of this camera is the battery-life which is measured as below average compared to other ultra-zoom cameras. It is important to note that several competing models achieve better battery life using twice the number of batteries, thus per-battery the H5 would measure very well.

 

The direct competition of this digital camera is the Canon Powershot S3 IS. Though, these cameras are both rated good, the Canon one handles better in terms of control layout and steadyness. Image quality is similar between these two models. The excellent Fuji Finepix S9000 may not be a direct competitor but its image quality is so superior it is definetely worth a look. Differences between these cameras is that the S900 features clean high-ISO capabilties instead of optical stabilization and that the 10.7X optical zoom lens of the S9000 starts at a wide-angle equivalent to 28mm.

 

Read the full Sony Cybershot H5 review here.