At least you compare the photo with the phone. That's exactly I wanted to see. People are just talking about specs and specs everywhere but the actual thing no one is comparing no one
I totally agree with the point you stated about how camera manufacturers are failing to implement things like computational photography found in today’s smartphones. It really confuses me and frustrates me how many camera manufacturers are completely abandoning point and shoots without giving computational photography and try. The only two companies that are thankfully still making point and shoots are Sony and OM System.
Yeah, I don't get why it's so hard to implement well-established technologies. How can my phone take outrageously better night photos and have a 50th of the infrastructure dedicated to the camera? It's hard to justify buying one of these when it can't do the simple things well, even though I love the ergonomic and optical zoom advantages over my phone.
the hx99 isn't a point and shoot, as everything is controllable by the user. Point and shoot cameras don't allow the user control over focus, exposure only zoom and click, this is a compact camera.
Yes, I have been trying to find a good compact super/ultra zoom.. HX99, and TZ90 seems to be the only options.. but they are old and generally preform worse than my smartphone :(
The Pixel 6A, priced at $400 is regarded as the best smartphone camera in blind tests. That has a smaller sensor than this one. The night shots are great too. I hope Sony brought back HX series back to life with a better processor and software. The sensor size is not the issue here. HX series always had a spot in my heart. A powerhouse, packed in a small form factor. Now, I'm into the A6000, newer APSC cameras with viewfinder are a bit too large for my liking.
I bought this camera when it came out to replace an old Samsung compact camera I took everywhere. This camera is the perfect size to leave in a work bag, the car glovebox, or in your pocket, to always have a great little camera on hand.. for those of us who don't associate their phone with a compact camera. Which gets to your point that a dedicated compact camera should give better pictures than a similar priced phone. Phones use processing with their multiple lenses to give us a great looking photo in most circumstances. The HX99 has creative styles, but that's just in-body Lightroom-style presets, not "fake" bokah, or a level of zoom or detail that wasn't in the original. Phones are now incorporating AI so they just need to see the subject from which they can generate the "style" of image you're after. The HX99 has that enormous zoom, but other than that you may as well use your phone. I'm a boomer so I HATE taking photos on my phone - its a PHONE! - but sadly every photo taken with my phone is near perfect.
This is a really great video review especially for those still learning photography. The smartphone comparison is great but it's a real shame the dynamic range is so poor next to a smartphone especially in the skies, even when smartphones have smaller sensors. 30x zoom is impressive though in such a tiny camera.
A very wonderful and small camera, but I do not recommend using it in low light at all. I use a mobile phone much better, but in the daytime it is good and may beat the iPhone 14 Pro Max at some times.
Thanks for the real world review. After four years of using the HX80, which is the cheap little brother to the HX99 I decided to spring for the HX99. It's been out of stock EVERYWHERE for months, but Amazon finally got new ones in stock, sort of.... They filled my order but won't ship the HX99 until mid-October. Oh well, I can wait a bit longer. 🙃
Hx99 is actually a rather old camera. It was released in 2018. It was during the iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S9, and Xperia XZ2 era. The sensor is probably similar to XZ2 as well. I have XZ2, and the image quality is terrible for current year. It was good when it was released, but it can no longer compete with modern phone. Smartphone have come a long way since 2018. Better sensor (funny enough, most of smartphone sensors are made by Sony), better processor and better lens too. Comparing this camera image quality to current year flagship is kinda unfair. The only advantage this thing has over smartphone is the reach. 720mm is crazy amount of reach. I do hope they they release its successor with modern sensor, more powerful chipset and better quality lens. New gen HX could be a smartphone killer.
Sony has ADHD. They'll innovate a great new line of models and then suddenly discontinue it, and not have firmware updates for older models generally. The RX10, RX0, RX1R, X3000, HX are all well worthy of new versions so I doubt we'll see any (unless they throw the HX into an Xperia).
@@arnisbrown5848 I would like an X3000 update. I have one of those. I picked it up for $160 last week. Super cheap and it is in mint condition. It still holds up pretty well even now. I like it a lot. I can see why a lot of vloggers still use it.
Doesn't seem like the IQ really holds up particularly well, which is a shame. I like the idea of having a superzoom compact to complement larger sensor (1" - APSC) 24-70mm equivalent compact to retain the faster aperture - as opposed to going down the longer zoom but slower aperture route of the Sony RX100 m6 and 7, but 1/2.3 seems a bit too small. Especially when its smaller than even some budget smartphone sensors. Also the lens is pretty old, even for when it was released - the HX99's its direct predecessors are the HX95 and HX90 (not the HX60) - which have pretty much the same Zeiss lens and the 90 was released in 2015.
I needed a replacement for my Sony DSC-500 which also had 30x zoom. However I use(d) both for B roll video footage primarily in 1080p60. Mostly used in daylight situations. I am very pleased in those things it features in upgrades over my former DSC500.
It's frustrating there's still been no new HX release, and RX got a slight zoom upgrade but it's still crap in comparison to the HX series. Just give us the HX zoom range with the RX sensor size. How hard can it be?
Actually pretty hard. At least as long as you want the camera still be as small and cheap an the hx99. If you want the 1 inch sensor from the rx100 and the zoom range from the hx99, you have that option. It is called the rx10 wich is a pretty big bridge camera. There is a reason why it is so big. Because it actually has the same sensor size as the rx100 and an extraordinary zoom range. You can not just put a sensor double the size into a hx99 body and be ready to go. The bigger the sensor, the bigger the lenses and camera bodies have to be and the more expensive they become. APSC cameras and lenses are way bigger than compact cameras because of the bigger sensor. Fullframe cameras and lenses are way bigger than comparable APSC lenses because of the bigger sensor. You can not just swap the sensor, keep the big zoom range and still expect to have a small and cheap camera. It is physically not possible.
I don't especially care about cheap, but I do care about the form factor being similar to HX99/RX100 It feels the effort to match such a lens and sensor has stagnated.. as if you think about what's going on with phone cameras (internal reflections to increase lens length and so on), that are by FAR smaller than this compact camera size (also better computational work and no 4K video length limits) - it really should give you a lot of room to work with physically The RX10 size (I have an HX400 too which is similar) is just too big for what I want to use these cameras for. It's easy to carry around HX99/RX100 in a pocket.. 99/100 times I just don't have the HX400 with me.. or wouldn't be allowed where I want to go carrying a large bridge cameras that the layman would think was an SLR There should be no reason these kind of zoom lenses with a much larger size and depth should be losing to cameras built into phones.. this is a device dedicated to photography/videography.. and has so much more space to work with
Sony needs to build a bigger bridge between compact cameras and mobile phones , otherwise why carry a compact camera if you have the Samsung s22 that takes pictures on a par as the hx99 . I'm looking for the best compact camera for £200 , pre owned . Or maybe a bridge camera , Sony h400v was considered , thanks for the review.
@@TobiasRieperGood 💯💯yes it's true. For this i took him. And i pleased that people understand this. The only actual minus is that P 900 does not shoot video in 4K as p950 update model.
