Sony HX90V Review First Look - The HX90V succeeds the HX60V and looks set to offer new competition to the travel compact market

Sony is going for gold with its latest travel zoom compact, the Cyber-shot HX90 (and HX90V, which adds GPS), which includes a pop-up electronic viewfinder - a key feature as adopted from its higher-end Cyber-shot RX100 III camera .

Claiming "world's smallest" honors, the new Cyber-shots are only 102mm wide but have 24-720mm lenses and one even has a pop-up viewfinder.

With the rise in popularity of smartphones, sales of compact cameras have steadily declined. However, there are a few compact camera ranges, such as tough cameras and travel zooms, that still thrive, as they provide something that smartphones cannot.

+ Excellent; compact design; + Extensive zoom range makes it very versatile; + Built-in Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity

No touchscreen on the LCD screen; No exposure-compensation dial; No raw recording

Okay, some people write reviews about this camera without owning it. I found the zoom to be really good and meets my needs. The video recording aspect looks great but you cannot transfer it to your phone unless it is in the lowest quality setting MP4.

Sony's latest superzoom, the Cyber-shot DSC-HX90V ($429.99), inherits some of the features from its premium RX camera series, including an excellent pop-up electronic viewfinder and a control ring around its lens.

Sharp, 30x zoom lens; Quick focus; Compact design; Excellent pop-up EVF; Solid control layout; Sharp, tilting rear LCD; 10fps burst capture; GPS; Wi-Fi

Images suffer at high ISO; No Raw support; Long delay after burst shooting; Lacks continuous autofocus setting for still images; Pricey

The new Sony Cyber-Shot HX90 / HX90V, available in black, the compact camera features a 30x optical zoom lens, 18 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, built-in pop-up OLED Tru-Finder EVF, full-HD video recording, and a tilting "selfie" screen.

Good exposure and colour; Extremely compact camera; 30x optical zoom lens; Built in electronic viewfinder (EVF; Excellent optical image stabilisation system; Tilting 3inch screen; Fast continuous shooting; Good battery life; Electronic level

Noise visible in images taken at ISO80; More expensive than the competitors; Some corner softness

Sony already dominates much of the compact digital camera market here in the UK, but the company is looking to cement that position with two (technically three) new travel compacts; the HX90 and HX90V, and the WX500.

These days it's not enough to simply cram a massive zoom range into a tiny form factor, a successful compact super-zoom has to accommodate a lot more besides. With its earlier HX50(V) and HX60(V) Sony was already doing pretty well, but reducing its already tiny proportions while adding a flip-up...

The Cyber-shot HX90V replaces last year's HX60V as Sony's high-end travelzoom compact camera. Like the HX60V it sports 30x optical zoom, though where this used a Sony G lens, the new Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX90V gets a Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T-star coated optic.