Digital Camera Review

First Impressions Review

Sep 28, 2006 - By Richard Baguley
Buttons are so uncool: all of the cool products these days come with touch-screen displays, at least that's what many seem to think. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-N2 follows this trend by replacing the conventional slew of buttons with a 3-inch touch screen menu system. Instead of buttons and dials for setting modes and controlling the features of the camera, it’s all done through the on-screen menu with a fingertip. It’s an interesting idea that leads to a clean design; there are only three buttons on the back of the camera, so novice users don’t get confused about which button to press.
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Likes
- Big, bright LCD screen with 230k pixels
- Touch screen menu system works well
- Spot focusing AF mode is effective and easy to use.
Dislikes
- LCD screen update is slow
- Zoom lens is not as wide as we would like
- On the expensive side for a point-and-shoot
 
Conclusion
The N2 is an attractive but pricey package. It has a number of innovative features that go beyond the gimmicky into the realm of the useful. The touch screen menu, for instance, is easy to use and doesn’t require more than a handful of screen touches to navigate. Combine this with the high resolution images that the N2 takes, and you’ve got a good combination of features. We’ll have to wait until we get to test the camera in-depth before we can make any real conclusions, but it certainly looks very, very promising.
Overall Impressions Page 10 of 10
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