Now I have tested them 14 days to the mountains and it has passed this test well. Robustness it has proved. I had them. Always without extra pocket in the pants
The image quality is acceptable and for a camera this size with the zoom really good. Anyone about Matsch pixels at 1: 1 resolution would complain of images and prefer a 10-megapixel sensor, which compares wrong. The 18-megapixel sensor of the Sony can only be compared properly with a 10-megapixel sensor, when the PC adjusts the images to the same size. The 1: 1 View results namely a 18-megapixel sensor, a nearly twice as large image as a 10-megapixel sensor. That would be no meaningful comparison. At the same large images to the often criticized pixels mud into perspective. That the actual achieved resolution of Sony is quite good, and the test of Chip Online has made it clear. I agree to my pictures, a thoroughly sound quality compared to other, mostly larger cameras.
The automatic works on the whole pretty good. More than 90% of the images are properly exposed and in focus. There are problems in backlit situations and in very low light indoors and shut off lightning. Backlight, a general problem with many cameras. Low Light Camera tries to automatic programs with some tricks like multiple shots to make up for. Sometimes this not occur surprisingly good images, with moving subjects more. With a few experiments and if necessary the flash is almost always gets back passable pictures.
I am delighted that the camera combines a good wide angle with an adequate for many situations Zoom. In bright light itself is the 2-times digital zoom, which brings the total zoom factor of 20 still well used (is of course later on the PC, but there's no RAW format, the camera digital zoom compact probably lossless). The image stabilization does a very good job when zooming. The images are amazingly sharp! The zoom range is one of the big pluses of this little for me.
Better than expected does the Panorama mode. Power especially in landscapes very well. Beautifully here that he also works vertically with horizontal swiveling. This results in images that are at 16 pretty close: 9 aspect ratio monitors are common, but represent an extreme wide-angle in comparison with a conventional image. The quality of "hand craft" images is better than I expected, especially for landscapes.
Very good work, the continuous shooting mode. Fast enough and of good quality. Definitely helps in moving situations.
The adjustment wheel and buttons are very small and a little getting used to. It is often initially by mistake on the rocker wheel, but that lies down with time. Important settings, such as flash on / off, continuous on / off, etc. are a very fast and especially blind (to decipher without menus) to operate. The menus are simple and clear.
The problem is the display. It is very angle dependent and still hardly Absolutely Weatherproof. Other cameras are there better, but the difference is not really very large. Here one must probably wait for the next generation display (color e-ink display, or the like).
Video works well, but I had problems finding programs that play AVCHD. The VLC player can only poor quality. Better it comes with the Windows Media Player. The well can not rotate the video watching by 90 °, and is not suitable for upright shots. In addition, the PC has to be extremely powerful for a smooth rendering (Quad Core and graphics card). I then briefly experimented with also supported MP4 format. Can the VLC player better and requires less PC performance. Quality seems subjectively similar (without detailed comparison) and is overall quite good.
Bad is the battery life. If one makes a lot of shots or plays around a lot, then the battery is often empty after only one day. Stupid that the battery indicator does not really reflect. It only takes a moment of full to half empty, and shortly thereafter, the camera its function and switches itself irrevocably from. If one makes. 100 images a day, of which only a very few with flash and give up watching the evening, then hold the camera approximately 2-3 days by That's worse than for all other cameras which I had previously. Is probably due to the extremely small size and the processor-intensive post-processing.
All in all, the camera met my personalized management. I subtract a star because she has a relatively poor display and a modest battery life and it seems to me slightly overpriced relative. For 180 euros, I would give her 5 stars.
If you're looking very small pockets cameras and still not want to give up wide-angle, zoom and image quality that has currently few alternatives and should strike here.