Sony has today announced the Cyber-shot HX99 (model DSC-HX99) camera, a new travel zoom that packs an extreme zoom range of 24-720mmi into a very small camera body.

The HX99's functionality includes the ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T* 24-720mmi High Magnification Zoom lens, 4K movie shooting, a BIONZ X image processing engine with a front-end LSI, extremely fast AF, Eye AF, 10 fps shooting and more.

In addition to the 24-720mmi zoom range, the new ZEISS Vario- Sonnar T* lens features Optical SteadyShot image stabilization, which effectively minimizes the camera shake and blur that often occurs during handheld and telephoto shooting. The new HX99 is also equipped with a Zoom Assist function that allows the user to zoom more accurately while shooting far away subjects by offering a quick, temporary zoom-out display to showcase a wider area.

Thanks to BIONZ X processing engine, the new HX99 camera can capture 4K video with full pixel readout and no pixel binning, with minimal "moire" and "jaggies." The new model also is capable of shooting high-frame rate HDv video at up to 120 fpsv to produce slow-motion sequences during editing.

During still photography, the camera can acquire focus in as little as 0.09 seconds, and it can shoot continuously at up to 10 fps for up to 155 shots. The HX99 also is equipped with Eye AF technology that locks focus onto a subject's eye for compelling portrait and fast-action photography. The camera also is capable of shooting images in RAW format and has a maximum ISO of 6400.

The camera includes Touch Focus and Touch Shutter functionality as well as a Touch Pad function for smooth focus point shifting while using the retractable OLED Tru-Finder. The camera also has a Control Ring that can be customized with functions such as manual focus or step zooming, as well as a customizable 'My Menu' option for instant recall of up to 30 different settings.

The camera has a 180-degree tiltable LCD screen, a pop up electronic viewfinder and an upgraded grip. It also offers location data acquisition via Bluetooth.

The Cyber-shot HX99 Travel Zoom camera will ship in early November for $449.99 USD.