Sony Cyber-Shot H400 Claims Super-Zoom Without Super-Cost

Sony thinks there's a market for big zooms among those with relatively small wallets, hence the Cyber-shot H400 revealed today. While it packs a 63x optical zoom – bigger even than the zoom on the Cyber-shot HX400V – Sony has opted to keep the price down with a relatively mainstream 20.1-megapixel sensor, smaller than what you'd often find on a superzoom camera.

The zoom can be boosted, digitally, to up to a crazy 210x, as long as you don't mind it slipping down to just VGA quality. Thankfully there's optical image stabilization, though the 100-3200 ISO range could be a little higher.

The 0.8fps burst shooting rate and 720p HD video recording are also compromises that come with the price tag, but you do get Sony's Intelligent Auto mode and Picture Effect in-camera editing. There's a 360-degree sweep panorama mode too.

Sadly WiFi and NFC also fall off the spec list, so you can't use the H400 with Sony's PlayMemories app, but the more intuitive interface from the A7-series has been ported over. The Sony Cyber-shot H400 will do on sale at the beginning of March, priced at $319.