Sony HX20V Digital Camera $246 at Dick Smith (25% off deal)
Been on the hunt for a decent compact travel camera deal for a few weeks now and found this last night.
Price seems good for an Australian stock/warranty model etc.
Not sure when the promotion ends.
I used to have the HX9V and it was an awesome camera! This is just a never version at a great price! + from me
I have the HX9V too, like many here I snapped it up during the 2-for-1 deals at HN. I will check if the HX20V is an improved model, I know Sony have released a few newer models and not all of them are a step up from the HX9V. Will report back with findings…
UPDATE:
Okay it looks like the HX20V is indeed the superior camera. Not a giant leap, more of a natural progression.
Better image quality
Marginally better video quality (debatable by some)
Better zoom (20x vs 16x)
Much better macro (1cm vs 5cm)
Slightly improved battery life
For this price it's a no brainer for any HX9V/HX7V owners looking to upgrade. I'd love to upgrade and give my HX9V to the missus but I don't think she'd be as excited on the idea. Unless………. I sell the HX9V on eBay to pay for this one……… She can't refuse!
I would hope the HX20V is faster in use too… the HX9V is damn slow for things like HDR, fine for 'normal' stuff though. Mostly got it for the decent video recordings it could make.
Had a lot of use out of my HX9V so I shall certainly investigate this one as a possible upgrade… I assume though something else is about to come out if they are dropping in price?
The HX9V was a sweet camera. I couldn't believe how much zoom they packed in a tiny package. The videos were great and that image stabiliser was something else. I'd be recording while jogging and the video looked like it was shot using a steady cam rig of some sort. If the HX20V is even better then that's a really good price.
Yes, I have the HX9V also and I have to agree that as a small VIDEO camera it is great, with image stabilization, massive zoom, very wide angle and all. But as a stills camera, the photos are only good for smallish web display or quite small prints. The noise, smearing of detail and jpeg compression are quite bad. I would've sold mine if it wasn't for the quality of the video. But yeah, HX20V should be at least a little bit better in most aspects and the price here is great.
Bought one mid last year for $399 ($100 off deal at Myer - cheapest local stock at the time). $246 is a huge drop from the typical ~$450 lowest street prices from just over six months ago, especially for a camera considered among the best in its class. Now we just need something similar to happen with the RX100…
I ended up selling the HX20V as the photo quality wasn't much of an advance over my trusty old Panasonic TZ7. But the stabilisation in video mode really impressed me.
Thanks OP. By the time I saw this, and decided to buy (after much research), they only had display models in a few stores in SA. I managed to get David Jones to price match (lucky when DJs checked with the DSE store, they didn't tell them it was only a display model they had in stock!). These cameras get excellent reviews, and my own brief experience with it is positive.
The only negative (and it's very small) that I can see (and did read it in reviews), is that at 1x zoom when you use the flash, the lens creates a shadow in the bottom right of the photo. This is easily remidied by either zooming to 1.1x, or using something to difuse the flash.
Thanks again.
I have the HX7V, so I'm pretty sure it applies to this camera too. It is a great deal, but be aware that based on my experience with the HX7V, it probably applies to this camera too: