Sony DSC-N2 Review



Record Mode Screens & Menus
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 "10M"egapixels, the image
folder is 101, there's 88 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, High
Sensitivity, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, 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 contrast and sharpness are all set to "+".
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):
Auto, Program, Manual, High Sensitivity, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Soft Snap, Landscape, 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 - 10M, 3:2, 8M, 5M, 3M, 2M, 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, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 P. Quality - Fine or Normal Rec Mode - Normal, Exp. 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 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.
Enable the menu, select the MSET option and then you have this onscreen control of
the shutter speed and aperture value. Pressing the Monitor button enables the live
histogram display.
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 |
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