Sony HX400V review

The Sony HX400V is a bridge camera, which means it sits somewhere between a compact and SLR. However, these days there are so many cameras that occupy this territory that it feels less like a bridge and more a spaghetti junction. There’s a wide array of sensor sizes and zoom ranges available, with or without interchangeable lenses and in a variety of shapes somewhere between compact and SLR.

The HX400V is a bridge camera in the more conventional sense, combining a 1/2.3in sensor – the standard size for entry-level compact cameras – with a truly enormous 50x zoom lens. The 24mm (equivalent) minimum focal length gives an expansive wide-angle view. The 1200mm maximum means you can read the text on a £1 coin from 20 metres away.

The plastic body is a little creaky but the rounded shape should provide some rigidity. It’s also exceptionally comfortable to hold and use. The substantial handgrip fits snugly in the hand, and the back is contoured for a secure thumb grip. The lens ring controls either zoom or manual focus, and encourages a secure two-handed grip that helps to avoid shakes.

Using the electronic viewfinder can further aid stability by providing another contact point with your body. However, this one isn’t particularly inviting to use, with a 201,000-dot resolution that looks decidedly blocky compared to the 921,000-dot LCD screen. The screen tilts up and down, allowing you to press your elbows into your sides for greater stability and shoot at waist height.

There’s a reasonable allocation of buttons, switches and dials, including an auto/manual focus switch on the lens barrel and a command dial. Dials are useful for adjusting settings quickly, but this one suffered from an uneven rotating action on our test sample. There’s a Custom button that can be assigned to one of 20 functions, plus a Function button that reveals a further 12 on the screen. These 12 can be customised too, picked from a list of 23. With the centre of the navigation pad assigned to autofocus area, it’s quick to access key settings regardless of whether you’re using the screen or viewfinder.

Wi-Fi and NFC are built in for wireless transfers and remote control with Apple iOS and Android devices. We’d like more comprehensive remote control functions but there’s enough to take group self-portraits. GPS is built in too, so photos can be automatically plotted on a map in compatible software such as Lightroom and Picasa.

1080p video is recorded in AVCHD format at a choice of 24, 25, 50 or 60fps, with comprehensive control over exposure settings for those who want it. The optical stabilisation performed exceptionally well for videos, keeping handheld shots reasonably steady at the full zoom extension. Video details were exceptionally sharp and clean in bright light, but indoor shots fizzed with noise.

A big zoom is perfect for action photography, but only if the camera is fast enough to keep up. The HX400V put in a mixed performance in our tests. It was quick to focus, but 1.5 seconds between shots is a little below par. Continuous shooting was at 9.2fps or 2fps, and in both cases lasted for 10 frames. Then the camera locked up for 12 seconds while these shots were being saved. The Panasonic FZ200 is only a little faster at 10fps for 12 frames, but it kept going at 1.3fps after the initial burst, so it’s much less likely you’ll miss a critical moment with that camera. Flash photography on the HX400V was particularly slow at up to nine seconds between frames.

Our image quality tests told a similar story, with generally respectable results but not up to the standard of the FZ200. The lens performed well throughout its enormous zoom range, with little evidence of chromatic aberrations and only a slight softness to details towards the edges of frames. However, noise levels from the 20-megapixel sensor took a heavy toll on details. Brightly lit shots at ISO 80 had a slightly smudged appearance on close inspection, as noise reduction struggled to differentiate between noise and fine details. Even at ISO 80, skin textures looked scruffy.

Click on any image to enlarge it, and then on icon at bottom right to see full-res version

1/400s, f/6.3, ISO 80, 1200mm (equivalent) – Focus is reasonably sharp at the full zoom extension, and there’s not much evidence of chromatic aberrations.

1/400s, f/5, ISO 80, 284mm (equivalent) – Focus looks sharp here but details look a little odd under close inspection.

1/250s, f/4.5, ISO 80, 178mm (equivalent) – Even at ISO 80, these shaded skin textures are quite noisy

These problems became much worse as the ISO speed went up. These photos looked OK when resized to about 1 megapixel to fit a screen, but close inspection revealed grainy, smudged details. This was a problem not just when shooting in low light, but also for telephoto shots in anything but direct sunlight. That’s because zooming in increases the chances of camera shake, so faster shutter speeds are required. Then there’s the HX400V’s f/2.8-6.3 aperture, which means it captures a fifth as much light for telephoto shots than for wide aperture. Faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures mean less light being recorded, so the ISO speed must be pushed up to compensate, which raises noise levels.

Factor in the tiny 1/2.3in sensor size, and this camera has the light-gathering ability of a f/16-35 lens on a 35mm full-frame camera. f/35 means there’s a tiny amount of light being measured for telephoto shots, so it’s little wonder that they tend to suffer badly from noise.

1/250s, f/5.6, ISO 640, 502mm (equivalent) – This photo looks fine at modest sizes, but the noise reduction is struggling with the dark, smooth colours in the water.

1/250s, f/6.3, ISO 1000, 1200mm (equivalent) – This telephoto shot in shady conditions has pushed the ISO speed up to 1000. The resulting noise reduction gives details a syrupy texture.

CONCLUSION

The FZ200’s more modest 12-megapixel resolution keeps its noise levels lower, and its constant f/2.8 aperture means it captures significantly more light in telephoto shots. The HX400V’s maximum (equivalent) focal length is twice as long at 1200mm, but we’d much rather have the FZ200’s cleaner images at 600mm. The Panasonic FZ200 lacks Wi-Fi but offers faster performance and a superior EVF to the HX400V, and it’s still our favourite bridge camera at this price.