Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50 Bridge Camera - Black

Great for active Baby/Toddler parent.

Strengths: Absolutely great flash. Super long lasting batteries. Great for taking pictures of fast moving objects :-) Great pictures in low light conditon and super night shots.

Weakness: So far so nothing.

So far I had quite few digital cameras including Sony Mavica, older model Cyber-shot, Kodak and Casio exlim. I used to buy them for different reasons but always trying to keep the highest pixel number I could afford as in the past you really needed few good pixels to take a decent picture especially for print. Nowdays anything with 5 Megapixel and up will give you decent enlargement up to letter...
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So far I had quite few digital cameras including Sony Mavica, older model Cyber-shot, Kodak and Casio exlim.

I used to buy them for different reasons but always trying to keep the highest pixel number I could afford as in the past you really needed few good pixels to take a decent picture especially for print.

Nowdays anything with 5 Megapixel and up will give you decent enlargement up to letter size photo so current market pretty much covers nicely with even lover end cameras quality of photos. All of them are pretty much 5 Megapixels and up averaging 7 or so.

Then of course medium that you are taking pictures matters as it might make a difference which brand you intend to use and what kind. This alone might influence the camera choice.

Finally optics do matter in final result so I tried different ones and I found it to be very interesting factor.

Nowdays my priorities shifted greatly. As a mom, as soon as I started taking pictures of my baby I noticed that for this purpose non of the cameras I had would do the trick. It was entierly different world of challenges to take a picture of a baby who changes the expression every milisecond and with a delay between pressing a release in your camera and actually taking picture enough time passed to have the baby end up in the opposite room, let alone go through seven different facial expression inbetween.

I was more and more frustrated. For a while I have been looking for camera that would be good enough for my very purpose. It quickly turned that for what most users was enough for me was just the beginning. So.. number of pxels.. yeah, as much as important as not sufficient..

It was most cruicial to have a camera that would be able to take picture of fast moving objects and that would not cost as much as small car.

I decided that for under $500 there was literarly none.

And then Sony came up with this puppy. I jumped into specs and was soo joyful. That was it. It was purfect for my purpose. We arrived!

What are most fascinating and useful features from my perspecitive and for my purpose of baby/toddler photography:

-Fast picture taking
-Opiton of continous shooting
-Great close ups
-Fantastic flash that has so many setting options
that are enough for even discriminating user
to find one that works perfect in every light condition
-takes fabulous pics at night, ever tried to take pictures of moon with other digital cameras? ha ha ha..
try this one finally! the same goes to shots in the city by night. Yeah, you see actually things in the bacground elements.. homes.. trees.. stuff..as opposed to just the darkness!
- excellent image stablization, no more blurry pics!
-15 times optical zoom! yes. this is what you want. forget the digital, it never matters, optical is what you need and what you have! and I promise you nothing else in this price comes close! this is the stuff SLR's are made of :-)

- how about incredible face detection!
- and how about the smile detection - set it and never miss smile on any face :-)

- pivoting lcd screen is amazing. on the top of being nicely readable in sunny day it lets you change the angle to ensure even greater dependability in bright light condition.. plus of course you can hold your camera way up or sideways and adjust the lcd screen so you can still see what you are actually shooting.

- did I mention it can take up to 16 GB memory stick?
yeah. if you are picture taking nut like me that will set you free from changing medium constantly for about oh lets say.. week? okay, but seriously.. it is easy math..
just count how many pics you want to take at 9 mp each
and then take 16 gigs and divide by that number and you are all set! It really should last you a while :-)

- do you worry that it is only 9Mp since there are some that have 10 and up? don't. Rest assure that 9 MP will take you where you want to be. You can make easily fantastic enlargement of even poster size if you fancy, yeah. and how often do you do them anyways?
of course for small pictures the 9 got you covered just fantastically.

So you got my prespective pretty much covered. I love this camera as I wanted something really reliable that oculd preserve the memories. I was desperate to search among digital SLR's that were twice or three times the price at minimmum and offered the same what this camera came to offer so it was just perfect timming for me.

It is smaller at the same time and small enough to be carried around, althoug bukly enough not to do it everyday. I keep it for at- home picture taking and in the park and special occassions. It covers my needs in that area. For my diaper bag I need somethng smaller as I never leave home without one.. camera it is :-) as I forgot the diaper bag once but never the camera! :-)

So.. yeah... I wil get probably another sony or.. Kodak of the smaller puppies to carry around with ability to quickly draw it from a pocket or bottom of the bag.

By digitaldavincimama - Jun 29, 2008

I love this camera

Strengths: Great zoom, great picture quality, easy to use, and tilting screen

Weakness: none that I have found so far!!

I bought this camera in April. I upgraded from an older version. DSC-H1. I am in love with this camera. It is a wonderful camera. I had considered going to SLR, but decided that this camera did everything I wanted and more so I bought it. I have had a few months to play with it and I love it. The zoom is great. The picture quality is wonderful even in VGA. It is by far worth every penny I paid. I...
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I bought this camera in April. I upgraded from an older version. DSC-H1. I am in love with this camera. It is a wonderful camera. I had considered going to SLR, but decided that this camera did everything I wanted and more so I bought it. I have had a few months to play with it and I love it. The zoom is great. The picture quality is wonderful even in VGA. It is by far worth every penny I paid. I take many photos every year, about 5000. I take my camera every where with me.

By CelinaRob - Jul 1, 2008

Cyber-shot DSC-H50 Black Digital Camera

Strengths: Powerful Zoom and great picture quality

Weakness: None

This is a great camera with larger zoom and three inch display. i like the pop up flash and pictures are great especially out door. even though it looks big, its very handy. i bought this camera considering SLR. so far i am very happy about the camera.

By suredeal25 - Jul 8, 2008

Sony Cybershot DSC-H50

Strengths: Versatile zoom range, Strong flash, delivers photos with pleasing natural colors, night-shot mode, feels good in the hand

Weakness: Default photos a bit soft, wide angle and tele-photo not quite upto what the competition offers, battery life not that great, proprietary battery, hate the eyelets for the strap

I have been using this camera for over three months now. I bought it for a trip to Peru and it took great pictures on both the Machu-Pichhu trek as well in the amazon rain forest. The photos came out slightly soft for my liking but the color saturation and tone were spot-on. After slight tweaking in Picasa the results were amazing. The flash is strong, bright and adjustable and recycles fast. But...
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I have been using this camera for over three months now. I bought it for a trip to Peru and it took great pictures on both the Machu-Pichhu trek as well in the amazon rain forest. The photos came out slightly soft for my liking but the color saturation and tone were spot-on. After slight tweaking in Picasa the results were amazing. The flash is strong, bright and adjustable and recycles fast. But I guess this also leads to a battery life that is by no means great. I would call the battery life adequate. I carried a spare on the trip and I lasted 5 days without having to recharge with about 1000 shots. The camera is very well made and has a nice heft to it without being heavy. It feel nice and comfortable in the hands. My biggest pet peeve with the camera is the eyelets for the strap that rotate continuously. It drives me nuts as I am a bit OCD about such things and am un-twisting teh strap non-stop.

By ryzvy - Sep 26, 2008

Good Sony Camera

Strengths: High Optical Zoom, Zoom Facility with Video recording, Good Night Shot

Weakness: Very Less Internal Memory Why doesnt Sony use Regular SD Cards or one MS Duo should come in package. Better if slightly sleeker looks.

Overall...Good Camera..Best thing is zoom with video..also high optical zoom allows for good landscape pics..need to check out the results for moving activities like sports etc
Just that ..Found it little expensive considering that basic SLR's can be bought for like $450.

By vavs - Jun 25, 2008