The Sony Cyber-Shot HX99 is a great pick for anyone that wants to take a lot of quality pictures from a long-range distance. The small camera fits easily into your pocket, and its 3-inch display is a touchscreen much to the delight of anyone who doesn’t like fidgeting with buttons all the time. If that’s you, then you probably won’t like the camera in our Samsung NX2000 review.
The Sony HX99 is also a travel zoom camera, meaning that it’s great for trips and vacations because of its small size and zooming capability. If you’d like an upgraded camera, take a look at the Sony Cybershot T110 review too. Given all these features and those we’re yet to mention, could we have come across the best point-shoot camera? We put together this HX99 review to find out. For more small cameras, check out this best digital camera review.
Why We Like It – Sony Cybershot HX99
The Sony Cyber-shot HX99 is a compact camera that delivers superb image quality, and has a 30x zoom range. The camera also features a pop-up electronic viewfinder, making it great for selfies. Our grip and shoot review is a great way to take selfies too.
- 30x zoom range
- Touchscreen LCD display
- 4K Video support
- No weatherproofing
- Tiny viewfinder
Performance
The Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX99 is a very capable camera with a battery life of about 300 shots. This isn’t bad unless, of course, it takes way too long to come up with a perfect shot. For those who want to budget-shop, check out our guide to prices of cameras. The camera has a control ring that allows you to instantly change the shooting mode, zoom lens, or shutter speed so that you can take your shots faster. If you want similar control with your smartphone, take a look at our grip and shoot review too. It also features a 30x optical zoom lens (that is dwarfed by the Nikon Coolpix B500’s 40x zoom lens), and a mode dial for switching between your shooting modes.
Related: Read this Sony DSC W830 review
Design
Just like the Sony CyberShot DSC-RX100, the Sony Cybershot HX99 comes in a small package. Because of its small size, the buttons and dials seem a bit squeezed together. Its size, however, also allows you to move around easily with it, and hide it fast when you want to. But, if you’re still having problems, you’ll want to learn about using a digital camera to get the most out of it. Unlike the Canon PowerShot G7 X, the camera has an electronic viewfinder, and the advantage of this over an optical viewfinder is that the camera can relay a lot more information about the shot to your credit. In terms of connectivity, the camera supports both Bluetooth and WiFi for image sharing, though you’d need to download the Sony PlayMemories app for iOS and Android-based handsets. It also has both a micro-USB port for charging, and a micro-HDMI port as an output.
Value
The Sony HX99 makes it easy to take photos with features such as Eye AF (AutoFocus), where its 18 Megapixel image sensor can detect eyes, and therefore focus on a face. To learn more about this topic, read our guide to camera sensor sizes. It’s not as durable as the Olympus Tough TG-6, its viewfinder EVF is easy to flip and use for shots that need the camera closer to the ground, and its camera is capable of high-quality 4K 30fps video recording. Although, if you find a grainy image texture, you might need to perform maintenance. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to record in 4K at 60fps, you need to check out our DJI Osmo Action review.
Its 30x optical zoom lens from Zeiss Vario-Sonnar is great for zooming in from a distance, and image quality is also not too bad thanks to its range of sensitivity settings and file quality options it offers.
Related: Find out more about this camera with our Sony CyberShot RX100 IV review
Sony HX99 Wrap Up
For its price range, the Sony HX99 is neither too expensive nor too cheap. It’s also touted by Sony as the world’s smallest camera with a 24-720mm zoom lens. If that’s something you’d like, then the Sony CyberShot HX99 is the camera for you.
