A Brief Review And Quick List: The DSC-H7 and H9

A Brief Review: A Better Camera Than You Might Think

These much-maligned cameras have, in my opinion, suffered a bit of a bum rap. Many
reviewers (and a number of people in a number of online forums) have complained
about everything from the ergonomics of these cameras to their image quality.

Yet I have managed to take several thousand pictures that I'm very proud of with my
trusty H9 (see galleries for a small sample), pictures with excellent detail, vibrant
color, no blurred regions and no watercolor effects. And rarely, in more than 40 years'
photography, have I had more fun taking pictures with any camera. Consider that this
statement is coming from someone who also owns an expensive DSLR with
thousands of dollars invested in professional-quality glass.

Like all digital cameras, the H7 and H9 make compromises, most of which are due to
the size of their sensors. In order to get the humongous 15X zoom featured in these
cameras, a very small sensor has to be employed to gather the light. If the sensor
were larger, say the APS-C size sensor of many DSLRs (and Sony's own R1), you'd
need to have an assistant to hold the lens and a mortgage to pay for it.

Smaller sensors with smaller pixels ( 8.1 million pixels in approximately 1/4" for the
H7 and H9) simply don't have the real-estate to capture a lot of light. As a result, the
signal-to-noise ratio is relatively low, necessitating some serious noise reduction
circuitry and software in the camera. If the noise reduction is too aggressive, image
quality suffers, particularly in loss of fine detail (what some people call "watercolor
effect").

This is to be expected. It's the tradeoff for the other remarkable features of ultra-zoom
cameras. And it is not unique to the Sony ultra-zooms. Almost every high-megapixel
ultra-zoom reviewed by DPReview.com contains a statement like one of these:

"Noise and noise reduction effects visible at anything over ISO 100" - Canon S5IS

"Images lack biting crispness, some loss of fine detail to noise reduction even at ISO
100... Default noise reduction too high at all ISO settings " - Panasonic DMC-FZ18

"Images lack biting crispness, some loss of fine detail to noise reduction" - Olympus
SP550UZ

"Good detail and color at lower ISO settings" - Fuji S8000fd

It's time to get real about all of this. If you're looking for optimal image quality under
all shooting conditions, buy an R1 or a pro DSLR with a bagful of pro lenses. If you
want a huge zoom range in an inexpensive, lightweight package, you pay the piper -
with image quality that's not perfect in all circumstances and at all ISOs, but is good
enough for reasonable prints. And that's the H7 and the H9.
 Note: Even the reviewers are split on I/Q and other issues. Their
evaluations probably vary based on their expectations. Within
DPReview itself, the Fuji has the same image quality rating as the
Sony cameras, yet gets a "Recommended" rating vs. the Sony's lowly
"Above Average". Popular Photography gave the H9 its top rating,
calling its image quality "excellent" and selecting it as the winner of its
2007 "Pop Award' as one of the best cameras of 2007. "This compact
EVF (electronic viewfinder) camera ($440, street) is the best in its
class, thanks to the power and reach of its built-in 15X (31-465mm
equivalent) Carl Zeiss zoom lens with Super SteadyShot IS. Combined
with stunning image quality from its 8.1MP CCD, a fast AF system,
and tilting 3-inch LCD, it's a viable alternative to a DSLR." Consumer
Reports claims: "Excellent picture quality and next-shot delay. Very
good shutter lag.". Even C-Net, with its long-standing antipathy to
Sony cameras gives the H9 some credit: "Under the right
circumstances, the photos look very good. Those include shooting at
sensitivity settings of ISO 200 or lower, in bright sunlight. Thanks to
the fast continuous shooting, solid stabilization and reliable center-
point focus, the H9 delivered the best results I've had so far shooting
dogs in the park."

Like all cameras, you need to learn where the potholes are. You need to learn to avoid
the situations that produce problems and work with the settings and features that
produce high quality shots - of which the H7 and H9 are perfectly capable.

Before I get into a discussion of the best settings to get the best pictures, let me take
a moment to detail what, in my opinion, Sony did right and wrong with this camera.

What Sony Did Right With The H7 and H9

Performance These are the fastest digicams Sony has ever produced. With a burst
mode of up to 2.2 frames per second, these cameras are inching up on low-end DSLR
territory and blowing the competition away.

Big Buffer The H7 and H9 allow burst shooting up to 100 frames before it slows down
and waits to write to the memory card. This is a huge buffer, and a welcome
improvement.

LCD The huge tilt LCD on the H9 is a wonder. For anyone who shoots macros,
overhead shots or waist-level shots, this bright and detailed 3" LCD is a godsend.
Mine is almost constantly pulled out and tilted one way or another.
 Fig. A2-1 Tilt LCD

The LCD rotates through 180 degrees, fully-extended facing up or fully-extended

facing down.

Guides Both the LCD and the viewfinder now sport guides - lines that allow you to
frame, compose and (finally) get the horizons straight! I have these guide lines on my
DSLR and I've missed them dearly in previous versions of the H-Series cameras.
They're optional, you can turn them on or off at will.

Fig A2-2 Guide Lines

Predictive Autofocus This is a killer feature normally found only in better DSLRs.
When shooting bursts, you focus on the subject for the first shot, the camera focuses
for the rest of the shots, automatically calculating how far and how fast the subject
moves toward the camera or away from it. It also works when you half-press the
shutter and the subject moves before you complete the shot. It works really well
without any effort on your part. This one's a big plus for sports and animal shooters.

9 Autofocus Points Prior to the H7 and H9, I never recommended the Mufti-Point
autofocus option on an H-Series camera. With its nine highly-responsive focus points,
the H7 and H9 are incredibly good at tracking subjects and finding focus without fail. I
never liked using Multi-Point AF on any of my Sony cameras, going back to the F505,
because they never seemed to select the subject I intended. The AF on the H7 and
H9 almost always picks the right subject. It's much smarter.
 Tip: The nine points can be used by a conscientious photographer as a
depth of field preview. Everything that's in focus will show up in a
green lit-up "box" (one of the focus points), not just the closest
subject. Check the lit-up boxes carefully and you'll be able to ascertain
how much of the scene is in focus.

Focal Range In my experience, this is a mixed blessing. The H7 and H9 increase the
zoom from the 12X of the previous cameras to 15X. It's barely tighter at the telephoto
end (465 mm vs. 432 mm equivalent) but dramatically improved at the wide end (31
mm vs. 36 mm). While the numbers on the wide end have not grown as much as they
have on the telephoto end, the impact of even small numbers on the wide end is much
more dramatic than increases in larger numbers on the telephoto end. Personally, I
wish they'd left the telephoto end alone, and just improved the wide end (see the
following section on "mistakes").

Macro Macro distance is improved over the already-impressive 2 cm of the previous

H-Series cameras - down to only 1 cm. You can get very, very close with this camera,
and the macro quality is excellent. This is a great macro camera.

Colors, Contrast And Sharpness If possible, the colors, contrast and sharpness, at
default settings, are even better than the earlier H-Series cameras. The H7 and H9
shoot very "punchy", but realistic photos. These cameras have an excellent tone
curve, maintaining Sony's commitment to a nicely boosted midrange for excellent
transitions and improvements in dynamic range.

Battery There's been a fair amount of grumbling about the new, proprietary LiOn
battery in the H7 and H9, as opposed to the pair of AAs in the H1, H2 and H5. You
won't hear any grumbling from me. On at least one occasion, I got more than 900
images (about half in burst-mode) from a single charge. Due to the power of the new
battery, the flash recycles dramatically faster than any of the previous H-Series
cameras without sacrificing either power or "throw".

Tip: I use the Sony quick charger, model TC-BRG. As usual, the
charger that ships with the camera is good enough, but unbearably
slow - often 5 - 6 hours.

Fig. A2-3 Battery In SC-TRG Charger

 This charger, while pricey (around $60 US), is blazingly fast - 15 to 20
minutes to fully charge a totally discharged battery.

Remote Control Finally! A great infrared remote-control. You'll love it for those long-
exposure tripod shots. It's indispensable for fireworks photos. Very well-implemented
with lots of useful controls. It's one of the best native remotes I've seen for any
camera.

Fig. A2-4 Remote Control For H7/H9

Shutter Speed The H7/H9 shutter speed now goes all the way up to 1/4000th
second, meaning you won't need neutral-density filters to shoot waterfalls and there's
no action you can't stop with these cameras.

Face Detection Need to shoot three friends standing right in front of the setting sun?
Not a problem. The H7 and H9 now offer face-detection. The camera finds the faces
in real-time (in automatic mode) and ensures exposure and focus are right for the
faces, even when the background is too bright or too dim.

D-R The Bionz processor includes a D-R option that applies a different tone curve to
the image you're shooting to protect highlights from blowing and shadows from going
too dark. It's surprisingly effective. The results may not be as "punchy" and the
shadows can show a bit more noise, but otherwise, this is a welcome new feature for
capturing better shots when shooting high-contrast scenes.

In-Camera Photo Effects You can now fix red-eye, do selective color, apply blur,
sepia effects and more - right in the camera. These are not big things, but they
actually work pretty well and the effects can be surprisingly nice, particularly the
selective color.

Lots of new features and benefits from the two newest H-Series cameras. Now let's
spend a few minutes considering the inevitable compromises and the "mistakes"
Sony made when they built in all this power and speed. It's time for the tradeoffs.

I haven't found much I can't work around, so far, so don't let the negatives throw you.
All cameras have negatives. Once you learn how to deal with them (one of the main
reasons for The White Paper ), they won't cause you undue hardship, and you'll
produce excellent images.
Compromises And Mistakes

Compression The H7 and H9 produce only .jpgs, no RAW files, no .tiffs. The
problem with .jpg is that it's a format built on "lossy" compression (so are MP3 and
MPEG). When you compress a .jpg, you lose information. The more you compress
(and the more often), the more information you lose. You don't want to lose
information from your photos - the result can be loss of detail and the addition of
visible artifacts where the real detail belongs.

No .jpg is lossless and they're not intended to be. The aim of .jpg compression is to
be "visually lossless", to compress enough to produce small files, but to lose only
information not normally visible to or noticeable by to the human eye.

For example, a clear blue sky can be highly compressed, since it has little detail to
save. Still, over-compression can cause dimples in the supposedly smooth, clear sky
(something I've never seen in my H9 shots). Over-compression on a field of grass can
produce areas of smudge, where the finest detail has been lost and the grass turns
into something approximating water, with no individual blades.

Sony built a brand new compression technology into the H7 and H9: selective
compression. A good hard look inside the H7/H9 .jpgs will show that the internal
compression tables vary dramatically across the different colors and tones. Some
areas are very highly compressed, others are barely compressed at all and maintain
the highest image quality and detail.

This is actually a brilliant idea. Prior to this selective compression, the photographer
had the choice of "standard" and "fine" compression (varying from camera to camera)
which was applied uniformly to the entire image. Sony removed that choice from the
menus and instituted automatic compression based on the camera's analysis of the
image.

So why is this brilliant new technology a mistake?

Two reasons. First, this is a first-time algorithm and it's bound to have some bugs. It
was added very late in the process (Sony tech-support cameras still have the
"standard" and "fine" compression settings). In my opinion, it was too late and should
have been held back for a future release. It works reasonably well, but certainly not
perfectly.

Why did they do it? My guess would be: to get the smallest possible files out of the
camera to ensure the 2.2 frames/second burst rate.

Second, they upset their user-base. Sony proudly touts the manual features of these
cameras that deliver such great versatility to the photographer. Since H7 and H9
owners no longer have any choice as to the file compression, many (rightfully) resent
the loss of a long-established and important feature.

On its next H-Series cameras, Sony should add a menu option that offers "Fine",
"Standard" and "Auto" compression and everyone will be happy. They could stipulate
that you only get the highest frame rate on "Auto". Some DSLRs (including Nikon's
new D300 and Fuji's S5 Pro) have limits on frame rate depending on options selected
by the user. There's no reason why Sony can't do the same.
 Note: I've included no examples here of bad or good compression.
That's because I haven't been able to pin down any of my images that
were visibly impacted by over-compression. It's impossible to know if
missing detail is caused by compression or noise reduction. There are
no "obvious" compression artifacts (usually clusters of visible
rectangular pixels) in any of my images, no missing colors or
posterization. Any damage done by the new "selective compression"
must be pretty subtle. I'm sure it's there, but I can't pick it out and
show it to you.

There are no work-arounds (since there are no options) for over-compression. But let
me reassure you that it's not going to destroy your H7/H9 photos. I still get great
detail and vivid color despite any flaws in the compression scheme. It's too bad the
camera doesn't support RAW files, which often have no compression. Compression is
applied to RAW files by the user as part of the post-processing workflow when saving
to .jpg.

Over-Aggressive Noise Reduction This is definitely a problem, particularly with

higher-ISO shots, though it can even impact ISO 100 shots if they're not exposed
properly.

In a nutshell, 8 million tiny pixels make noise. Unsightly noise that must be
suppressed somehow - either by the camera or the photographer using post-
processing tools. Noise-reduction technology is still pretty crude across the industry,
consisting mostly of blurring pixels. It should be obvious that when you blur pixels,
your images will be less sharp and critical fine detail may be lost.

This is the biggest problem with the H7 and H9. The aggressive noise-reduction gets a
little confused from time-to-time, mistaking patterned detail for noise and blurring it
out. The following picture illustrates the worst example of noise-reduction error I've
seen, to date, from the H9. Fortunately, it's not one of mine and I've never personally
experienced this level of out-of-control noise reduction:

Fig. A2-5 Full Scene

 Fig. A2-6 100% crop from image

In figure A2-6, you see a 100% crop of the full image above. Note how the grass is
blurred out. This photo is shot at full wide-angle and is just slightly underexposed,
which seems to confuse the noise-reduction into thinking that the grass is noise.

I have found that slightly underexposed images and images shot at the full extremes
of the lens (full telephoto and full wide-angle) seem to confuse the Sony Bionz
processing engine.

Note: It's not just the H9. This kind of sledgehammer noise-reduction
occurs in most small-sensor high-megapixel cameras, and has even
been reported in a number of fairly expensive DSLRs at higher ISOs.

Here's a perfect example of where focal length and marginal focus seem to cause loss
of detail to noise reduction. These two shots were taken at a bad time (the beginning
of dusk) in bad light, wide-open at ISO 200. Check out the detail in the grass beneath
the deer's feet. In the first image, the detail is pretty well smeared out. In the second
image it's nice and crisp.
 Fig A2-7 Two shots of a deer minutes apart

Fig A2-8 Detail of the preceding two deer photos.

So, what's the difference? The only difference between the images is the focal length.
The smeared one was shot at full telephoto, the clean one was backed off to 376 mm
(equivalent). The smudged detail is probably a result of borderline focus in the first
image, dead-on focus in the second. It's not motion blur - both shots were stabilized
the same and shot the same. It could be that full-telephoto on my particular camera is
softer than it should be. Yet I have a number of sharp full-telephoto shots. The
camera simply may have backfocused a bit. It happens.

But even if focus is the issue, that still points out where the noise reduction goes
astray. Slightly out-of-focus areas (even the beginning of bokeh behind the subject)
tend to fall prey to the aggressive noise reduction, resulting in blurred or "clumpy"
detail.

I think there's three rules we can extrapolate from these images. Expose correctly,
focus carefully and stay away from the extreme ends of the zoom. I started with zoom
lenses about thirty years ago. My mentors, back then, taught me to zoom all the way,
then "back off a hair". Never shoot at the full extent of the zoom. Wise advice for the
H7 and H9 as well. The reason is simple. A 15X zoom is a huge challenge to optical
designers. It's impossible to get the whole range perfect, and there's always more
distortion at the two extremes. You get perfect optics only from prime (non-zoom)
lenses. With zoom lenses, you compromise and shoot with care in the "sweet spot" of
the lens. You'll find that spot with practice, if you watch for it.

That's generally what I do with my H9, and I rarely end up with smudges, smears and
watercolor effects. As you can tell from the two preceding images, you can get great
detail from the H9. But the H7/H9 are not very forgiving cameras. You have to get it
right in order for the camera to get it right. You have to expose properly, you have to
focus properly. Close is not good enough. You may have to work a little harder than
you have with other cameras, but the results will be well-worth the extra effort.

Tip: Some people claim they get cleaner results by dialing the camera
back to 5 mp. I've run extensive tests at various resolutions and
cannot confirm any demonstrable or visible improvement in image
quality. The 5 mp shot may appear cleaner, just as reducing the size
of any image makes it appear cleaner by tossing away a lot of
information, some of which may be noise or noise-reduction artifacts.
I'd go for the full resolution and just be more careful to avoid borderline
situations that might provoke unwanted results.

H7/H9 Vs. H5

Many have opined online that the H5 has much better image quality than the H7 or
H9. That's neither my experience, nor does it jibe with the results I get when I test the
two cameras.

Neither one's better. They're just different. Their optics are radically different. Their
color, contrast and brightness, even at identical settings, are radically different. And,
due to the smaller pixels of the H7 and H9, diffraction sets in a bit earlier on those two
cameras.

Here's a comparison shot I did during my early tests of the H9 vs. the H5. Each
camera has something to recommend it, and negatives, as well. For me, it's a wash,
though, to my eye, I find the H9 picture somewhat "cleaner".

For this test, both cameras used the same teleconverter, were mounted on a tripod
and shot with a remote. All of the exposure and focus settings were the same. The
two shots were taken about one minute apart. The first picture below sets the scene.
It's a wide-angle H9 shot of the Government Plaza in Binghamton, NY. I'm quite happy
with this shot. The exposure, color and detail are all excellent with minimum distortion
and little chromatic aberration.
 Fig A2-9

Note the arrow in the preceding image. It points to a church 1.2 miles distant from the
shooting location. This was designed as an acid-test of the telephoto capabilities of
the H5 and H9.

The following two pictures are taken of the point indicated in the shot above using the
DH1774 attached to both cameras.

Fig A2-10 Photo taken with Sony DSC-H5

 Fig. A2-11 Photo taken with Sony DSC-H9

Note the differences. The H5 photo is very slightly redder than the H9 photo. But more
important, the focus and detail are very different between the two, even though each
was shot at full telephoto. Let's take a look at this a little closer, at a 100% crop from
the middle-right side of each picture.

Fig. A2-12 Comparison Crop between H5 and H9

I find this comparison very interesting. To my eye, the trees behind the big brown
house are slightly more detailed in the H5 shot, yet the details in the foreground go to
the H9. The tree in the lower right corner is clearly more detailed in the H9 shot. Some
of this may be due to a cloud passing over the sun. The background trees seem to
have less light on them in the H9 shot.

On the other hand, all the roofs show noticeably more detail in the H9 picture, as do
the brick chimneys. Also notable is that the H5 shot appears to have significantly
more chromatic aberration (both green and purple) than the H9 shot - something that
has been borne out by my experience. I rarely do CA removal since I started shooting
regularly with the H9.

In any case, there isn't a major difference (at this distance) between the images
produced by the two cameras. The quality of the H9 is at least as good as the H5.
However, I have noted in my travels that the H9 seems to be much sharper and show
more detail through the middle of the depth of field than it does at the end of it, while
the H5 seems crisper at the far distance of the shot. I suspect this is just an optical
difference between the two lenses, and may well account for the excellent
performance of the H9 at close-up and macro shots.

Let's get back to the "mistake" that Sony made with noise reduction. If Sony had
provided either a RAW file option (which you could use to do your own noise-
reduction) or selectable NR levels (Low NR, Medium NR, High NR, NR Off) the whole
issue of over-aggressive noise-reduction would have gone away.

Let's hope for the next versions.

The Lens I strongly feel that Sony capitulated to marketing when they specified the
lens for the H7 and H9. The additional wide-angle is a boon - a very good move. But
there's just no advantage to the extra 33 mm (equivalent) on the telephoto side. The
extra telephoto makes autofocus more difficult and less accurate, and promotes edge
softness throughout the telephoto range. I suppose that with Olympus (and later
Panasonic) offering 18X zoom, Sony felt they had to offer some higher numbers to
compete.

I recommend that you avoid the full-telephoto for reasons discussed earlier, as well as
to minimize chromatic aberration. You'd be better off using a teleconverter with less
zoom.

The other mistake (and this is purely Sony) is the 74 mm thread on the adapter that
comes with the camera. I understand that the adapter had to be wider to
accommodate the wider focal length, but 74 mm is a totally non-standard thread for
filters, step-up rings and the like. They could have gone to 72 mm or 77 mm, both of
which are standard lens threads.

Fortunately, this is easily fixed with step-down rings or the custom adapter from
Pemaaral. The 74-58 step-down lens allows you to use the same teleconverter and
closeup lenses that fit the earlier H-Series cameras without penalty. These work well
because the telephoto end of the lens has a much narrower field-of-view than the
wide-angle end.

However, the wide-angle adapter from the H1, H2 and H5 will not work at all with the
H7 or H9 regardless of the rings you have. It will vignette badly.

Note: One more complaint. If you can afford it, and you're going to use
filters and/or teleconverters, and you're inclined to do so, I recommend
that you purchase Pemaaral's Galileo II Adapter . Sony has never
learned to build threads. On any camera. Their plastic adapters are
nearly impossible to thread the first time. I've even had to use pliers to
disengage my M3358 adapter and step-down ring. If you don't get the
threads lined up exactly on the first attempt, you're in for a bad time.
The Pemaraal adapter is metal and threads infinitely easier than the
Sony adapter does.

One last downside to the increased focal range of the H7 and H9: the lens has a
noticeably greater minimum focus distance than previous H-Series lenses. Which
means you can zoom in more, but you have to do it from further away than you did
with the older cameras. So stand back when you shoot.
Lens Cap Warning I can't explain the lack of a lens-cap sensor in the H7 and H9. All
the previous H-Series cameras had one. If you tried to extend the lens with the lens
cap on, the camera would stop and let you know, preventing a collision with the lens
cap.

No such warning on the H7 or H9. When you turn the camera on with the lens cap
attached, it just pops off. If you've got the cap on a tether it's no problem. For me, it
was an issue. I don't like having a tethered lens cap. It gets in the way, makes noise
banging against the camera or the tripod and I'm forever getting the tether tangled in
my camera strap.

Instead of the lens cap that comes with the camera, I use a 77mm snap-on lens cap
I'd bought for a big Nikon lens. Theoretically, it shouldn't fit, but apparently it has
enough play, and it works fine. My other solution is a 73mm push-on lens cap I
bought from Adorama. Both work just fine, don't get in the way of the extended lens
and keep the inside of the adapter tube dust-free to boot.

Figure A2-12a Snap-on Lens Cap

Sports Mode Don't use it. It's hopeless. I don't generally use scene modes, preferring
to do my settings myself, so it's no big deal to me. But Sony touted its new Sports
mode in all of its pre-release advertising and then blew the feature entirely.

There are two main requirements for getting good sports shots: a fast shutter to
freeze action and a good burst mode to guarantee the capture over multiple frames.
The H7 and H9 have both, plus predictive autofocus to ensure ultra-fast, well-focused
burst shots. But not (and this defies belief) in "Sports" mode. Why Sony would build a
Sports mode that shoots at 1/60th second (guaranteeing blur), is beyond me. They
just blew it.

Use the camera's controls to turn on burst mode and keep the shutter speed at least
above 1/320th (1/500th is better) to get great sports shots. Avoid the Sports scene
mode like the plague.

One More Issue - Portraits One area where I'm not that impressed with the H7 and
H9 is serious portraiture. For whatever reason, I've not found the camera to produce
consistent skin tones (it could be the limits of dynamic range) and textures,
particularly when there are hot-spots on the subject. As an all-around camera, it will
shoot people just fine. But the deep depth of field is really not advantageous when
shooting posed portraits or even street-style portraits under challenging light. For
serious portrait work, I recommend a DSLR with the appropriate lens.

Pixel Peeping

I often view my images at 100% (one photo pixel per monitor pixel) to judge
sharpening and noise reduction levels. I never use 100% to judge a photo. For me,
the only way to judge a photo is to print it at a reasonable size. I don't sell crops. I sell
photos, printed on paper, in frames. Viewing a picture at full resolution onscreen is the
same as viewing a 41" X 30" photo from 14" away. Even shots blown up for billboards
are designed for viewing from at least 30 feet away!

Personally, I've been impressed with the quality I've been getting from the H9. I
posted one of my early, and most favorite, images on DPReview at full resolution,
when I first got the camera. A bunch of people gleefully expressed their dismay with
this shot, denigrating the image quality at 100% in no uncertain terms.

Well, since then, I've printed the image at 9"X12", exhibited it in a couple of shows
and sold several copies to some very happy customers. Which just goes to show that
there's a lot more to a picture than what it looks like blown up to pixel level.

Here's the image:

Fig. A2-13 Dogwood Blossom

And here's a crop so you can see what it looks like closer to the pixel level:
 Fig. A2-14 Dogwood Blossom Crop

I'm pretty happy with this quality. It's sharp enough (accurate), the colors are dead-on
(true), contrast and saturation are exactly where I'd want them to be. There's plenty of
fine detail (look at the wrinkles in the petal), nothing is blown out, and it shows no
blurring, smudging and watercolor. Most important, this image bears a startling
resemblance to similar shots I've taken with my H5.

Why I Sometimes Prefer The H9

My H9 sits in my camera bag, side by side with my Nikon D200 kit, which costs many
thousands of dollars more than the H9. The D200 is a great camera, capable of
picking up extremely fine detail and rendering color in very difficult circumstances. It
also produces RAW files, which leaves me the option of controlling the noise myself
using my powerful desktop tools, which the H7 and H9 don't.

But there are times I actually prefer the H9 over the D200. Particularly when I need
greater depth of field to produce the photo I envision. The small sensor and the small
"real" (not equivalent) focal length allow me to get a similar field of view, but with a
much greater depth of field. To be honest, I can't match it with my DSLR lenses, even
at f/22.

Here's an example I shot recently with both cameras.

The first picture is the DSLR shot. I like it, it's almost exactly what I wanted.
Unfortunately, the limited depth of field (which is invaluable when shooting portraits
and the like) didn't allow me to get both the branch in the foreground and the brush on
the distant shore in focus in the same shot.
 Fig A2-15 D200 shot

This is the H9 photo. Note that both the branch and the far bank are clearly in focus.

Fig. A2-16 H9 Shot

Here's a comparison of detail on the far shore (middle-left of the image)..

A2-17 D200 Detail

 A2-18 H9 Detail

Here's the branch - the whole reason for the H9 shot.

Fig. A2-19 D200 Branch Detail

Fig. A2-20 H9 Branch Detail

The H9 performs impressively. Its huge depth of field comes through to make the
picture (at least to my eye) and fulfill my vision. The detail on the far bank is not
much different from the detail captured by the D200, which has two million more
pixels. Also note, no smudging, no watercolor, no clumping.

This is the kind of situation in which the H7 and H9 excel. Bright light, lots of busy
detail, vivid color and an incredibly deep depth of field.

Now you know one of the reasons I continue to be a big fan of the H9. Would I like it
with more controllable noise reduction and compression? You bet! I look forward to
that in forthcoming upgrades. But, as it sits, I get a great deal of use out of it. It's
huge fun to use and it does the job for me.

The bottom line is that I don't expect an inexpensive tiny-sensor ultra-zoom to

produce the same pixel-level quality as an $8000 professional DSLR kit. The D200,
with the right lens will pick up more detail and deliver a lot more dynamic range so
that colors won't blow out where they might with the H9. But for this scene, the H9 is
just fine. Each tool to its purpose.

Settings

Using The Menus If the menus on the H7 and H9 confuse you, don't worry, you're not
alone. This falls squarely into the "what were they thinking?" department.

There are two top-level menu entry points: the "Menu" button and the "Home" button.

The "Menu" button puts you into the context-sensitive menu screens, the ones for
shooting mode and playback mode. The options vary depending on which mode you're
in when you hit the "Menu" button.

The "Home" button gives you access to the global camera settings, including memory
card management and camera defaults.

Unless otherwise indicated, the settings in this section will be found under the
"Home/Settings" menu option.

Beep On/Off Under "Main Settings 1", you'll probably want Beep turned on (it's the
default). The beep sounds to let you know when the camera's autofocus has locked
on to your subject. By having the beep turned on, you can direct your attention to the
subject you're framing rather than the blinking green "focus" icon.

The Beep option also controls the fake "camera sounds", such as the shutter sound.
The H7/H9 shutter is actually electronic and thus makes no noise. The ersatz shutter
sound produced by the camera is, however, somewhat reassuring. It's nice to know,
audibly, that the picture has been shot.

Tip: If you're shooting from the audience at a string quartet concert, or

in the middle of a hushed church, "beep off" can be invaluable. Unlike
cameras with mechanical shutters, the H7 and H9 are absolutely silent
in operation with Beep turned off. I've used this setting many times to
shoot where photography is normally frowned upon.

Function Guide Turned on, the camera shows help while you navigate around the
menus and change settings. Turned off, the camera leaves you to your own devices. I
generally leave this on, as the help is usually not as annoying as it is in some other
cameras, and is occasionally even helpful, letting you know if an option is not
available in the current mode.

Main Settings 2 is dedicated to camera output and connectivity. USB Connect

determines whether you connect the camera to your computer as a direct-to-printer
device (PictBridge) or as a fancy card-reader (Mass Storage Device). If you select
"Auto", the camera will try to determine your intention itself. I usually leave this on
"Auto".

Shooting Settings 1

This menu is not the same as the "Shooting Menu". The Shooting Menu is the menu
that pops up when you press the "Menu" button while in shooting mode. That menu
offers the dynamic options that you might want to change while shooting, including
white balance, contrast, flash options, etc. This menu (the one you get to from the
Home button) is for shooting setup.

Tip: There's another, easier way to get to the two Shooting Setup
menus. Click the "Menu" button while in shooting mode. Navigate to the
last option. Guess what it is? "Setup", which brings you to the very
same menus you get at from the "Home" button.

AF Illumination I usually set this to "Off" unless I'm shooting in low light in close
settings, such as children in a room at night or formal flash portrait sessions. The
reason is that the autofocus illumination light only works out to about 12 feet from the
camera, so it's generally useless at concerts, sporting events and for low-light wildlife
shots. Turning the light off (when it wouldn't work anyway) can actually improve low-
light autofocus performance. The camera isn't looking for the illumination assist, so it
goes right to work attempting to focus in the available light.

Grid Line Set this to "On", without doubt! The grid is extraordinarily helpful. It's nice
to be able to gauge whether you're holding the camera straight or not. It's nice to get
your horizons straight so that the lake doesn't look like it's going to drain off the right
side of the frame.

Furthermore, the grid is divided into three sections both horizontally and vertically,
making is much easier to compose using the rule of thirds. The "rule of thirds" is an
approach to composition in which you work to get your subjects off dead-center to
improve the balance of your photographs, enhance interest and get beyond that
"snapshot" look. Center subjects, whenever possible, on one of the intersections of
the grid lines and you'll end up with more artistic, more professional-looking shots.

AF Mode Set this to either "Single" or "Monitor". Monitor AF Mode continuously

autofocuses while you compose your picture, then locks when you half-press the
shutter. Single Mode only attempts to autofocus when you half-click.

Monitor AF helps you find subjects in real-time, which is especially valuable for small
or distant subjects. On the other hand, it uses a lot of battery power and you can just
half-press the shutter as needed to bring distant objects into focus.

Usually, I keep my AF Mode set to "Single" with the H9 and just tap the shutter
occasionally if it gets hard to make out my subject. The reason I prefer Single AF is
that I sometimes get annoyed waiting for the autofocus to catch up while chasing my
subject. There is a slight lag. But that's just my personal preference (which is biased
toward battery life) and you may prefer Monitor AF for the kind of shots you take.

Note: There is no longer a "Continuous" mode on this menu. When you

shoot in burst mode, the camera will automatically focus using
predictive autofocus. Continous autofocus is no longer necessary.

Digital Zoom I always leave this set to "Off". Digital zoom is not optical zoom. It's
not going to bring your subject closer, just crop or interpolate the result. The quality of
digital zoom isn't close to that of optical zoom, and the H7/H9 has more than enough
zoom through the lens. If you need more zoom, get the DH-1758 or the DH-1774
teleconverter lens, which multiplies the reach of your camera by 1.7X - optically. I
never use digital zoom.

Conversion Lens I usually set this to "None", even if I have a conversion lens
mounted on the camera. All the Conversion option does is limit the zoom to the
appropriate range for the lens. For example, with the Sony teleconverter attached, the
lens starts vignetting (causing a round circle border) about half-way to wide-angle.
Turning this option on prevents you from zooming into this region. On the other hand,
my feeling is that, if you can't see the circle forming around your picture, you probably
shouldn't be using a conversion lens in the first place. Besides, the option is buried so
deep in the menu hierarchy, you're likely to miss the shot before you get the option
turned on. Which, by the way, you will probably forget to turn off when you remove the
tele- or wide-angle- converter from the camera. So leave it set to "Off" and just pay
attention when you compose your shots.

Shooting Settings 2

Pressing the down quadrant of the 4-way switch moves you to Shooting Settings 2.
Nothing special, just more of the same

Flash Sync You probably should leave this on "Front". Flash sync determines when
the flash fires - and, as a result, the relationship between ambient light and the light
from the flash. If you assume that the flash is the main light, Front Sync will produce
less ambient background light, Rear Sync more. Front Sync will freeze motion at the
beginning of the shot, Rear Sync at the end. If you want to show motion in the
background (car headlights, someone in the water, etc.) Rear Sync is preferable. For
static scenes or scenes you wish to simply freeze, with the emphasis on the subject,
use Front Sync.

Auto Orientation Leave this at "On". The H7 and H9 have a sensor in the camera
that determines whether you're holding it in portrait or landscape mode. It embeds that
information in the EXIF information in your .jpg file, so that other applications
(including Windows and other operating systems) can recognize the proper orientation
and display the thumbnail or open the image in the right direction. Great new feature!

Auto Review I always set this to "OFF" to extend battery life in the camera. The LCD
draws a lot of juice, and automatically displaying every single shot after you take it is
a major waste of battery charge.

It's easy enough to review, when you want to, just by pressing the Play button. Once
you do, the most recent shot is displayed and you can browse back and forth through
the images in your memory or on your memory card.

Expanded Focus Yes! Turn this one on. When you focus manually, the camera
zooms in on the subject, giving you a larger, closer view of the sharpness of the
subject.

Shooting Menu
The shooting menu is brought up by pressing the Menu button when you're in shooting
mode. Half-click the shutter or press the "Play" button to return to shooting mode if
you're starting out in playback mode.

Fig. A2-21 On-The-Fly Shooting Menu

Flash Compensation The first option on this menu lets you dial the power of the
built-in flash up or down. There are advantages to dialing it down. If you don't need to
light a huge space, the flash can be overbright, particularly on nearby subjects. Also,
the less flash power you consume in a shot, the faster the camera recycles for the
next one. The H7 and H9 are much faster at recycling than previous cameras in the
H-Series courtesy of the new LiOn battery. But it still takes several seconds to
recycle for the next shot. You're not going to get much better than that, even with a
stand-alone flash unless you have one with a dedicated high-power external battery.

I usually leave my Flash Compensation about two "ticks" to the left (-2).

Redeye Reduction If you turn this "On", the camera emits one extra flash to shrink
the subject's iris before the main flash is fired. It works, but it uses extra power, can
cause subjects to blink and is not always effective. Generally, I leave this off and fix
redeye in post-processing. Of course, as of the H7 and H9, you can fix redeye in
playback mode right in the camera.

Contrast The Contrast setting determines how bright your highlights will be and how
dark your shadows will be. More contrast, brighter highlights and darker shadows.
Less contrast, dimmer highlights and brighter shadows.

Both settings cause problems. Increasing the contrast can cause highlights to blow-
out completely leaving unsightly areas of white with no detail. Shadows may go
entirely to black, also killing detail.

Lower contrast may make your photos look bland and "washed out", plus the
shadows may surface noise that you'd rather stay hidden.

One solution is the D-R setting. New to the H-Series with the H7 and H9, D-R is an
attempt to extend the dynamic range - to get shadows less dark and highlights less
likely to blow without compromising the color balance and saturation of your photos.
D-R should be used for challenging lighting conditions like landscapes with bright
skies and shadowed hills, or waves on a sunny beach. You won't lose detail with D-R,
but you might get a bit more noise exposed and a slightly less "punchy" image. It's
worth it to save a high-contrast scene from disaster. Don't use it on less-contrasty
images. There's no advantage to fixing something that isn't broken.

Sharpness I always leave the sharpness setting at "0". In general, H7 and H9 photos
are quite sharp enough without boosting sharpness in-camera. When you boost
sharpness, you also run the risk of adding ugly sharpening artifacts and halos to your
images.

Tip: My setting may not be the best for you. I post-process all my
pictures and the last step of my workflow is to apply sharpening - so I
really don't want my shots excessively shar right out of the camera.
You can't undo sharpening. But your workflow may be different, so you
might want to experiment by raising the sharpening to +1. If you see
halos (bright lines around edges), it's too much sharpening. Dial it back
to 0.

SteadyShot can be set for "Shooting", "Continuous" or "Off". SteadyShot is Sony's

brand name for optical image stabilization. There are motion sensors built into the
camera that automatically move a lens element to counteract camera motion at the
time of the shot. This very valuable feature lets you shoot hand-held when a tripod
would normally be required to overcome motion blur. Its icon is a shaky hand.

I can't, for the life of me, imagine why anyone would want to turn it off (unless the
camera is on a tripod), or turn it on to run continuously. It doesn't do you any good
until you're ready to take the shot and it can make the composing process look "jerky"
as it freezes and unfreezes the image in your displays.

The "Shooting' option turns it on only when you half-press the shutter. Trust me, that's
all you need.

Playback Menu

There's not a lot that needs to be set on this menu. It's not really for settings, more
for actions you can take with already-shot images.

Slide Show You can view your images on the LCD or a TV (in normal or High-
Definition, which appears for the first time in the H7 and H9 cameras) using an
optional HDMI cable. You can set timing and even add music to the slide show.

Print You can print your images directly to a Pict Bridge-equipped printer without
going through the computer.

Delete Images may be deleted one-at-a-time (single image). in a batch of selected

images, or all at one time. It all depends on what playback mode you're in when you
press the "Menu" button.

To get to the "Multi" image display, press the left side of the zoom button while in
playback mode. This will unlock the multi-image delete capabilities when you press
the Menu button.

Onscreen Shooting Settings

As badly organized as the Settings menus may be, the onscreen shooting options are
superbly designed. I love the inline options on the H7/H9 LCD and viewfinder displays.

At long last, all the options that you use in real-time while shooting photos are in one
place along the bottom of the display. No need to search the screen for your settings.
No need to figure out which button to use (the 4-way or the jog dial) to change a
setting on-the-fly!

Fig. A2-22 Dynamic Shooting Settings (inline)

The dynamic shooting options are all accessed in shooting mode by rotating the
outside ring of the 4-way switch to move the arrow above each option. Use the center
point to select it. Once selected, use the ring again to change the value. Here's the
options, in order from left to right:

ISO The ISO setting changes the amplification of the signal generated by your
sensor, enabling lower-light shots and higher shutter speeds without using flash.
There is an ideal setting, "80", which is the native ISO (no amplification) and delivers
the cleanest shot. ISO 80, however, is often not enough to allow you to shoot at high
speeds (sports) or in dim light. The H7 and H9 have a realistic range of ISO 80 to 400.
Anything above that and you're getting into serious noise reduction with its
concomitant impact on image quality. However, ISO 800 and above can be useful if
there's no other way to get the shot and you're willing to do a little bit of post-
processing.

Shutter Speed The actual shutter speed selected is "1" over whatever the number
shows. In the preceding illustration, the shutter speed is 1/80th of a second. In
Shutter Priority or Manual mode, you set shutter speed using the ring around the 4-
way controller.

Some shutter speeds, however, are not fractional. Take 2 seconds, for example. If
you applied the "1/" to the number, you might mistakenly read the 2 as 1/2 second.
So Sony changes the display for values over 1 second, adding quotation marks (2")
to alert you to the proper value.

Aperture The aperture, preceded by "F", tells you how wide open the lens is - how
much light it will admit. F/2.7, F/5.6, f/8, etc. The smaller numbers let in more light
(wider), the higher numbers admit less light. The smaller numbers have less depth of
field (for better isolation), the higher numbers have deeper depth of field (for
landscapes, for example).

Tip: Stay away from f/8 unless you have to use it. The small sensors
of the H7 and H9 cause diffraction effects to kick in at higher f/stops
(smaller apertures), which results in less sharpness and detail. The
best small aperture is f/6.3, but I sometimes use f/7.1 to extend the
depth of field and then increase sharpening in post-processing.

See the chapter of The White Paper on diffraction effect .

EV If you're in any mode other than automatic or manual, EV is used to change the
baseline of the camera's meter. Whether you're shooting in Aperture Priority, Program
or Shutter Priority, you can change the meter's base setting to brighten or darken the
images you shoot.

In Manual mode, EV functions as a light meter, reporting the camera's opinion on

whether you're under-exposed, over-exposed or nailed the shot you're about to take.

Autofocus Modes This is a somewhat less successful menu implementation

because of the complexity of some autofocus modes. Two modes (Spot and Manual)
offer a second level of selection after you've chosen the top level.

Let's start with the highest level. Before you do anything, you must select the
Autofocus Mode. Rotate the dial to pick one of the three options: Multi-point, Center
or Spot.

A2-23 Multi-Point Autofocus (green focus points)

Multi Point AF In Multi-Point mode, the scene is divided into nine focus rectangles.
The camera attempts to pick out and focus on the subject when you half-click the
shutter button. It then lights up the selected focus points so that you can easily see
what the camera chose to focus on. I never recommended this mode in previous H-
Series cameras because the camera never seemed to select the subject I intended.
The H7 and H9 are much better. I always use this mode when I shoot a burst.
 Fig. A2-24 Center Autofocus

Center AF When you select Center AF, the camera focuses only on a center section
of the scene. This can be faster, since it views a smaller area, and it can avoid any
errors you might get with multi-point by using a smaller target. Center AF is somewhat
more manageable and controllable than Multi-Point AF.

Fig. A2-25 Spot Autofocus (Note the "move" arrows)

Spot AF You use Spot AF to get very precise focusing. With the tiny target area,
Spot AF lets you focus on the eye of a subject without interference from the nose,
hair or background objects. When you really need to focus tight and sharp, use Spot.
I use Spot AF most of the time.

Once you're in Spot AF mode, click the center of the 4-way switch. Now you can
move the spot wherever you want it using the left, right, top and bottom of the 4-way
switch.

Tip: Warning: None of the metering modes follow the flexible spot
around the screen. Center-weighted and Spot metering only take place
in the center of the scene, Multi-Point uses the whole screen. So be
 in the center of the scene, Multi-Point uses the whole screen. So be
careful that you don't underexpose or overexpose thinking that the
camera is metering your current spot-focus location. Take some
readings from the center, then move the camera and autofocus by
pressing the shutter button half-way.

Fig. A2-26 Manual Focus scale. Note Move and OK Icons.

Manual Focus The H7 and H9 let you manage focus manually, using the 4-way
button to change focus with the assistance of the camera's expanded focus option
(enlarged closeup image in the viewfinder or on the LCD).

Like Spot AF, manual focus is a two-step process, but the second step isn't optional.
First, you select Manual Focus mode. You'll know you're there because there will be a
scale shown in the display (see preceding figure). You then use the left and right sides
of the 4-way switch to focus in or out until you see a nice crisp image.

Buttons

There are only two dedicated buttons that change meaningful settings on the body of
the camera. One is the Bracketing/Burst button, the other is the Metering Mode
button.

Bracket And Burst This button, just behind and to the right of the shutter button and
marked "BRK", controls how the camera handles multiple exposures. Repeatedly
click the button to toggle through the options, which are::

Shoot Continuously The camera will continue to shoot frames at a rate

of up to 2.2 per second as long as you hold down the shutter - up to 100
shots. This is "burst" mode, the equivalent of a film motor drive.
Excellent for sports and live entertainment shoots.

Shoot 3 Shots at .3 EV Apart This mode will shoot three shots, one of
whose exposure is nailed, according to the meter, one of which is .3 EV
darker and one of which is .3 EV brighter. This is called bracketing.
Bracketing lets you ensure that you will get at least one well-exposed
image.
 Shoot 3 Shots at .7 EV or 1.0 EV Apart There are two more bracketing
options that increase the variance between the exposure of the three
shots to .7 EV or 1.0 EV (a full stop). You'll need to experiment to find
out which bracketing setting (.3, .7 or 1.0 EV) gives you the best
results. It can vary from scene to scene.

Shoot A Single Shot When Shutter Is Pressed. This is normal single-

frame mode. One shot per shutter press.

I am of two minds about which mode to recommend. I vacillate between "Continuous"

and "Single" mode when I shoot. It's nice to have the Continuous mode always at the
ready. But you have to be careful not to fire off a burst of shots when you don't intend
to. Single shot mode causes me to compose my pictures more carefully and wait for
the moment. To me, it's a bit more "personal", but then I might miss the perfect
expression at the perfect moment in one out of a dozen rapid-fire frames.

Experiment. Choose the mode that best suits the kind of photography you do.

The Metering Mode Button

Just to the left of the Bracketing button, behind the shutter button is the Metering
button. Click it repeatedly to toggle through the options.

Full Frame Metering When you select Full Frame Metering, the camera reads the
entire scene and comes up with an average exposure setting. I never recommend this
mode. To my mind, it's the one that rarely gets it right. As an average, it's wrong for
the bright parts of the scene and wrong for the darker parts of the scene. The only
thing it's right for is the midtones . The full frame just too big a sample to get a
meaningful and useful exposure reading. On the other hand, it's the only metering
allowed in Auto mode.

Center-Weighted Metering This mode reads the entire frame, but separates out
readings from the center of the scene, to which it gives more importance (hence the
"weighted" part of its name). Center-Weighted Metering allows you to point the
camera at a given subject and get a more accurate exposure reading than you can
from an overall exposure reading.

Spot Metering This is the mode I use most of the time and the one I recommend. It
takes a little skill to use it effectively, but the results are worth it. In Spot Metering
mode, a very small section of the total screen is read to determine exposure. Using
Spot metering, you can meter on a person's eye and make sure it doesn't end up in
shadow. Or on a face, to make sure that the bright (or dark) background doesn't
overexpose or underexpose the subject.

Practice using Spot Metering. It will be time well-spent. It won't take long to get a
good feeling for where to meter for whatever you're trying to achieve. After a while, it
becomes second nature and you end up with serious control over the exposure of
your images.
The 4-Way Switch

There are several more important options located on the four sides of the round, 4-
way switch on the back of the camera.

Top: Display As you cycle through the clicks by pressing the top section of the 4-
way button, you get more information - or none. The first click gives only the basic
information that you need to shoot or play back. The next click displays all the
available information. The last brings up the live histogram, in shooting mode. In
playback mode, all information is wiped out on the last click, leaving a clean,
unobstructed image.

Fig. A2-27 Minimum Information Display

Fig. A2-28 Full Information Display

 Fig. A2-29 Full Information Display With Histogram

I recommend leaving all the information displayed when you shoot, including the
histogram, and no information displayed when you play back your images for viewing
by other people.

Right: Flash Options The options available to cycle through vary depending on other
camera settings. For instance, you can't enable flash at all if you're in Continuous
Shooting mode. The reason: the flash won't recycle fast enough to support a high-
speed burst. Similar limitations apply to other modes, such as Slow Sync. The
options:

Flash Off Flash is disabled.

Flash On All The Time This is Forced Flash - the flash fires on every
shot.

Flash SL This is Slow Sync flash. Use it with slow shutter speeds to
make sure that the background registers from any available ambient
light while the subject is brightly lit by the flash. Using Slow Sync, the
background can be blurred from camera motion or the motion of objects
in the background (such as cars), with the main subject frozen by the
flash. SL is not available in Manual or Auto modes.

I generally leave Flash set to "Off" for normal shooting. It's easy enough to turn it on
(one press) when you need it. I don't always want the camera to decide when it wants
to shoot the flash. I prefer it to be my choice.

Fig. A2-30 Macro Icon

 Fig. A2-30 Macro Icon

Left: Macro Macro mode is represented by a "tulip" icon. The Macro setting is both
more and less than meets the eye.

It is only needed when you're doing wide-angle macros, shooting very close to the
subject at extreme wide angle. It's used for flowers, insects, small products, any
subject that is small and needs to be viewed up close.

All Macro mode does is free up the camera's autofocus for extreme close focus. This
closeup range is built into the camera, but is turned off in normal photography to
speed up autofocus performance. With a smaller autofocus range, the camera doesn't
have to hunt so far for focus.

When Macro mode is enabled, you can shoot from as close as 1 cm to your subject
(if you can get around the camera's shadow).

Tip: When shooting wide-angle macro, don't shoot at full wide-angle.

The Macro mode works effectively up to approximately 1.9X zoom,
which will make your closeup photos look even closer than they do at
full wide-angle. This is an excellent mode in the H7 and H9.

Tip: Don't worry if you forget to turn the Macro mode off. It won't effect
the rest of the zoom range.

Bottom: Self-Timer There's not a lot to be said about this. Turn the timer on and wait
for the countdown. In the past, the timer was used to get a shutter click without
touching the camera, a critical issue when shooting low-light long-exposure shots like
fireworks. However, with the H7 and H9's IR remote, the self-timer becomes much
less important. Whether shooting fireworks on a tripod or a self-portrait, the remote is
much more effective and gives you more control.

Conclusion

There is so much that goes into making a good camera. Not just image quality, noise
reduction and compression. There's performance, usability, features, burst speed and
macro capabilities, among many others.

In so many of these, the H7 and H9 are nothing less than excellent. And if you shoot
carefully, both cameras are capable of really good image quality, as well.

The formula for good images is simple: expose properly, focus carefully, leave
enough depth of field around your subject, stay at ISO 400 or lower. Take care of
these, and you should get images from your H7 and H9 that you'll be proud of, images
that stand up to those from any other camera in their class.

At the risk of repeating what I wrote in the Quick List for the H1, H2 and H5, don't
forget to have fun with your H7 and H9. The fun may be the best feature of these
remarkable cameras.

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