Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V

Every pocket ultra-zoom camera has its trade-offs, but experts say the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V suffers from the fewest. While other ultra-zooms can be heavy, slow-shooting or iffy in dim light, the HX9V manages to stay pretty compact (just over 8 ounces, and one and a half inches thick) with its telescoping 16x zoom lens closed. It can shoot up to 10 frames per second (fps) -- it actually averages 7.6 fps in one demanding burst test -- although several experts and owners say other functions like zooming, shot-to-shot times and switching between modes can be sluggish.

The Sony's 16.2-megapixel image sensor does tend to turn out noisy photos in really dim light, over ISO 800, and the built-in noise reduction over-compensates by smearing away detail -- but that happens even in fairly bright light with other ultra-zooms, so the Sony easily comes out ahead. And experts agree that the Sony's video mode is one of the best you'll find on any point-and-shoot, recording great-looking footage in full 1080p HD. The plethora of shooting features -- including 3D, sweep panorama and a particularly useful backlight-compensation feature -- win over even skeptical, gimmick-hating critics.

DPReview.com pits the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V head-to-head against five other ultra-zoom cameras in a well designed shootout. An individual test at Imaging-Resource.com is just as painstaking, followed closely by expert tests at PhotographyBlog.com and CNET. ConsumerReports.org also does careful testing, but without describing the camera very much -- results are largely confined to a ratings chart. This camera gets plenty of owner reviews at Amazon.com.