Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20/B 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Zoom and Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization: Customer Reviews & Product Details

I purchased the Sony H20 after reading dozens of reviews and testing the camera at Best Buy. Today I returned the camera and ate the restocking fee. I love everything about this camera EXCEPT for the picture quality. On the camera's screen pictures appear to be amazing. Just wait until you download them. They are terrible! Here a short list of what I found to be unacceptable:

1) The slightest movement from your subject creates blurry streaks. I'm sure some artistic photographers may like this effect from time to time, but it happens when you use "auto" feature. You can minimize this by manually adjusting the ISO, but you sacrifice picture quality.

2) The flash is WAYYY to bright. It washes out your subject 100% of the time indoors. Again you can reduce the brightness of you flash in "manual" mode (which is a cool feature), but who wants to use trial and error to find perfect flash brightness EVERY time you use it indoors?

3) The picture quality is POOR. I read about 50 reviews on this site before purchasing the camera and it seemed like everyone loved it except for 10% who received lemons. Well, I must have bought one of those lemons. I took 100 photos with the Sony H20 and compared them to those from my 6 year old Canon 5megapixel S50, and the Canon blows them away. The Sony's pictures were grainy, or overexposed, or just blurry. The best picture from this Sony was inferior to the worse picture from my Canon.

Bottom line, the only explanation I have for the positive reviews of this camera is that Sony must have manufacturing quality control issues. Because there is NO WAY anyone with 20/20 vision would give the $229 Sony I purchased anything over 1 star. Sure the features are awesome, but the pictures look like they came from my blackberry. Purchase this camera at your own risk.
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Update 3/2010
Two months ago, I purchased the Panasonic Lumix FZ35. What a great camera! It was $80 more thant this Sony, but I am a happy customer.

My very first (digital) camera was a 2 MP Sony Cybershot (4 generations of cameras for me). Each time I've upgraded, it's been a Cybershot. I always have done extensive research on the cameras (thinking that somebody somewhere else has a better camera), but each time, my decision has been the Cybershot. There are little things on this camera that I'm still discovering each day. For instance, the slide show with music, very cute touch, my 2 year old and 6 year old love to watch. I love taking pictures and really wanted one that did great low light pictures and this definitely takes great pictures with very little light.

The only thing I have been disappointed in with this last version of Cybershot is the time it takes for the first picture. All other Cybershots have taken very quick first pictures and this has been a change that I'm having a hard time adjusting to. However, based on the review conducted by Consumer Reports (2009), it was rated good-excellent for first shot timing, so I'm unsure if it's just the cameras of "today" take a lit bit more time to set up for the first shot than they used to (larger picture size, perhaps). Also, it is a bit larger than other Cybershots of past and of what's available today, but it is still fairly compact and I would not use that as a deterrant for buying this camera!

All in all, I've been very pleased once again with a Cybershot. Sony has again excelled in the digital camera forum!

This camera is great in every way. I replaced an older cybershot that got wet one time too many. The new technology is easy to use and 1/2 the price of my original.

Nice clear and sharp pictures. The camera is easy to use. The camera does not come with a carrying case. You'll need to buy that separately. A wrist strap as a standard feature would have good. Overall good purchase!

I have went through way too many digicams. I purchase them at the best price I can find and use them until I find another new digital camera I want to test and eBay the used one. I read all the great reviews and took a chance on the Sony DSC-H20, I got it free from the Sony Rewards website for points I acquired from playing the games on the rewards website. I received the H20 and didn't have a Pro Duo card, instead I was ready with two class 6 Transcend 8GB Micro SDHC cards with a PhotoFast CR-5400 Pro Duo Dual Slot adapter,720p movie mode records at approximately 1 megabyte per one second so no need for an expensive 32megabyte per second Sony Pro Duo M2 card . I took several flash photos of my kids indoors and they looked great. I was anxious to see the results from the 720p movie mode and to my surprise the mp4 movies far surpassed what I expected from a digicam. There was no comparison, the videos were way better than any of the digital cameras I have used. Outdoor movie recordings in 720p mode, the recordings look awesome on my 42" Panasonic plasma HDTV. Indoor movie mode looked great but in low light things get a little grainy but far better than I expected. Unlike most cameras you can also use the zoom while you are recording in movie mode. I love the 10x zoom, the image stabilization is done right on this camera, even with my shaky hands the photos come out perfectly focused, bright and clear at full 10x. I could go on and on but after two months of using the H20 it is a keeper and will not be seeing eBay. I have found my perfect all around digital camera and being an amateur photographer I have no need to purchase a seperate high definition camcorder.