Sony DSC-HX1 (ONE DAY RENTAL)- Circa 2009

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 is the company's first digital camera to be based around its new high-speed 1/2.4-inch 9.1-megapixel EXMOR CMOS image sensor. The sensor is coupled to a Sony G-branded 20x optical zoom, offering a whopping range from a useful 28mm wide angle to a far-reaching 560mm telephoto equivalent. Macro shooting is possible to as close as just 0.4 inches (one centimeter). Sony includes its Optical SteadyShot image stabilization, as you'd expect on a camera with a lens this powerful. The Sony HX1 offers ISO sensitivities from 125 to 3,200 equivalent at full resolution.

The big story of the Sony DSC-HX1's imager is its speed: It's capable of up to ten frames per second at full resolution using a mechanical shutter rather than an electronic one, to prevent image distortion. The Sony HX1 uses this speed to offer two interesting modes that aim to reduced blur in images. Both the hand-held twilight mode and anti-motion blur mode capture six images in a short burst and then combine them into a single image with the maximum possible sharpness and reduced noise. The difference between the two is that the latter mode creates the background from the entire group of images, and then overlays the main subject from one image only onto this background.

Sony CyberShot DSC-HX1 Digital Camera