Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have been searching for a good, pocket-able travel zoom camera for a few months and have looked at a number of different models including the Fujifilm 550exr. I settled on the Sony for its specs and the reputation that Sony has for making state-of-the-art cameras. I have to say I have not been disappointed. I am most interested in the out-of-the-box image quality since I know that on most occasions my approach is to take a series of shots without too much fuss and let the camera do most of the work for me. This is certainly the case when I am traveling since I am usually trying to get the most of the experience I am having rather than focusing too much on tinkering with camera controls. So I compared the images from the HX9V to a Sony NEX5 and to an older Panasonic. I used the IA settings on all three cameras. I have to say I was very pleased with the results. The HX9 gave consistently good images from its Intelligent Auto and Superior Auto modes that in some cases came close to the shots from the NEX5. Where it could not compete (and this makes perfect sense because of the different sizes of the image sensor) was in low light. Not that the HX9 didn't have pretty good low-light capability, but it just could not pull the shadow details of color clarity of the NEX5. What was always interesting to me in comparing the images was how sharp and crisp the images were from the HX9. Moving closer to the pixel level it was apparent that this came at the expense of overall smoothness of the image, particularly in shadows and at the edges where images elements came together. However, in many cases, the overall visual detail and contrasts in the shadow areas of pictures taken in daylight was surprisingly good and rivaled the NEX5 for clarity. Where things got a little ugly was in the shadow areas of images taken in low light. But overall, I was very impressed with the flexibility of the camera and how balanced the photos generally were. So here is my check list of pros and cons: Pros: - Stunning display with beautiful color and resolution - very crisp images with vibrant color - great zoom, good sharpness at all levels of zoom - nice menu system, easy to use. Great display makes menus seem even better - good controls (except for on/off button which is a little too flat/small) - lots of fun and useful image and shooting options - smooth and easy image scrolling in playback - nice feel to body, very well constructed, scroll wheel and buttons have a quality feel - nice options for multiple/burst shots of image to increase image fidelity/clarity Cons - a little chunky for a true pocket/travel camera - don't like the in-camera charging method. What's the benefit in that? - slight lag in zoom/review of in-camera images - Extra sharpness of images comes at some cost to smoothness