Sony DSC-N1 Review

The screen display when in the AUTO (point-n-shoot) mode. Minimal information is displayed and only a few parameters such as image size or recording mode can be changed. Upper left is the battery level icon that's constantly displayed. The image size is "8M"egapixels, the image folder is 101, there's 247 shots left and in the center are the AF target marks. The focus mode is Single AF, macro focus.

The exposure mode is selected from the CAMERA option in the menu: Auto, Program, Manual, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Candle, Soft Snap, Landscape, Beach, Snow and Fireworks.

Program AE mode is also automatic but it offers the user a wealth of settable options (see the menus below). Here we have selected ISO 100, fluorescent white balance and the saturation, contrast and sharpness are all set to "+" and the metering is center-weighted.

Half-pressing the shutter will activate the autofocus system, if successful it displays a green "OK" dot and the AF target marks turn green and the shutter speed and aperture values are shown at the bottom.

Record options (other than Auto mode):

Camera - Select the still image exposure mode from:
Auto, Program, Manual, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Soft Snap, Candle, Beach, Snow, and Fireworks.

Exposure Compensation - Offset the exposure metering by ±2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF, Spot AF or fixed at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Flash - Auto, Forced, Slow Synchro, No Flash

Self-Timer - Off or 10 sec. delay

Macro - Off or On

Image Size - 8M, 3:2, 5M, 3M, 1M, VGA or 16:9 (HDTV)

MSET - (only if in Manual mode) set shutter speed and aperture

Sub-Menu options (from Record menu):

Metering Mode - Multi, Center, Spot

White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash

ISO - Auto, 64, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800

P. Quality - Fine or Normal

Rec Mode - Normal, Bracket, Burst, Multi-Burst

Bracket Step - 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0EV (only for Bracketing)

Interval - 1/30, 1/15, 1/7.5 (only for Multi-Burst)

Flash Level - Plus, Normal, Minus

P. Effect - Off, Sepia, B&W

Saturation - Plus, Normal, Minus

Contrast - Plus, Normal, Minus

Sharpness - Plus, Normal, Minus

Manual mode lets you set both the shutter speed and aperture value, use the EV display to find correct exposure. Pressing the Monitor button enables the live histogram display.

Enable the menu, select the MSET option and then you have this onscreen control of the shutter speed and aperture value.

The 16:9 (HDTV) Image Size is perfect if you are going to do a slideshow on your big screen plasma panel or any 16:9 aspect ratio high-def TV display.

Macro (close-up) focus mode allows you to shoot much closer than normal. The focus range in macro is from 6 cm (2.4 inches) to infinity.

Record motion video with audio. The 640x480 "VX Fine" mode is 30fps and requires the use of Memory Stick Duo Pro media to insure that it can stream the data fast enough from the camera. The VX standard mode is also VGA resolution (640x480) but at a lesser 16fps frame rate and can be recorded on regular Memory Stick Duo media. The length of recording is limited only by the space available on the Memory Stick being used.

Movie clips can also be recorded in 160x112 resolution at 8fps, these movies will playback in a smaller window. The advantage is that the file sizes are smaller and more practical for e-mail purposes.

Movie mode options:

Exposure Compensation - Offset the exposure metering by ±2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF, Spot AF or fixed at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Self-Timer - Off or 10 sec. delay

Macro - Off or On

Image Size - 640 Fine, 640 Standard, 160 e-mail