Decided to get a smaller, much more pocket-sized camera for the trip to Helsinki next month. The mass of my old one — a Panasonic FZ18, on the right — was just inconvenient, but the iPhone 3G’s camera won’t make for very good holiday photos.

And I chose the Sony HX5V for two reasons that aren’t size-related: zoom and built-in GPS. 10X optical zoom is quite remarkable for a pocket camera, and the GPS means the photos are geotagged as I take them.

Right out of the box however, there is one thing that’s confusing about the HX5V. Even though the box says and the camera itself is indeed a HX5V, the label just above the display reads “HX5”, which is another model that’s identical in every way except it lacks GPS. I don’t understand that.

Also: the faux-HDR mode on the HX5V is responsible for the halos around the edges of the cameras.