Sony H400 vs Sony RX100 IV: An Expert Comparison for Enthusiasts and Pros

In the vast landscape of Sony’s Cyber-shot line, two cameras stand out for dramatically different reasons: the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400, a budget-friendly superzoom bridge camera, and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 IV, a premium large sensor compact champion. Both appeal to photographers seeking high image quality and convenience but serve very distinct photographic ambitions and styles. Today, after hours spent with both models in the studio and out in the field, I aim to unpack their real-world capabilities across genres, scrutinize their technical nuances, and help you decide which is truly worth your investment in 2024.

Let’s get started with an honest, detailed, and comprehensive comparison that goes well beyond specs and marketing hype.

First Impressions and Ergonomics: The Feel of the Camera in Your Hands

Often overlooked but crucial to long shooting sessions, ergonomics can make or break your experience. The H400 - built in 2014 as a bridge camera - feels substantial with its SLR-like body and a hefty 628g weight. In contrast, the RX100 IV is feather-light and pocketable at just 298g, reflecting its premium compact DNA.

Handling each, the Sony H400 feels bulky but reassuring - a camera you hold like a DSLR, with a decent grip that grows on you after a few hours of use. However, its build quality is mostly plastic, and while it doesn’t boast weather sealing, it does feel solid for casual shooting in benign conditions.

The Sony RX100 IV impresses with its machined metal exterior and compact form factor that slips seamlessly into jacket or even large pants pockets. It exudes refinement, and though smaller, boasts a more confident grip than you might expect given its size. Being ultra-portable makes it perfect for travel and street shooters who prioritize discretion and ease of carry without sacrificing image quality.

Control Layout and User Interface: Speed and Intuitiveness

In-camera controls and usability directly influence how quickly and efficiently you can shoot - vital for dynamic situations like sports or street photography.

The H400’s control scheme is basic yet straightforward. It lacks customizable buttons or a touchscreen, limiting fluid operation. Menus are user-friendly but somewhat dated. The electronic viewfinder (EVF) has a low resolution (201k dots), making manual focusing and critical evaluation challenging. Its Clear Photo LCD screen - fixed at 3 inches with only 460k dots - doesn’t inspire confidence for playback or outdoor viewing.

On the other hand, the RX100 IV features a more sophisticated interface with exposure dials and buttons placed with intent, allowing rapid adjustments on the fly. The EVF is a highlight here: a bright OLED panel with 2,359k dots and 0.59x magnification, a real boon when shooting bright landscapes or low-light events. The 3-inch tilting LCD with 1,229k dots provides sharp framing and playback, though sadly no touchscreen.

While neither camera incorporates an illuminated button system common in some enthusiast models, the RX100 IV’s superior control layout feels designed for serious photographers who want direct access to manual modes and fast AF area selection.

Sensor and Image Quality: The Heart of the Camera

No camera comparison is complete without an in-depth look at the sensor and image quality, the foundation of any photographic system.

Sony H400 is outfitted with a small 1/2.3” CCD sensor measuring roughly 6.17 x 4.55 mm and a 20MP nominal resolution. While this sensor size enables the tremendous 63.3x optical zoom range, it imposes significant limitations on image quality. Small sensor size inherently restricts dynamic range, low-light performance, and depth of field control. There's a modest anti-aliasing filter, and the native ISO tops at 3200.

In practical use, images show acceptable sharpness but struggle with noise beyond ISO 400. The CCD sensor’s limited dynamic range means highlight retention and shadow detail suffer, especially in tricky lighting. Skin tones, while pleasant in controlled light, lack the subtle nuances rendered by larger sensors.

Enter the Sony RX100 IV, with its 1” 20MP BSI-CMOS sensor sized at 13.2 x 8.8 mm, nearly four times the surface area of the H400’s chip. Its backside illumination design enhances light gathering, yielding superior signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range. DxO Mark’s tests confirm with a very respectable 12.6 stops of dynamic range and a color depth of 22.9 bits (compared to no DxO rating for H400).

The RX100 IV’s sensor excels at high ISO, with usable images at ISO 3200 and beyond - a key advantage for night, indoor, and sports photography. Its better tonal gradation faithfully captures skin textures and subtle color shifts that make portraits pop.

Both cameras provide maximum resolution around 20MP, but the RX100 IV outputs nearly twice the pixel dimensions per side, preserving more detail and enabling larger prints or cropping flexibility.

Zoom and Lens Performance: Reach Versus Optical Quality

The H400's defining feature is its astonishing 25-1550mm (35mm equivalent) 63.3x zoom lens, unmatched in this price class. It’s perfect for wild animal shoots where reaching distant subjects is critical without lugging a heavy telephoto lens.

However, the lens's maximum aperture of f/3.4-6.5 combined with the small sensor incurs harsh compromises on image quality at long end - sharpness decreases, chromatic aberrations creep in, and dof control becomes virtually impossible.

In contrast, the RX100 IV’s 24-70mm f/1.8-2.8 Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens covers a moderate 2.9x zoom range but boasts fast apertures that enable beautiful background separation and impressive low-light gathering. Its optical construction heavily prioritizes sharpness, contrast, and minimal distortion. While it can’t match the H400’s reach, its quality and aperture outperform most similar compacts.

For macro enthusiasts, the RX100 IV’s minimum focus distance is about 5cm, enabling greater creative freedom than the H400, which doesn’t specialize in macro at all.

Autofocus Systems and Speed: Catch the Moment or Miss It?

Autofocus can make or break sports, wildlife, and street photography. Here, the differences between these two Sonys underscore their different intended use cases.

The H400 uses contrast-detection AF with unspecified focus points, featuring face detection but no continuous AF tracking - and a sluggish autofocus lag. Given its single frame per second burst rate and no live view AF, the H400 is not optimized for fast action. You’ll find it better suited to landscapes, casual portraiture, or static subjects.

Conversely, the RX100 IV offers 25 AF points, continuous AF tracking, face detection, and phase-detection pixels embedded in the 1” sensor, resulting in snappier, more accurate autofocus performance, even in lower light or when subjects move erratically.

Face detection works flawlessly on the RX100 IV, locking quickly on eyes, and refocusing intelligently during bursts up to 16 fps - the kind of responsiveness required for sports and wildlife. The silent electronic shutter adds discretion if needed.

Burst Rate and Buffer: Action Photography Friend or Foe?

Analyzing continuous shooting performance clarifies who’s ready for action photography.

• Sony H400: Offers a pedestrian 1 fps continuous shooting rate, inadequate for action scenes or wildlife that require capturing fleeting moments. Buffer size and lag cause further delays, discouraging burst mode usage.

• Sony RX100 IV: Impressively high burst rate at 16 fps with continuous autofocus and exposure tracking. The buffer can hold 62 RAW or over 200 JPEG images before slowing. This makes the RX100 IV a small but fierce contender for sports shooters who prioritize portability.

Video Performance: Beyond Stills

Video is a major consideration in modern cameras, especially for hybrid shooters.

The H400 shoots only 720p HD video at standard frame rates and supports basic MPEG-4/H.264 formats. While it has a microphone port (a rare feature in this class), the rest of the video system is rudimentary, lacking 1080p or 4K capability, stabilization modes suited to video, or advanced audio inputs.

The RX100 IV, debuting a year later with a more powerful Bionz X processor, delivers full 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) video at 30/25/24 fps, alongside full HD 1080p up to 60p and slo-mo up to 120 fps. Its XAVC S codec ensures cleaner videos with less compression. Optical image stabilization complements handheld shooting, though lacks in-body stabilization.

Despite no external microphone input, the onboard mic captures audio cleanly. The RX100 IV is clearly geared toward advanced video users and multimedia content creators demanding sharp 4K footage without a big rig.

Display and Viewfinder Quality: Composing the Shot

The interface for composing and reviewing images is critical.

The H400’s 3-inch fixed Clear Photo LCD at 460k dots pales against the RX100 IV’s 3-inch tilting LCD screen with 1,229k dots. The higher resolution and tilt action screen on the RX100 IV enable more flexible shooting angles and better visibility in bright sunlight.

The electronic viewfinders further underscore this gulf: the H400’s low-res EVF (201k dots) is grainy and lacks detail, complicating manual focusing and framing. RX100 IV’s OLED EVF triples the resolution with 2,359k dots, offering sharp previews and excellent color fidelity.

If you rely heavily on the viewfinder or intend to shoot in bright conditions, the RX100 IV is the clear winner here.

Battery Life and Storage: Practical Considerations

Though seemingly mundane, battery endurance and memory options shape shoot day outcomes.

Both cameras accept SD/SDHC/SDXC cards, with the H400 also supporting Sony’s Memory Stick Duo formats, though standard SD cards are recommended.

Battery life is comparable: the H400 manages around 300 shots per charge, while the RX100 IV offers approximately 280 shots. This slight difference is negligible, but the RX100 IV’s smaller battery makes carrying spares advisable for extended shoots.

Connectivity and Extras: Modern Features

The H400 is limited to USB 2.0 and HDMI outputs, with no wireless connectivity, NFC, or Bluetooth - reflecting its older design refreshingly straightforward, but lacking modern conveniences like Wi-Fi transfer or remote shooting.

The RX100 IV includes built-in Wi-Fi and NFC, enabling seamless wireless file transfers and tethered shooting via smartphone apps, a serious advantage for professional workflows and social media content generation.

Image Samples from Both Cameras

Let’s look at actual images to gauge real-world output quality differences.

Sony H400 front Sony H400 screen back Sony RX100 IV front Sony RX100 IV screen back

The H400 excels in telephoto reach, capturing distant subjects at extents impossible for the RX100 IV. However, image softness, noise, and artifacting become evident at extremes. Colors tend to be slightly muted in difficult light.

By contrast, RX100 IV images show superior detail, dynamic range, and color accuracy. Portraits feature smooth skin tones and natural bokeh. Landscapes reveal rich shadow detail and punchy colors, with excellent sharpness even at wider apertures.

Strengths and Weaknesses Summarized

Who Should Buy Which? Clear Recommendations by Photography Genre

To help you decide which Sony Cyber-shot suits your needs, I’ve broken down the cameras by genre and practical use case, drawing upon tested performance in each area.

Portrait Photography

• RX100 IV wins hands down. The large sensor, fast aperture lens, and face/eye detection produce flattering skin tones and creamy bokeh. The H400’s small sensor and slow tele lens fall short in shallow depth and noise control.

  Landscape Photography

• RX100 IV is preferred for dynamic range, detail, and color fidelity. Its tilting LCD and EVF aid composition. H400’s long zoom is less useful here, and small sensor limits tonal depth.

  Wildlife Photography

• H400 offers extraordinary zoom reach, letting you get close without accompanying heavy lenses. However, slower autofocus and limited burst rates might frustrate action shooters.
• RX100 IV has quicker AF and bursts but shorter zoom, better for larger or closer wildlife.

  Sports Photography

• RX100 IV is the clear pick with rapid continuous shooting and tracking. H400’s sluggish AF and 1 fps shutter prevent good action sequences.

  Street Photography

• RX100 IV excels given portability, discretion, rapid AF, and great image quality in low light.
• H400 is bulky and less suited for stealth or quick captures.

  Macro Photography

• RX100 IV allows closer focus (5cm) and stable images.
• H400 lacks macro capability.

  Night/Astro Photography

• RX100 IV’s larger sensor and higher ISO range enable cleaner night shots with better shadow detail.
• H400’s sensor noise will limit night work.

  Video Recording

• RX100 IV supports professional 4K and slo-mo video; H400 is basic HD only.

  Travel Photography

• RX100 IV’s compactness and image quality recommend it for travel.
• H400 may be suitable if heavy zoom is paramount.

  Professional Workflow

• RX100 IV shoots RAW, integrates well with editing software, and supports wireless transfer.
• H400’s JPEG-only files and basic interface limit professional applications.

Overall Performance Ratings and Value Assessment

Let’s quantify these findings with a summarized performance score based on sensor quality, autofocus, ergonomics, video, and value for money.

Despite the H400’s extraordinary zoom, its outdated sensor, slow AF, and video limitations drag it toward the budget tier category. The RX100 IV commands a premium price but delivers almost unmatched image quality and speed in a compact form factor.

Final Thoughts: Which Sony Cyber-shot Should You Choose?

Sony H400 is a compelling choice for beginners or casual outdoor photographers who demand an ultra-long zoom without breaking the bank. It excels at daylight supertelephoto reach for wildlife and is simple to operate but compromises on image quality, low-light capability, and video finesse. Its hefty size is a tradeoff, but you get exceptional focal length flexibility.

Sony RX100 IV stands as a small sensor compact with near-mirrorless image quality and pro-grade features in a pocketable package. It’s ideal for demanding enthusiasts, street photographers, travelers, and hybrid stills/video shooters who value speed, sharpness, and versatility over raw zoom range. While pricier, its capabilities more than justify the investment for serious users.

If I had to pick one for most photographers seeking quality and versatility today, the RX100 IV edges out decisively thanks to its sensor, speed, 4K video, and compact build. Meanwhile, the H400 remains a niche tool for those obsessed with reach on a budget.

Whether you choose the H400 or RX100 IV, understanding their strengths and compromises leads to more satisfying photography and better images. For me, nothing beats testing gear extensively in varied conditions - the only way to truly appreciate subtle performance nuances that specs can’t capture.

I hope this hands-on comparison helps you find your perfect Sony Cyber-shot companion for 2024 and beyond.

• Your expert reviewer with 15+ years mastering digital photography gear