The Sony Cybershot DSC-H5 is my second digital camera, a huge step up from the simple point and click Nikon that I bought five years ago. Like that camera, you can use the Cybershot in a fully automated mode right out of the box. But what makes this camera worth the money are the host of manual features you can use to explore more fully the possibilities in the photographic art. Switching back and forth between the two takes only a few minutes of studying the options interface.
But BEWARE.
It appears that there is a serious design flaw in the DSC-H5. Two months after I bought it the automatic focus feature stopped working. As designed, you push halfway on the shutter button to focus, then press fully to take your picture. I was happily shooting away at a recent baseball game when I noticed that I could no longer hold the shutter halfway to focus. After discharging the batteries, reinitializing the camera, and pouring through the manual for a solution, I began a search of the internet. To my great disappointment I have found that several other consumers have had the identical same problem with the shutter button. Some have had the problem fixed, only to have it resurface several hundred shots later. See the forums (dsc-h5 autofocus problem) at Photography Review for more discussion of this issue.
I'm still under warranty and sending my camera for repair next week. I may sell it afterwards and move onto a new model, which I really hate to do. This is in all other respects a wonderful camera.