Sony HX99 Sample Images From Real-World Shooting

Sony leaned hard into the camera market in the years around the HX99’s 2018 release, with some very interesting offerings. They’re obviously more than willing to use their research and development depth, manufacturing networks and expertise, a healthy dose of innovative thinking, and a willingness to put new ideas into the marketplace.

The Alpha range is the benchmark for mirrorless cameras, and it pushed established players like Nikon and Canon to catch up.

Their RX0 and RX1 cameras are quite unique and unlike anything else on the market. Their RX100 series packs an amazing amount of high-end features into a high-end compact camera. And Sony’s sensors turn up in some of the best cameras produced by other brands. All in all, it has put Sony amongst the most exciting of the camera brands right now.

Overall, the HX99 does everything you’d expect and more from a compact camera. It doesn’t blaze a lot of new territory in terms of innovation except in one key respect: it packs a massive 24-720mm zoom into a tiny camera.

Not all of that zoom range is equally useful — the software-enhanced digital zoom features aren’t as good quality-wise as the optical zoom, for instance — but the optical zoom alone is a pretty amazing feature for something that fits so easily in your pocket. I’ve posted some practical examples of the HX99’s zoom range separately, so you can see how those numbers translate visually.

It’s worth being precise about those zoom numbers, because they get quoted loosely. The 24-720mm span is 30x if you simply divide one into the other, but Sony’s published optical figure is 28x — the lens itself is 4.25-118mm, and the 35mm-equivalent conversion isn’t constant across the range, which is where the gap comes from. Clear Image Zoom stretches things to a claimed 1440mm equivalent and digital zoom goes further still, but only the 28x is real optical reach.

Even aside from the impressive zoom, the HX99 is a very capable point-and-shoot compact, especially for the $450 it launched at in 2018 (at a much higher price point, Sony has the even better RX100 line). It has an 18.2MP sensor, wireless connectivity, and the usual in-camera photo-enhancing tricks you’d expect. It also has a few higher-end features that you don’t come across on most run-of-the-mill compact point-and-shoots, especially one priced so reasonably. Like being able to shoot RAW, a pop-up electronic viewfinder, and high-bitrate 4K video recording.

Sony discontinued the HX99 without replacing it, and no other manufacturer currently makes anything that combines pocket size, a viewfinder, and 720mm of reach. So if you want one, the used market is the only market — which is where sample photos like these earn their keep.

Taken all together, the result is a camera that generally exceeds what I’d expect for a camera in this class and price point, and it’s worth checking out the HX99’s macro shots too. Without resorting to fancy bells and whistles — except with the zoom — it performs at least as well or better than I’d expect in most practical respects.

I’ve posted a detailed hands-on review of the Sony HX99 separately as well as a selection focusing specifically on the HX99’s high-ISO performance, but here’s a selection of photos I’ve shot with the camera to go alongside the review. I thought it worth posting them to give some practical examples of how the camera performs in real-world everyday shooting.

Related: Sony HX99 Memory Card Recommendations

Sony HX99 sample photos

These were shot in a mixture of RAW and JPGs and minimally (for the most part) processed in Lightroom. The HX99’s sensor’s aspect ratio is 4:3, and the shots here are a mix of 4:3 and 3:2.

A couple of things to watch for as you go through these. The 720mm shots are visibly softer than the wide-angle ones — that’s the lens at full extension rather than the processing, and it’s consistent enough that I’d think of the long end as being for reach rather than for critical sharpness. And in dimmer light the camera pushes ISO up quickly to keep shutter speeds usable at f/6.4, so detail starts to smudge from around ISO 800 upward.

You can click on each image to open a full-resolution version if you’d like a closer look.