Customer Ratings & Reviews

Like the manual focus feature the best of all.....

Great replacement for my previously owned Olympus.

Overall this has proven to be a very nice camera with more functions than will probably use.

Very good for family pictures.good for moving objects

Got this for my birthday. Used at zoo last weekend. It was great.

I like this camera a lot, but have to get used to it.

I expected that the 300 will be a magnitude step above the 200, which I have. However, I was disappointed - since the camera was not really a step up.

For the price of under $500 the camera is average. The camera has a small 1/2.3 senor. The small senor is normaly bad for low light. If I had the money, I think there are other camera that are better. Like the Sony RX100 III and Canon GX1 II. Both are better but cost about $300 more.

I got this a few days ago. This is an amazing camera. It is my 5th Sony. It is very easy to use and has incredible features. I purchased the Canon Cybershot 50X 2 weeks ago to compare the 2. Without a doubt the Sony is much more user friendly. Similar features and effects. The Sony has more and they are easier to use. The zoom goes digital as well up to 200X. I thought it was listed 50X opt and 100X dig, so good news. Certainly larger and heavier than Canon. Have to be careful with shutter button, it is very light touch and you may take a photo while trying to focus by mistake. the zoom not as fast as other Sonys. Now for the sad news, the zoom ( image ) on the Canon is better at the higher magnifications, 50x, 100x and 200x. Regular shots,Sony is excellent. I bought this to take shots of birds and the focus and clarity is just not there. Do not know what to do, thought I was a Sony customer for life. I do use a Canon T4i for portraits but wanted a quick 50X for the wildlife

Good for point and shoot work and at distance. Seems god for nights with HDR but tends to blur more especially with kids.

Love, love this camera. Bought it on the way to Yellowstone...enjoyed the extra zoom, amazingly clear.

I was not pleased at all with the picture quality and felt this model fell far short of it's predecessor. I returned the product for a full refund and purchased an entirely different camera.

Maybe it was this particular camera, they are not user friendly, or I overlooked something. I couldn't get a good pictire no matter what I did. My first bad experience with a Sony camera. I returned the camera the next day.

It all started when I heard about the Nikon P910 but it is huge so I wanted to look at a P610 and try it. I couldn't find one that worked locally and wasn't going to spend a lot sight unseen. Then I saw the Sony and gave it a try in the store and it took in focus shots at maximum zoom in the store. I bought it. In actuality it is 35 to 1200 in 35mm equivalent which is good for me. I went to an aquarium to try it out and got excellent results, again hand held. I should have used fill in flash for some closeups but other than that I am totally blown away with the results. I've been doing photography for many years and this is the best camera I've owned to date and I owned SLR's back in the day.

Just a regular camera. Nothing special about it at all.

I liked the features on this camera, so bought a refurbished one to save some money. I don't know if it's because it's a refurbished one that the pictures I take with the zoom are not as sharp as expected, or if it is because the 50X zoom loses a lot of quality. I'd rather the high zoom wasn't offered if the pictures are not going to be terrific quality. I also do not like that you have to pop the flash in order to use it; all of my previous Sony cameras the flash would automatically pop up if necessary. I like the tilt screen. Neither Sony I've had where it has had a manual focus have I been able to get it to work, so would prefer an auto focus only lens, since perhaps this ability to do both compromises the quality of the auto focus/durability of the lens. I am happy with my purchase and have gotten a lot of use out of it, but for the average camera user, I would recommend a cheaper model.

I really like this camera for the most part. I get some very sharp pictures even on critters that move a lot. I just switched from film to digital and I like that I can take lots of pictures and just delete the ones that don't come out good. There are a few things that could be better - and these are the only reasons I did not give the camera 5 stars. 1) I like to get up close shots of flowers/bugs/etc. but the camera won't focus well when zoomed out real close to a small flower for ex., but without zooming out the cameral angle is too wide and the subject is too small. I can compensate somewhat by stepping back from the subject and zooming in - still practicing with that. 2) When you hold down the shutter button to take multiple pictures quickly of something that is moving it creates all the shots in one file that has to be expanded in order to see the shots after the first one. Even with these issues I really like this camera and would recommend it to others unless all you do is macro work!

This is a wonderful camera. Especially appreciate the very long zoom capabilities, high megapixel number, extreme ease of use, in camera readable tutorial information and overall picture quality results. However, this needs to be mentioned! This was very important to me and I think it will be to others. Please be very aware! For anyone thinking this camera will shoot continuously for many frames, it does not. The most amount of frames possible to shoot continuously before the camera stops itself is ten frames. Other cameras have a maximum frame limit of one hundred. This was very disappointing to discover. Fortunately, I also own the DSC H300 Sony camera, which has the one hundred frame limit. So I use both cameras in combo when, for example, on assignment. I used this camera for zooming in really close when needed and if I need to shoot multiple frames in succession without the hassle of having the camera stop after only shooting ten frames, I will used my other previously mentioned camera. If you have the ability to acquire both cameras because you want to use very long zooms and shoot many frames in succession, I would highly recommend it. Otherwise, you owe it to yourself to be aware of this extremely and somewhat impractical low burst / continuous frame limit and plan out your shooting accordingly.

I have the Canon hx40, 12mp 35x. It captures low light or extreme light so much better than my CCD based cameras: I was hooked. At 20mp and 50x, HX300 puts the Canon to shame. The lens is faster, so I get low light shots that I couldn't with Canon, of course I can zoom like crazy. Power on is fast, zoom is fast. I had to ditch the 2 Auto modes in occasion, as they "think" too long evaluating the field before they can take a shot. In high action shots I had to run to the Program mode. I'm yet to really master the Program modes. The longer the zoom, the more you need stabilization and lens speed is key. I missed a lot of shots with the Canon, that I don't think about anymore with the Sony...the one and only. HD video. That's another shocker. Get ready for blow me away HD. The Canon has some great Video options like hyper slow motion (120 and 240 fps), which is cool...too bad Sony missed that boat.

As the sensor size is small compared to DSLRs, there are just so many things that can be done to enhance picture quaiity when shooting in low light situations. The CMOS sensor is definitely a plus and the high ISO settings also help but you are not going to approach the quality of a camera with an APS-C size sensor. That being said, the zoom range is incredible for such a small camera chassis and the feature set is pretty amazing given the price. If you are doing most foyour shooting outdoors in decent light conditions, then this camera will perform amazingly well and as long as you are not blowing up to poster size prints, you should be happy with the results. Not having to carry round a 10 pound DSLR rig with the equivalent telephoto zoom lens is the key value proposition for buying the Sony DSC-HX300.