The H9 really fails in low lighting conditions, and has an unacceptable loss of detail with medium, to long shots, (gets blotchy, like an oil-painting, particularly in the dark areas). This was my first Sony camera, and based on its performance, I cannot forsee ever buying another Sony camera. (Love their TVs, VERY disappointed with the H9.) I do not understand why a company like Sony, with a good name, associated with quality, would allow a poor product like the H9 to represent them.

It was not full price, but frankly should have been even cheaper, (100 bucks tops.) The short of it is this: H9 has some very cool features, and seems to do a very nice job with close-up nature pix. BUT, overall the picture quality is poor for an "8mp" camera, and worse than cameras with fewer MPs.

Soon to realize that the memory card reader they sent us does not fit at all with the memory card of the camera!!!! I am still trying to talk to someone that can take any responsibility on that. Moreover, the memory card is defective, giving error messages here and there.

On the minus the controls are poor, the wheel on top moves too easily and in action work it gets moved without me knowing about it....as does the flash button. I have put a 1/4 thick piece of felt between the wheel on the back and the wheel on top and it is better.

I am impressed with my Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 8MP Digital Camera with 15x Optical Image Stabilization Zoom after trying out the Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom. I though I would really enjoy the S5 as it is made by a company who is known for its cameras. But after further review realized that for this compact camera that Sony would be better having come from a camcorder background and it really shows.

no uncompressed format option (neither is there an option to control the compression.. but that didnt seem important for me.. might be a drawback if you are a serious photographer)

Although the Sony does have a date feature, it has to be added to each picture after download and not date printed as the picture is taken. You can also choose what color and where you would like the date printed, which is a nice feature. The S5 has a couple of features I will miss however, a feature called "stitch" that mends your pictures together for a panoramic photo and a record button on the body to start recording a video at any time during any mode.

The H9 is more user friendly and has nice menu layouts. As well as continuous shooting, the next shot delay is quicker in the H9 than the S5. The internal ISO on the H9 is also much higher which allows for better lighting in low-light situations as well as it's night shot feature and giving the flash range 10 feet more than the S5 at only 23 feet.

Seriously pay attention to the critiques from others who have rated this camera as poor.

I still have to work on being fast enough to get quality photos of birds in flight, but the sports mode helps with moving critters, people on bikes, etc. I've also taken exceptional night photos of Christmas lights with only a monopod. The camera has difficulty detecting faces if the people aren't caucasian, so face detection of black people isn't reliable.

I wanted a GOOD, but simple point and shot camera. All the reviews said how good this camera was, but not how complicated.

The H9 has video but you have to turn the dial to that mode. Both cameras have zoom and audio on video.

The h9 really fails in low lighting conditions, and has an unacceptable loss of detail with medium, to long shots, (gets blotchy, like an oil-painting, particularly in the dark areas). This was my first Sony camera, and based on its performance, I cannot forsee ever buying another Sony camera. (Love their TVs, VERY disappointed with the h9.) I do not understand why a company like Sony, with a good name, associated with quality, would allow a poor product like the h9 to represent them.

It was not full price, but frankly should have been even cheaper, (100 bucks tops.) The short of it is this: h9 has some very cool features, and seems to do a very nice job with close-up nature pix. BUT, overall the picture quality is poor for an "8mp" camera, and worse than cameras with fewer MPs.

I am impressed with my Sony Cybershot DSC-h9 8MP Digital Camera with 15x Optical Image Stabilization Zoom after trying out the Canon PowerShot Pro Series S5 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom. I though I would really enjoy the S5 as it is made by a company who is known for its cameras. But after further review realized that for this compact camera that Sony would be better having come from a camcorder background and it really shows.

The h9 is more user friendly and has nice menu layouts. As well as continuous shooting, the next shot delay is quicker in the h9 than the S5. The internal ISO on the h9 is also much higher which allows for better lighting in low-light situations as well as it's night shot feature and giving the flash range 10 feet more than the S5 at only 23 feet.

The h9 has video but you have to turn the dial to that mode. Both cameras have zoom and audio on video.

The H9 really fails in low lighting conditions, and has an unacceptable loss of detail with medium, to long shots, (gets blotchy, like an oil-painting, particularly in the dark areas). This was my first Sony camera, and based on its performance, I cannot forsee ever buying another Sony camera. (Love their TVs, VERY disappointed with the H9.) I do not understand why a company like Sony, with a good name, associated with quality, would allow a poor product like the H9 to represent them.

It was not full price, but frankly should have been even cheaper, (100 bucks tops.) The short of it is this: H9 has some very cool features, and seems to do a very nice job with close-up nature pix. BUT, overall the picture quality is poor for an "8mp" camera, and worse than cameras with fewer MPs.

I still have to work on being fast enough to get quality photos of birds in flight, but the sports mode helps with moving critters, people on bikes, etc. I've also taken exceptional night photos of Christmas lights with only a monopod. The camera has difficulty detecting faces if the people aren't caucasian, so face detection of black people isn't reliable.

The H9 really fails in low lighting conditions, and has an unacceptable loss of detail with medium, to long shots, (gets blotchy, like an oil-painting, particularly in the dark areas). This was my first Sony camera, and based on its performance, I cannot forsee ever buying another Sony camera. (Love their TVs, VERY disappointed with the H9.) I do not understand why a company like Sony, with a good name, associated with quality, would allow a poor product like the H9 to represent them.

I still have to work on being fast enough to get quality photos of birds in flight, but the sports mode helps with moving critters, people on bikes, etc. I've also taken exceptional night photos of Christmas lights with only a monopod. The camera has difficulty detecting faces if the people aren't caucasian, so face detection of black people isn't reliable.

It was not full price, but frankly should have been even cheaper, (100 bucks tops.) The short of it is this: H9 has some very cool features, and seems to do a very nice job with close-up nature pix. BUT, overall the picture quality is poor for an "8mp" camera, and worse than cameras with fewer MPs.

Although the Sony does have a date feature, it has to be added to each picture after download and not date printed as the picture is taken. You can also choose what color and where you would like the date printed, which is a nice feature. The S5 has a couple of features I will miss however, a feature called "stitch" that mends your pictures together for a panoramic photo and a record button on the body to start recording a video at any time during any mode.

On the minus the controls are poor, the wheel on top moves too easily and in action work it gets moved without me knowing about it....as does the flash button. I have put a 1/4 thick piece of felt between the wheel on the back and the wheel on top and it is better.

The H9 is more user friendly and has nice menu layouts. As well as continuous shooting, the next shot delay is quicker in the H9 than the S5. The internal ISO on the H9 is also much higher which allows for better lighting in low-light situations as well as it's night shot feature and giving the flash range 10 feet more than the S5 at only 23 feet.