Sony unveils shake-resistant Cyber-shot cameras

6-8mp digital SLRs and compacts too

By Tony Smith, 27th February 2006

Sony this weekend unveiled a trio of anti-shake digital cameras with widescreen picture support, including its latest shot at budget digital SLR supremacy and additions to its Cyber-shot W compact series that takes the line-up to 8.1 megapixels.

sony cyber-shot h5 digital slr camera

The SLR-style H2 and H5 offer image capture resolutions of 6.0 and 7.2 megapixels, respectively, but both sport a 12x optical zoom and interpolated zooms of up to 24x in "precision" mode and 57x in "smart" mode. Both cameras have a sensitivity range of ISO 80-1000, and 2cm macro modes. They can be set to take shots in a 16:9 aspect ratio, the better for display on a widescreen TV.

The H5 sports a 3in LCD, while the H2 has a smaller, 2in display. Both ship with 30MB on-board memory and MemoryStick slots for more. Sony claimed the H5's rechargeable batteries are good for 340 shots, though the H2 gets 400 hours out of them, presumably thanks to the lower resolution and thus reduced picture processing overhead.

The H5 and H2 both use Sony's Super SteadyShot anti-blue mechanism to cope with shaking hands and other vibrations. The W70 and W100 compact cameras have the same kind of feature, but in their case it's branded as High Sensitivity 'Anti-Blur' technology, going up to ISO 1250.

The two compacts have 8.1 and 7.2 megapixel image sensors, respectively, mounted behing Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lenses with 3x optical zooms. The W70 has 6x precision and 14x smart zoom modes, while the W100 ups the latter to 15x. Both have 2cm macro, and 16:9 picture modes

Both cameras feature 2.5in LCDs, and ship with 64MB of on-board memory (H5) and 58MB (H2). Like the H-series models, they features USB 2.0 connectivity with PictBridge support for direct-to-printer connections.

sony cyber-shot w70 digital camera

The H2 will be available throughout Europe from early April, the W100 from the middle of April, the W70 from the beginning of May and the H5 from the end of May. Sony did not provide pricing guidance. ®

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