Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX400V Wi-Fi Digital Camera

It is what it is. I have a problem with some shots at the 1600 Telephoto setting. Ive included a sample of that problem. They dont all turn out like that. I miss the RAW availability, but I knew that going in. Everything else, so far, is as advertised. Other than a few messed up telephotos, the other settings I have used are great! Panorama is fantastic. Macro photos are nice. I havent used all the features yet, I am learning each one intimately as I go. The spider web photo was at about 15 feet off the ground. The chipmunk photo was taken from about 10 feet, so you can see this Sony does a good job. Ive also included two panoramas for you to view. I am happy with it mainly because I dont have to carry several lenses and change them whenever required. Im not after publishing quality--I just want to shoot whatever catches my eye.

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My first Sony digital camera and this seems to be a great one. It does not shoot RAW photos....only Jpeg photos. It does not come with an external battery charger and you need to charge the battery inside the camera. I got 2 external battery chargers so I can continue to use this camera while the dead batteries are charging up. It easily takes Sony stick cards, SD, SDHC & SDXC cards. It comes with a fairly good 50X optical zoom. Menu layout is extensive, but fairly easy to figure out & navigate. It has wifi connection capabilities also. Photo qualities in this camera for daylight outdoor photos seems quite good , very sharp & colorful. Video qualities during the day is not bad and quite good at 1080 HD. Indoor photos using flash comes out pretty good also. The camera has red eye reduction also which is good for indoor photos. Various scene modes, fully automatic mode, programmable ,manual modes are on this camera along with 2 stereo microphones above the flash housing compartment. The rear LED viewfinder does tilt out...but does not swivel....but still decent 920,000 dpi & optical view-finder seems pretty good on this camera also....almost as good as my Panasonic FZ300s OLED view-finders. One very nice thing this camera has is the automatic eye sensor next to the EVF. Using the EVF will blank/turn off the rear LED viewfinder....something I like a lot and my older Panasonic FZ1000 and FZ300 cameras also had that and it worked as well as this Sony one works rather well. There is a focus/zoom ring on this camera also...nearly the same as the Panasonic FZ1000....another nice touch. This camera has a pretty solid & well-built feel, great large handgrip, lots of features, great 50X optical zoom & the lens is a Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* lens, which should mean that its capable of producing high quality images....which it seems to do just fine. One major annoyance with this camera is it "processsing photos" when you take 10 photos quickly in a row. This is a major negative mark against this camera. I have a Panasonic Lumix FZ-300 digital camera and a Canon SX60-HS digital camera and neither of those have this issue. Another quirk with this camera is when I insert fresh SD cards in this camera, the camera goes nuts and simply is a pain. No other digital camera I have had before or even my current digital cameras I got from Canon and Panasonic has this issue either. This Sony camera has too many quirks for me to give it 5 stars and basically I docked off one more star from my original rating from 4 stars to now a 3 star rating. Lower light photos is fair to middling okay and this camera does best in daylight conditions outdoors and indoors using flash. But again, overall photo qualities with this camera seems pretty good. This camera has a 20.4 million-pixel back illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor, the same as the HX300 if I recall. Maximum continuous shooting rate for this camera is 10fps [frames per second], on par with a few other cameras and really not bad. Basically this Sony digital camera is a pretty solid mid-level camera that has quite a bit on it...along with a decent 50X optical zoom, good lens optics and really seems to take decent photos and videos. Full manual controls are on this camera....but no RAW photo support on this camera. You can attach an external flash on this camera....but the camera has a decent built-in flash also. No, you will not get DSLR quality photos, but photo qualities will still be quite nice overall....so dont expect super DSLR quality photos. I got this camera to replace a Panasonic FZ70 I just purchased and had to return and got this Sony in its place.

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The geotagging feature no longer works with mapping in the PlayMemories app for listing location names. You can get precise coordinates with your photos but not what I was hoping for. You have to download additional apps in order to get the actual names of locations and work with the coordinates that the camera has given and do a bunch of transferring your files, etc... Apparently, you once and recently could get that feature but something about no longer supporting Google Maps and their "writing" no longer interphases with Sony cameras. GPS was one of the main features for me buying this camera along with the ability to actually focus manually. Also, the phone app *no longer* supports being able to shoot movies with the remote (phone app.) I have spent days and days, WEEKS! trying to find solutions and other apps that will work for my needs. Makes me wonder if I shouldve gone with the Nikon P900, but that doesnt have a manual focus option with an actual focus ring on the lens. And its too late now. I do love the compact size and it does seem perfect for travel though I wish it had an eyecup for the viewfinder. There isnt even a way to attach one unless I find one that mounts to the hot shoe. Sometimes people prefer not to use the LCD screen in certain situations and an eye cup would be great.

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