The HX9V's lens is a real joy to use, with a 16x zoom in such a small package making this camera incredibly adaptable, with everything from ultra-wide landscapes to candid long-distance portraits within easy reach. The Sony DSC-HX9V joins the party with a 16x extending optical lens with respectable maximum apertures of f/3.3 at the 24mm wide-angle setting and f/5.9 at the 384mm full telephoto setting.
Travel-zooms now typically offer at least a 10x or bigger lens in a compact body that you can still fit inside a pocket, with some models upping the ante to a 16x lens. The DSC-HX9V is Sony's second travel-zoom camera, following last year's HX5 model. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V is available in black for £339.99 / $349.99. Other key features of the well-appointed Sony HX9V include Intelligent Sweep Panoramas, which now include a 42.9 megapixel high resolution mode, a 3 inch LCD screen with 921,000-dots, 10fps burst shooting mode at full resolution, ISO range of 100-3200, Optical SteadyShot with Active Mode which cuts camera-shake while you're shooting handheld HD video, Intelligent Auto Plus, Program and full Manual shooting modes, and support for both Memory Stick PRO Duo and Secure Digital cards.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V is a feature-packed travel-zoom camera, offering a 16x, 24-384mm zoom lens, 16.2 megapixel back-illuminated Exmor R CMOS sensor, built-in GPS tracking complete with a compass, full 1080p high-definition video recording with stereo sound and HDMI output and 3D Sweep Panoramas and 3D Still Images.