Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX100V 16.2 MP Exmor R CMOS Digital Still Camera with Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 30x Optical Zoom Lens and Full HD 1080 Video

I went through camera H3LL before buying this camera. I started with an Olympus, then Cannon, then Nikon, and each one I knew within 10min - 24hours they were going back. I really hated the Olympus - not the same as it used to be.. picture quality was the worst of all 4. The Cannon was already giving me problems with not turning on after a few hours (went though the same thing with my Cannon camera two years ago), and then there was the Nikon. I really wanted to like the Nikon, I mean it was my favorite appearance wise (went with red) but the picture quality was just bad. The Cannon took better photos! So I finally bought this camera, and within 12 hours I knew I was no parting with this camera for anything!You should know - I am not a professional photographer in any form. I use my camera mainly to take pictures of my kids. This is important because kids are not the easiest subjects to get.. they are constantly moving and you have to have a camera that takes multiple shots in a row at high speeds otherwise you will never get a photo of a smile :)I love -1. The looks - it looks awesome. I pull it out and people always say "wow, that's a nice camera"2. The form of the camera. All the right indention, grips, and such to make holding it easy on the hands.3. I love the ability to move the screen up, down, and extent in and out. When my kids are down low I just move the screen facing up to me and lower my arms, no getting down on the ground.4. I love the photo edit options built in such as red eye reduction. Very few camera's have this now days and of all the ones I have used Sony is by far the best.5. I have never had a camera do this... it is fantastic.... but you can take a regular photo and then have the camera zoom in and crop out all area you zoomed out of the frame. This is fantastic because it does not affect the pixels. If I did this on my computer it would lessen the pixels and prevent me from blowing the photo up to larger formats.6. Any edit you make to a photo is saved, but also the original is saved as well. So if you see the photo on your computer and do not like the edit then you still have the original.7. The zoom... yea enough said there! WOW 30X and they mean it.8. The zoom is fast in and out but not insane fast. This is important I learned from owning the Nikon. It would zoom so dang fast that I would loose my object immediately. I would spend another minute lightly tapping the zoom back out to find the subject and then tap tap tap tap tap zoom back in to get the photo withe my subject in it. FREAKING ANNOYING!9. The auto intelligent photo really works! Out of all 4 cameras the only auto intelligent photo that worked was the Cannon. The Sony by far has a much better working intelligent photo though and even a super auto intelligent photo option. I like both but the super one takes a while in between photos since it is actually editing and fine tuning your photo after it takes it.10. The pixels are perfect. They are clear and accurate in color and tones.11. The HD video is great. It is fast, clear, and the sound is good.12. Panoramic shots are superb and print out perfect.13. 3D option is super cool but I have not used it.14. The face detection is always spot on... I mean it never gets it wrong.15. The background de-focus is AMAZING! I love this feature!16. I very rarely get blurred photos. Even when the kids are riding bikes are playing around the photos still come out clear. I did not have this with any of the other camera's I went through.17. The smile shutter is great and works perfectly! You can even adjust it to the size smile from grin to big teeth showing smile. I captures the photo perfectly every time.18. Face softening feature is nice but honestly I do not use it very often.19. Anti blink feature really works - I had two cameras that boasted about this feature and it did not work. With this camera.. it works and works perfectly. I even tried it would several faces together and not one closed eye in any of the photos!20. Transfer jet is an incredible feature but I do not have anything to try it on yet.21. I love how you can either zoom with the zoom button on top of the camera or you can zoom with twisting your hand around the actual lens..22. All of the buttons are perfectly placed.23. The continues shooting mode is really nice and you get like 10 photos in the blink of an eye.24. I hate not having the view finder but this camera surpasses that! It is electronic and has everything the big screen has.25. HUGE screen. I love the big screen...26. The time that laps between photos is the shorted of all the camera's I tried. It was really fast, I am talking like 4.5 seconds between snapping a photo and being able to snap another... I just timed it myself to be 100% accurate. Now this is using (yes this is very important) a SanDisk SDHC Card #4. Those who are complaining about slow shutter speed are most likely using a cheap class level 2 card or off brand card (I SAID MOST SO DON'T GO ALL CRAZY IF YOU THINK THE SPEED IS SLOW AND YOU HAVE A HIGH PERFORMANCE CARD!)When I used my friends class level 10 SDXC card and OMGosh... the shutter speed was like 2 seconds or something! Crazy speed but expensive SD Card! For those who want to learn more about SC card classification just Google it... there is tons of info on the web.27. My husband loves the GPS feature but I have not used it and don't plan on it being that I do not want anyone having info of my kids whereabouts... overprotective like that... or so I have been told :). My husband uses it to take shot of his kill when he is out hunting, x marks the spot I guess.. I dunno? LOL28. The battery last a long time to me... I take on average 200-400 photos before I recharge it. Another plus is that the battery is a Sony common one, meaning all of our Sony products (camcorder, camera) both have the same batteries so that is helpful when it comes to charging them and buying an added external charger which I feel was a must.29. Great low light photos. I have tons of the kids asleep looking like angels and they all have come out clear and there was no blur or darkening of the pictures.The Cons -1. It is heavy after a while holding it with one hand while getting the kids to act right for the shot.2. I hate that it pops off the lens cover but I fixed this by tying the lens cover tether to the actual carry strap to the camera. So now I just turn it on and let it pop the cover off itself. It just hangs there until I power the camera down and put it back on.3. This is stupid to complain about but I am being totally honest here... I do not like how previewing photos with the camera off is set up. If you press the play button to JUST preview your photos on the screen, (not turn the camera on) everything works great and goes as it should BUT if you use logic and press the play button again to turn the preview off it actually turns the camera on! The way to turn off the preview without turning the camera on (this is so stupid to me) is by literally pressing the power button for the camera. That turns off the photo preview and does not power up the actual camera. So CraZy to me!4. Another minor... I wish you just push the shutter button to record a movie instead of finding the movie record button with is on the back of the camera by the play button. I like shooting movies with the view finder but it is too awkward to find and press the button with the camera up to my eye, and I do not want to set the dial and then press record while I am not even focused on my shot.So as you can see... from a Mom's point of view... I think this camera is a huge part of our family and I could not imagine having any other camera in it's place. I love this camera.

I got my last year and it hasn't had one issues, it is 4k and videos is really good, the setting is easy to use and to find out what do what, but there is one that is better and is make by the same people the is like 25$ more, If you new or want to give a photographer a gifts this is a good one.

I bought this on November 17, 2011 so I have had this bad boy for a long enough time to really know it and take a lot of photos with it.This camera was the successor to my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 12.1MP Digital Camera with 18x POWER Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7 inch LCDSo let's get started with the review.POWER - Like all electronics Power is necessary, and so are a necessary evil. Batteries. I found the battery that came with the camera to be quite good in terms of quality and life but if you are an active shooter who does not get around to a charger extremely often or forgets to charge then you will want to buy extra batteries and an external charger. This camera can either use externally charged batteries or you can charge one in the camera and use it at the same time with the included AC adapter, the AC adapter is extremely useful and is a welcome addition to my suitcase when traveling as whenever you are near an outlet you can juice it up or even shoot video or photos without touching the internal battery. This is great for when you are filming from a tripod and are not moving around much and are near an outlet, same goes for when you are shooting pictures from a tripod and not moving much.BUILD QUALITY - The camera is solid feeling and has a very durable look to it, the finish is not a shiny finish that will scratch, it is a dull finish for the camera body with speckles, almost texturized. I find this to be very welcome in my equipment. The lens has a shiny finish around the ring for zoom and focus which look's like it would get scratched ugly instantly yet I have had mine for over a year and put it to hell and back and still no scratches. The zoom / focus ring its self has some small scratches but that's the hard knock life my camera's live. The articulating screen is welcomed by me as it is not flimsy and is very solid on this camera, unlike some other camera's that I have tried. This screen is something I am not totally going to panic if I drop the camera. The lens and optics even when dirty produce the same quality images.IMAGE QUALITY - This camera produces stellar images all around, even in the pitch black of night time photographing the moon at 120x digital zoom came out very smooth with a minimal effect of image fringing which is common in digital zoom! This camera produces wonderful HDR stills with no Photoshop Required, just select Backlight Correction HDR, shoot the picture, and wait about 5 seconds and the screen pops out a HDR image! I really love working with this cameraVIDEO QUALITY - This camera produces wonderful HD video but there is only one kick in the teeth, you are limited to 30 minutes per video segment, and then you lose 5 seconds while it closes the file on the memory card, then you can tap record again. Annoying but otherwise okay. It is a camera, no one said this is a Camcorder. If you plan on shooting a lot of video where time is crucial then consider a Camcorder.Professional quality camera without the Professional price and need of being a professional to run it. And if you are a pro then you will appreciate this camera's manual focus and manual setting mode as you can go from a full auto into a SLR-like experience at the flip of a switch.Overall this camera beats every other super zoom camera I have tried hands down.If you are on the fence about buying this camera for photography get off the fence and get in the door and buy it.If you are on the fence about buying it for video, think again and consider a Camcorder.