Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

Review: Sony’s Cybershot DSC-HX9V

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Sony's DSC HX9v

Within 20 mins of using this camera I knew I wanted one. (This is a review camera on loan from Sony).

I took around 20-30 photos of my kids and in that time frame not one of them was a bad shot. A week or so later I still have not read the manual but finding it easy to navigate through all the options and scene selections etc. My favorite setting on this camera is the background defocus which allows you to blur out the background and I found this one especially good for close ups of the kids.

What I also liked was the super zoom. It is a pocket camera, yet, it has one of the highest zooms available in the market. 16 times optical zoom! Made for great photographs where the kids were not aware that we were taking their photos (so they could not do silly poses).

Sony Camera example image

There is one big negative though. The charger port is underneath the camera which means I have to either lay it down on it’s lens side or the LCD screen side to charge. You would need to make sure you have a soft clean space for charging this camera. Consider that a valuable lesson that was learnt the hard way (Screen is now scratched, Sorry Sony!).

In a nutshell:

This is a super zoom Sony Camera with a 16.2 megapixels resolution and 16 times optical zoom. It has GPS functionality so you can easily tag and remember where you took your photographs. There are some other cool features like (Backlight correction, 3D images, full HD recording), but if even if you just want an easy to use pocket camera with photographs that look like they were taken with high end SLR model then go for it!

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Comments

  1. I agree this is currently the best in class, I can’t put mine down. I bought a wall charger on amazon for $10 and now I don’t have to deal with the in camera charging anymore!

Have you read?

Knit a Blanket with the Texture of a Ceiling

Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal. 

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles. 

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges. 

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to. 

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho. 

[Photo: Purl Soho]