Hey, this is Scott of Photography Banzai.
In this video I want to talk about the Sony DSC-HX400V.
Thanks to Camera Craft in Rockford
Illinois for let me try this out at their shop.
There are quite a few different bridge cameras out there.
In this case, it's about mid range in the
price level.. in the zoom level. It does have
a few interesting features for the price
that we'll get to. Towards the entry
level of range you have the Nikon B500,
and then you step up about hundred
dollars at the moment and you have this
camera. This camera has a 20 megapixel
1/2.3 inch backlit sensor. That
basically means you get a little bit
less noise in your photos compared to a
non backlit sensor. The most important
thing about a bridge camera is the lens
in this case you have a Zeiss branded 24
to 1200 millimeter equivalent lens.
That's 50x. It does have the optical
stabilization, of course. These cameras
really need that. Aperture wise it
goes from F/2.8 to 6.3 through the zoom
range, so you aren't getting a constant
aperture. But usually you don't get that
in a camera like this. There's a switch
on the side of the lens that gives you
auto focus, manual focus, and the DMF mode.
Which is the most important one If you
want to adjust focus yourself after
gaining auto focus. When you're not in the
DMF mode, you can use the ring to adjust
zoom instead. But you also have a zoom
adjustment near the shutter button.
The camera does have a 1/4000th of a second maximum shutter speed. That's
pretty decent for a camera like this.
With the lens and F/2.8 maximum aperture
you shouldn't have any issues in bright
sunlight. Autofocus wise, this does use
contrast detect autofocus. So that's not
an ideal method these days for autofocus.
But I didn't really notice any big issues
trying to gain focus with the camera.
Your results will vary though, and of
course I didn't use it too long. Probably
the biggest feature of this camera for
the price level is the electronic
viewfinder. If you drop down a little bit,
you won't have that nice viewfinder in
your camera. It is an option if you want
to spend a little more to get this. You
will have a viewfinder. It's very helpful
in various situations especially
outdoors. LCD screen does tilt up and
down, which is nice. Of course it's not
fully articulating, but this is good for
straight photography.
There is a dedicated button to switch
between the monitor and viewfinder which
is nice. It also has a sensor on the
viewfinder if you want that automatic
switch between the screen and the
viewfinder. The camera has a lot of
standard photography modes of course. Gonna gloss over those, but ones that I
thought were interesting are the
panorama mode and also the auto HDR mode.
For panorama I tried it two times I had
no issues getting a nice photo out of it.
The same situation for the auto HDR mode
it takes three photos stitches them
together in the camera to give you more
dynamic range. So if you have really
bright areas you'll get more information
in that. Of course the only issue is that
when you're taking three photos you
could potentially get some blur. In video
mode an interesting thing is that when
you do zoom, you can zoom smoothly and
that's definitely a benefit. It's similar
to how camcorders work that's a nice
feature. There is a built-in GPS in the
camera. Very nice for tagging locations
of photos. Connectivity wise you have
Wi-Fi and NFC, I assume with their
Android and iPhone app. You also have a
USB 2.0 connection, which is on the older
side, but good enough for most situations.
The battery is an NP-BX1 battery. Rated
at 300 shots per charge. That's pretty
small, but I mean it's definitely
manageable. You probably want an extra
spare battery or two. The memory card is
down by the battery. It seemed pretty
easy to access. I didn't have any issues
with that. Build quality felt decent for
a camera of this price range. I didn't have
any issues. It has a nice assortment of
buttons and dials to get direct access
to features and adjusting settings. The
tripod socket is not in-line with the
lens. So that isn't ideal if you want to
do the panorama mode on a tripod. But I
was able to do that just handheld, so I
don't think that would be a big issue. It
is nice to see this camera has an MR1 in
MR2 memory recall preset settings right
on the dial. So you can get to different
modes set up. Maybe one for photos, one
for videos. Or one for action photos one
for landscape photos. And you can just
switch back and forth quickly with those
right on the dial. This is a long zoom
bridge camera. You get that delay when turning it on before
you can take a photo. Because it has to
extend the lens. That's pretty standard
for this type of camera. So just
something to keep in mind. The camera
does have a manual focus assist mode
with peaking. It also zooms in and shows you
a distance scale on the screen. Which is
nice when you want to get that exact
focus. All that said, I think this is a
pretty happy medium in a bridge style
camera. Price wise and feature wise it
does have the EVF for using outdoors. All
those situations where you can get that
direct look through the viewfinder. That
is a nice feature. I think it is worth
spending a little bit more on. Of course
it does have the small sensor inside, but
it's pretty standard with this type of
camera. Just don't expect a lot from
image quality. You won't be cropping a
lot. And of course if you do a lot of
photos.. post them online, it's no big deal.
The biggest thing about these cameras is
that huge zoom lens. In this case it
seems just fine. It is the 50x, so it's
about mid range again in the amount of
zoom you can do optically. Good enough,
especially for the price. That's it for
the Sony DSC-HX400V. Like I said, it
seems like a good happy medium for a
bridge style camera. It is a little bit
more pricey than some of them, but you do
get that viewfinder. Which is a really
nice benefit. Anyways
Thanks to Camera Craft for let me try this out at their shop.
Hope you enjoyed this video. If you
did, please consider subscribing. That
helps me out a lot.
Likes and shares help out a lot as well.
Thanks again!
