Sony Cyber-shot HX350 With 50x Optical Zoom Launched

Sony has announced the Cyber-shot HX350, which is the follow-up to the HX300 super-zoom compact camera. The new model is announced for the European markets and is said to go on sale for €449 starting next month.

A quick look at the specifications and not much seems to have changed in the new HX350. The camera features a back-illuminated 20.4-megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor and an up-to-date BIONZ X image processor. The ISO range is rated at ISO 80-3200, which can be expanded to 12800 in multi-frame NR mode. You get a focal length of 24mm at the wide end and 1200mm at the telephoto end (35mm equivalent) while the available aperture is f/2.8-6.3. This lets you achieve a 50x optical zoom, which makes it ideal for shooting distant objects and wildlife.

The HX350 features convenient options like a manual ring for smooth adjustment of zoom and focus, plus an easily-accessible mode dial and custom button for quick adjustment of settings. It also has full PASM controls. The camera is capable of 10fps burst shooting and can record video up to 1080p at 60fps. There’s a tiltable 3-inch LCD display with a 921k-dot resolution but sadly, there's no Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or NFC on board. It uses a USB 2.0 for interfacing with a PC for transferring content over and Micro-HDMI port for viewing the content you’ve shot directly on an HDTV. There isn’t any microphone or headphone socket present. In order to prevent camera shake, the HX350 retains the optical SteadyShot feature which helps keep the video steady. The inbuilt Intelligent Active Mode keeps full-HD videos sharp and blur-free with Sony’s proprietary frame analysis technology.