I don't have personal expirience, but I am sure that camera is very good. Compacts and especially ultrazooms improve quite fast. Better screens, new sensors, longer lenses, GPS units, etc. War in this segment is very intence, with Panasonic TZ series loosing sales in last periods. As for stabilization, Sony active mode is considered one of the best, if not the best.
Here are my initial thoughts. It is extremely good for a compact. Nearly resolves as much resolution in 1080p mode as the GH2. Less dynamic range and of course less low light performance. But I'm impressed and it has 60p which is useful for slow-mo and converting to 24p smoothly.
If you focus on something close with the background far away and zoom into the 200-380mm range you can also get some pretty good DSLR-looking shallow depth of field with it! It has a much better lens than the usual compact, good edge to edge sharpness and 16x zoom whilst maintaining a 24mm wide angle.
Oh and the new Steadyshot is like being transported into a first-person perspective video game :)
ILIS or IBIS helps capture little more details and resolves micro jitters. Nothing more or less. Many times it needs software image stabilization to get rid of macro jitters during post-processing.
Shoulder rig can do better job. Steadicam for walking or running scenes. Lack of ILIS or IBIL is almost non-issue.
I now have some sample 1080/60p footage and I did a quick test versus my Canon 600D.
Amazingly it actually resolves far more detail in 1080p than the DSLR!!
True comment on the Steadicam replacement but for a built in stabiliser it is quite extraordinary. When used at 24mm wide angle it is not that far off the Steadicam look for slow movements and normal handheld shots whilst walking. Telephoto and fast action obviously a proper rig is better. But we're talking about a tiny compact here... and what it does inside that tiny space is cutting edge compared to the rest. I love it.
Politically its a nightmare because I think it gives Apple too much power over out content and our devices. I also think if the security of the system is compromised it could be hell. I think the data centre is a bit like a black-hole which absorbs people's lives and it won't be long before Apple absorb all our money!!
But I admire the way it works, the design of their devices and I'll probably enjoy using it.
Camera companies could learn a lot from Apple's software model.
If you're interested in something similar (i.e. streaming all your music) but don't want to play in Apple's data centers, check out Subsonic. I can listen to my entire collection streaming from my home machine on other computers (e.g. at work) and on iOS/Android devices, and all it costs is a one-time 10 euro donation to open up API calls. There's video streaming support, too, all highly customizable.
I wonder how long it will take before Sony updates it with manuell-ish video, as with Nex-5? It seems to have caught the attention of many pro's. Maybe a hack, HX9V.VK?
i seriously would like a hack for the hx9v / hx100v. What do we have to do to get this to happen. I would do it myself if someone showed me what tools etc i would need
Yea, a hack for this camera would be soooo good. Basically something that could add some control over NR both for Jpeg and the High Iso Movie mode, add more options for the Custom button, code a level gauge (camera has the sensors), maybe speed up general camera operation...
Vitaliy_Kiselev, what do you say, maybe you could help improve this camera for the good of mankind? If you put some attention to it, i'll go fundraising into photo forums... sure you'll see donations skyrocket :D