Sony DSC-H9

Reviewed May 2007

Image Quality

On paper, the characteristics of the Sony DSC-H9 are impressive: a Carl Zeiss 15X optical zoom with SteadyShot stabilization, an 8-megapixel image size, a 3-inch tilting monitor, all the shooting modes a serious photographer needs, and a sensitivity range that covers from 80 to 3200 ISO.

Regrettably, and quite unusual for a Sony camera, we found the DSC-H9 to be very disappointing. First, this is the first "advanced" camera — Sony's own description — to offer only a single JPEG compression level.

Clearly, an "advanced" camera could be expected to offer a RAW format, and at the very least offer 3 levels of JPEG compression including one that should have no more than a 4:1 compression ratio, and which would yield a high quality JPEG image.

Instead, with the H9, the only compression level is set to a range that runs from a compression ratio of 9:1, to as strong as 13:1. These are compression levels that are far too severe to preclude the appearance of compression artifacts.

The image at left is an example of this phenomenon. When viewed at a reduced size, the image appears sharp and detailed, yet when inspected at 100% scale, the image looks almost like a painting. Moreover, details such as the little bird's leg (see below), which have colours close to those of the background — the wood of the bird feeder — almost disappear as the removal of colour hues by the compression "blends" them into the background.

With other subjects, the result of the compression is that parts of the image, usually parts that are slightly outside the focus zone, or which are distant, take on an even more noticeable impressionistic look.

Indeed, even subjects that normally would remain perfectly recognizable, such as the chrome numbers in the image at left, take on an what can only be described as an oil painting look.

Too strong a compression, however, is only part of the story. The Carl Zeiss lens, albeit a prestigious name, appears to be not well-suited to the H9's CCD. The widest angle of the zoom yields images that easily go out of focus on the edges of the frame, and which show purple fringing — a chromatic aberration that is not uncommon with digital cameras — on the edges of contrasting areas. Past the widest angle, the image sharpness improves in the corners, but purple fringing remains a possibility when there are contrasting image elements.

On the other hand, even with the strong compression, the overall colour accuracy of the H9 is excellent, and only when images are inspected in detail will they be found to be wanting, making the strong compression Sony elected to use all the more regrettable.

Similarly, it is obvious that the camera benefits from an excellent Multi-pattern metering system. Exposures are usually perfectly well-balanced, with no over- or underexposed areas.

Set to 80 or even 100 ISO and with good outdoor light, the DSC-H9 produces images that show no serious shadow noise, and only slightly more colour noise. Still, with the H9 a precise determination of the noise content of images is difficult due to the compression.

At 200 ISO, noise — particularly colour noise that gives single colour areas in an image a slightly pixilated appearance — is more noticeable. At the 400 ISO level, the image processing tends to soften detail visibly.

With the 800 ISO level, the image becomes strongly pixilated and details visible at lower sensitivity levels drop out. The highest sensitivities, 1600 and 3200 ISO, produce images that are impressionistic, and which contain very little detail.

The NightShot mode, which uses an infrared beam to light the subject, also uses a high sensitivity, resulting in images that have a limited value, as they too are quite noisy.

Indoors, the pop-up flash of the H9 fares generally well, although some light drop-off can be seen in the corners of the frame when the zoom is at the widest angle and the camera is set to 80 ISO. With the sensitivity set to Auto, the H9 tends to boost the sensitivity quickly to the 400 ISO range, even in a reasonably well-lit room, trading off an increase in noise for more uniform brightness.

We would have liked to have been more complimentary of the DSC-H9, but our initial enthusiasm over some of its features faded when we inspected our images.

The fact is that however interesting and feature-laden a camera is, in our opinion the image quality is more important than anything else. And in this area, the H9 is a disappointment.

Nevertheless, the DSC-H9 can satisfy the needs of many users who print their photos without ever cropping them. Only with larger prints — 8 x 10 (20 x 25 cm) and up — is there a chance that the images will be less than satisfactory. At lower sizes — 6 x 4 (10 x 15 cm) or 5 x 7 (12 x 15 mm) — our tests proved that photos from the DSC-H9 should print perfectly well.