Anyone have a Sony HX5?

Mizu_Ger

I am looking to get the wife a new camera for her birthday. At the moment she has a 5 year old Fuji Finepix F10, which she has practically driven into the gound from using it so much. I got a Powershot G9 last year and she always comments on how much better the colours look on that compared to the old Fuji, so I've started looking for a new one for her.

Doing a bit of reading on the web I came across the Sony HX5, which gets mostly great reviews, but has (what looks like) very heavy Noise Reduction that cannot be adjusted, so pictures tend to look smudged on close up (and worse than the f10!). Has anyone got one and can comment on this? Is it a big problem with the camera? It has an impressive list of functions otherwise.

In case anyone has any suggestions, I am looking for a camera with the following (based on what I think she needs!):

• Compact P&S
• Wide angle lens (24mm upwards)
• Good zoom (maybe 5x or better)
• Good video recording (720p or better)
• Good pic quality (strong colours and detail)
• Good size LCD (don't need a viewfinder)
• Some manual exposure/focus ability and good macro

The Panasonic Lumix ZS7 looks good, but a bit pricey and video quality isn't great.

EDIT: price-wsie I could go as high as 300euro

blastman

It's a brand new camera, I doubt that anyone has played around with one much yet. The specs do look impressive though. If she like the pictures from the G9 though, I would consider the Powershot S90.