Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1

Auto Mode (8.0)
The R1's full auto mode really does everything but point, zoom and shoot. It even pops up the flash, if that option is set in the setup menu. It pares down the menu choices for image size, RAW vs. JPEG and the (daunting) setup menu. Auto selects exposure, ISO and autofocus mode. Manual focus is not available. The various flash synchronization modes are, however. Metering is set to multi zone

The shots we took in auto mode turned out fine, including ones where we mixed flash and ambient light.

Movie Mode (0.0)
The R1 does not offer a movie mode. We have no idea why not – a fixed-lens, non-reflex camera doesn't face the obstacles to a movie mode that a DSLR does. Also, the lack of a movie mode places a bit of a restriction on the R1’s appeal and forces it into even more direct competition with DSLRs.

Drive / Burst Mode (6.0)
In JPEG mode, the R1 will shoot 3 frames in a second, and then stop for several seconds to write them memory. It does not offer bursts when shooting RAW files, which take several seconds to write to memory. This is extremely limited for $1000 camera, but for those interested in the R1, speed will likely be worth sacrificing.

For more details, see the Speed / Timing subsection in the Performance section.

Playback Mode (7.5)
The R1's playback mode is about as typical as the camera's features get. It can show 9 thumbnail images at a time, or zoom in as close as 5x on a single image. It can display histograms for red, green and blue channels, plus luminance, along with exposure and shooting data. Its highlight warning works in playback as well as shooting mode.

The R1 has a typical slide show mode, which will show sequences of all the images in memory or just the ones in a selected folder. The camera doesn't have a microphone, so the shows can't include sound. Images can be shown for anywhere from 3 seconds to a full minute each, and the show can run continuously. The R1 can also crop images and save the new cropped image separately.

The R1 is not the optimal camera on which to share images while shooting, for a few reasons: the 2-inch, 134,000-pixel LCD isn't above-average head-on, and it's inferior when viewed from an angle. Worse, the R1's playback mode is beastly slow. It took us 15 seconds to scroll through 10 shots.