Sony Cyber-shot DSC-N2

Manual Control Options
Unusually for a point-and-shoot camera, the N2 provides a full manual control mode. This is accessed by selecting manual mode in the mode screen, and then selecting the mSet option. You can then set both the shutter speed and aperture from the touch screen: an elegant solution that makes it easier to control both settings than most point-and-shoot cameras. It’s not a solution that a professional would use, but it works pretty well for occasional use.

Focus
Several focus modes are provided, including Multi AF (which uses five focus points and tries to get as many of them as possible in focus), Center AF (which uses one focus spot in the center of the screen) and Spot AF. The latter mode is interesting (and very useful); you pick a focus spot by touching the screen. This can be extremely useful if you have an off-center subject or are experimenting with depth of field.

Exposure
The N2 provides the typical level of exposure control for a packet camera, offering exposure compensation off the first level of the on-screen menu that can push the exposure two stops either way in 1/3 of a stop steps.

Metering
The usual selection of metering modes are offered on the N2, including center weighted, spot and average. Switching between modes is a little convoluted: getting to the metering mode option required one button press (to activate the menu) and three screen touches (one to access the menu, then two to scroll down the list and one to access the list of metering modes).

ISO
The N2 has a wide ISO range, from 100 to an impressively high 1600. That’s significantly higher than most compact cameras, and our limited tests showed only a limited amount of noise at the higher settings. However, we will have to wait until we can do more in-depth testing before we can draw any real conclusions on this. Suffice to say that having a high ISO setting can be useful in situations where you can’t use a flash, as long as the noise is not too irritating.

White Balance
As well as the usual auto white balance setting, 5 different options are offered: Cloudy, Daylight, Flash, Fluorescent and Incandescent. There is no option for setting your own white balance point, either from a white card or directly.

Shutter Speed
The shutter speed range of the N2 is pretty standard: from a minimum of 1/8 to 1/2000 of a second in auto mode, and 30 seconds to 1/1000 of a second in manual mode. Noise would become an issue with the longer shutter speeds, though.

Aperture
The aperture range of the is from f2.8 to f7.9 at the wide end (7.9mm) and f5.4 to f23.7 at the telephoto end (23.7mm). That’s pretty standard for this type of camera, but if you are shooting in low light, yo’ll want to keep the lens as wide as possible to keep the aperture open.