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Review: Roundup: View Finders

Wired editors put GPS signals and camera menus and speed to the test, with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V ultimately winning them over.
review image
Photo by Jens Mortensen
WIRED
Sweep Panorama mode intelligently captures oversize subjects — you know, the Grand Canyon, LeBron James. Just press the shutter and sweep the camera across the vista. Records 1080p video with stereo sound. GPS automatically sets the clock. Digital compass.
TIRED
GPS signal defeated by buildings and overhanging trees. Doesn't display nearby place-names or points of interest during playback. Confusing menus. $350, sony.com
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Forgot where you snapped that pic of a giant green French lady hoisting a torch? You need a GPS-enabled camera. We took the four newest models for a test drive.

Roundup: View Finders

Learn How We Rate ##### Wired

Embeds location data in HD video, too. Fastest cam tested — blazing autofocus, no shutter lag. Landmark library spans 73 countries. 300-shot battery life.

Tired

Roundup:

How We Rate
  • 1/10A complete failure in every way
  • 2/10Sad, really
  • 3/10Serious flaws; proceed with caution
  • 4/10Downsides outweigh upsides
  • 5/10Recommended with reservations
  • 6/10Solid with some issues
  • 7/10Very good, but not quite great
  • 8/10Excellent, with room to kvetch
  • 9/10Nearly flawless
  • 10/10Metaphysical perfection

1. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V

If not for the picture of a satellite on the side, you'd never guess this camera is location-aware — the GPS functions are buried that deep in the menus. But once we activated them, the 10.2-megapixel HX5V geotagged our sharp shots with sniperlike accuracy.

2. Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7

The ZS7 not only embeds latitude and longitude data in your shots, it also displays city, state, and country — along with points of interest — right on the 3-inch LCD. Too bad it's sometimes a step behind: When we were taking night shots of the East River in Queens, the ZS7 thought we were still in a Brooklyn park we had visited earlier. It had the best image quality of the batch, though, capturing crisp photos with bold, natural color.

3. Leica V-Lux 20

The main difference between this camera and the Panasonic ZS7 is the price: That red dot on the handgrip commands a $300 premium. Otherwise, the specs are almost identical: 12.1-MP sensor, 12X optical zoom, even built-in GPS that sometimes gets confused. On a positive note, the V-Lux 20 matched the superior image quality of the ZS7; on a sour note, it was a second (or two) slower on the draw. But maybe your subjects will be so dazzled by the Leica logo that they'll hold their poses indefinitely.

WIRED Ships with Adobe Photoshop Elements 8. Snazzy all-black design.

TIRED Took up to a minute to initially locate GPS signal. Records 720p HD video in Motion JPEG format, which produces larger file sizes. Slightly bigger body than the ZS7.

$699, leica.com

4. Samsung HZ35W

Is Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs in Kyrgyzstan? This 12-MP Samsung thought so, placing Coney Island's culinary landmark in Central Asia. Luckily, iPhoto was able to decode the cam's location-babble and tag the imported photos correctly. Even so, this chunky rig had the best GPS controls of the group, including a topside activation switch and a Map View mode to pinpoint your whereabouts on the 3-inch screen. Unfortunately our pictures suffered from oversaturated color and blurry edge detail.

WIRED 15X optical zoom pulls back as wide as 24 mm. Map View highlights nearby Starbucks cafès and BofA ATMs.

TIRED Map View maps must be downloaded from Samsung Web site and stored on the memory card. Slowest shooter in test.

$349, samsung.com

Buy

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