Sony Going Small with New 30x Zoom Cyber-shots

April 21, 2015 by Vince Font Reads (2,013)

Sony DSC HX90V

Point-and-shoot cameras have one advantage over smartphones: optical zooms. It makes sense then that Sony would tout the zoom capabilities in its latest Cyber-shot cameras. In fact, these compact Cyber-shots are the smallest 30x optical zoom cameras in the world, according to Sony.

In addition to 30x optical zoom, the DSC-HX90V and the DSC-WX500 both come with an 18.2-megapixel BSI-CMOS sensor, a BIONZ X processor, and a 3 inch upward-tilting LCD with 921k dot resolution. Both are also Wi-Fi and NFC compatible, and share the capacity to record 1080/60p video. The XAVC S codec facilitates 50 mbps video recording.

The aforementioned lens is a Zeiss Vario Sonnar T, and the aforementioned zoom extends to 60x digital with Sony’s “Clear image” capability. While digital zoom typically degrades image quality (making it near useless to us), we are interested to see how well “Clear image” maintains fidelity.

Sony DSC HX90V

Other specs include 5-axis Optical SteadyShot stabilization, and a built-in pop-up flash.

The HX90V, which will cost an extra hundred dollars, brings a handful of features not available on its counterpart release. These includes built-in GPS for automatic geotagging of snapshots and video, as well as a pop-up OLED viewfinder that is the same viewfinder previously available with the RX100 III.

Both cameras are slated for release in June. The DSC-WX500 will cost approximately $330, and the DSC-HX90V will bear a price tag of roughly $430.