Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX90 Camera

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX90 Camera

Welcome to a Battery Grip specialist of the Sony Battery Grip

The Cyber-shot DSC-HX90 is Sony's latest travel compact. It offers an amazing 30x zoom range in a body that will easily slip into your pocket.

The HX90 looks and feels good too, and the inclusion of optical image stabilisation makes the zoom useful when shooting with the camera in the hand. For the most part the £320 Sony HX90 with battery grips such as Nikon D90 Battery Grip, Nikon MB-B10 Battery Grip, Nikon D700 Battery Grip, Nikon D7000 Battery Grip, Nikon D3100 Battery Grip, Nikon D5100 Battery Grip, Pentax D-BG4 Battery Grip, Pentax D-BG2 Battery Grip, Sony Alpha A550 Battery Grip, Sony A350 Battery Grip, Sony A900 Battery Grip is a great little rival to the Panasonic TZ70, one of the most popular superzoom compacts of the moment.

However, if image quality in low light is your top priority then you should think twice.

The HX90 has seen a radical change over previous models in Sony's HX range. It's quite a lot smaller than its predecessor, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX60, instead looking more like the popular Sony RX100 IV. The HX90 is compact enough to easily fit into your pocket without filling it – which is a huge benefit for a travel camera.

It weighs only 245g with the battery and memory card in place. It's so light, in fact, that it barely makes its presence felt.

Despite its small size, the Sony HX90 still feels comfortable to hold: a hand grip protrudes from the front of the camera slightly. It isn't in any way cumbersome.

Manual control is good and, once again, is fairly similar to that of the Sony RX100 series of cameras. The Sony HX90 has a control ring around the lens and a secondary manual dial on the rear. The lens ring is a smooth, electronic control rather than a click one, which may put off a few. As with the RX series, however, it does at least feel good.

Outer hardware is an area where the Sony HX90 actually loses out to its predecessor, though. There’s no hotshoe or exposure compensation dial, which pushes this model more towards the market for casual photographers. You can still control exposure using the camera’s menu system, of course, but the lack of hotshoe means you can’t attach accessories such as a more powerful flash or external mic. A basic integrated flash is included, though.

Although not a great performer in low-light conditions, the super-compact Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX90 offers fair image quality in a lightweight package that makes it the ideal travelling companion.