Big brother of the Cyber-shot DSC-H7, the H9 has the exact same characteristics:  a 15x zoom, 8 million pixels and a sensor that is still as small (1/2.5").  So what differentiates it from the H7?
 
Handling

In terms of design, the body of this bridge has not evolved: the body is plastic and there is a small handle.  The only obvious difference is an inclinable 3 inch LCD with a satisfactory resolution of 230,000 pixels.  This is a screen that is as comfortable in aiming as it is for reviewing images (for example, showing them to friends).   There is no longer the need to go into menus and submenus to control sensitivity or exposure time.  Navigation is rather simple via a dial that enables changing settings.  However, this camera is still rather slow in startup at a little less than 2 seconds.  On the other hand, we get a high performance autofocus with good lighting.  In burst mode, the H9 attains 2.3 i/s, an equally satisfactory score.

Quality of images

Despite the large focal range, unfortunately, the H9 doesn't really have a wide angle (31 mm - 465 mm). On strongly contrasted zones, we noted the presence of very visible purple fringes.  Noise starts to appear at 400 ISO, but smoothing is felt from 200 ISO onwards. Either way, this camera produces nice images with a lot of detail in lower sensitivities (80-400 ISO).  Moreover, optical stabilization enabled sharp photos of our test  Barbie at 1/8 second.   Unsurprisingly, colors are well saturated while white balance wasn’t too convincing indoors (it’s much better in natural light).  Finally, video quality is quite satisfactory, as well as the macro mode and flash.

In the end, there is very little difference between the H7 and H9, the latter offering a more comfortable 3 inch LCD.