Although a plastic stylus is
provided with the 3-inch touch screen of the DSC-N2, the screen
is so responsive to fingers that we found the stylus to be
left unused, dangling at the end of the wrist strap most of
the time. The result of this laziness, however, is an embarrassingly
dirty screen which, after a prolonged use of the camera, can
become a bit tricky to clean. (We found eyeglasses cleaner
and cloth to be effective.) The touch interface of the
DSC-N2, in addition to its very good image quality, is the
strength, and attraction of the camera, a compromise must
be made.
The large LCD monitor makes it easy to see camera settings
and similarly, the large buttons of the On-Screen Keys are
not only very simple to operate, but easy to read. The menus
is also composed of large buttons as each option is a button
and can be touched anywhere to open it and reveal its alternative
settings. By far the longest menu of the DSC-N2 is the Setupmenu which is accessible as the last menu option of
all menus. Composed of 8 screens, each a different section,
that flow from one to the next as the tabs on the left side
of the screen are not touch selectable.
The first section, is called Camera 1:
AF Mode serves to select how the auto focus operates:
Single (S-AF): focuses only when the shutter
release is pressed.
Monitor (M-AF): focuses continuously when the
shutter release is pressed and held halfway.
Digital Zoom offers 3 options: Smart, Precision
or Off(see the Characteristics section
of the review for more information).
Red Eye Reduction: turns On or Off the red-eye
reduction pre-flashes.
AF Illuminator: Auto or Off. Decides
whether or not the AF assist light comes on when the ambient
light is insufficient for the auto focus to operate reliably.
The next section is called Camera 2 and contains only
1 option:
Auto Review: On or Off. Decides whether or not
the image is shown for 2 seconds on the LCD monitor immediately
after capture.
Memory Stick comes next if one is loaded into the
camera, or Internal Memory if there is not. This section
has either 4 options or 1 depending on the presence of a Memory
Stick Duo:
Format: (the only option shown if the camera is
using its Internal Memory) serves to format a Memory Stick
Duo, or the Internal Memory.
Create REC. Folder: to create a new folder into
which stills and movies will be stored.
Change REC. Folder: to change the folder that is
currently in use to record images to another.
Copy: serves to copy images or videos from the
internal memory to a Memory Stick Duo.
The next section is entitled Album, and it provides
options for:
Write in Album: On or Off, controls whether or
not the camera keeps a VGA at Standard compression copy
of the images captured.
Format: formats the Album memory space, deleting
the images there.
Check Album: verifies the integrity of the Album
file.
The last 4 sections of the menu are all called Setup 1
through 4.
Setup 1:
Download Music: serves to download music to be
used with a slide show.
Format Music: allows formatting the memory space
that contains music files for the slide show should the
file become corrupted.
Setup 2:
LCD Backlight: serves to adjust the brightness
of the monitor's backlight (Bright or Normal).
Beep selects if and when the DSC-N2 produces sounds
while being operated:
Shutter: only produces a sound when the shutter release
is pressed.
On: allows both shutter and operation beeps.
Off: turns off all sounds.
Language: selects the interface language (English,
French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese or Japanese).
Initialize: returns all camera and menu settings
to their defaults.
Setup 3:
File Number: selects how images are numbered:
Series: numbers images sequentially, irrespective
of the the memory card.
Reset: restarts numbering from 1 when a new Memory
Stick Duo is used, or formatted.
USB Connect provides 4 settings:
PictBridge: to connect and print images directly
from the camera to a PictBridge compliant printer, by-passing
the need for a computer.
PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol): to automatically
transfer images to a Windows XP or Mac OS X computer.
Mass Storage: to connect the camera to a computer.
Auto: lets the camera decide the protocol to
use automatically.
Video Out: selects the signal output by the camera
NTSC or PAL.
Clock Set: to set the time and date on the DSC-N2
and the date format (Y/M/D, M/D/Y, or D/M/Y).
Setup 4:
Calibration: serves to calibrate the precision
of the touch screen by tapping 2 of the corners of the monitor
and the centre when a green cross is shown.
Housing: On or Off, lets the camera know that it
is in the optional Marine Pack, changing
the way some buttons operate.
Over the years Sony's printed manuals for its compact digital
cameras have often been a bit skimpy, but with its recent
cameras, the information provided to the consumer has become,
in our opinion, simply inadequate, lacking basic
information such as, in this case, the specifications for
the DSC-N2. Details such as the sensitivity range of the camera
when set to the auto mode are nowhere to be found, leaving
it up to the user to discover that while the sensitivity can
be manually set at 100 ISO, the Auto range does not appear
to access it and instead starts at 160 ISO. Regrettably, the
information Sony provides on its various Web sites is similarly
lacking in detail, and even occasionally erroneous.
Software
A single CD is bundled with
the DSC-N2 in North America. The disc contains the manual
in Adobe Acrobat format in 23 languages,
and three programs:
Picture Motion Browser version 1.1 (Windows).
Music Transfer for Windows and Macintosh.
GPS Image Tracker for Windows.
and the USB Drivers for operating systems that
require it.
Picture Motion Browser serves
to browse and manipulate still images or videos. Images must
first be imported through a rather arcane process that involves
"registering folders" so that images or movies can
be brought into the program's database.
Once imported into the program,
images are shown as thumbnails in the right side of the program's
window (alternatively a detailed view can be selected) while
the registered folders are shown on the left. Placing the
mouse over any image adds a transparent overlay that indicates
the image's file name, its location on the computer, the date
on which it was captured and its size. Moreover, detailed
information about each image can be displayed in a separate
window, including all the shooting data.
From the Browser window, images
can be imported, folders can be registered, a selected image
can be printed, deleted, rotated left or right, or even edited
using Picture Motion Browser or an external editor. In addition,
images can be seen in a slide show, or e-mailed which creates
a 640 x 480 pixel copy for emailing, or positioned on a map
if the image's GPS coordinates have been attached to it using
GPS Image Tracker (see further).
Once an image
is selected for editing, it opens in separate window. There,
the image can be Auto corrected, or adjusted for brightness,
saturation, sharpness, tone curve, or red-eye. Whatever the
correction applied, the corrected image can either be saved
by overwriting the original, or saves as a new image.
This part of the program can also be offers the possibility
to trim an image, and save the trimmed section as a new image.
GPS Image Tracker
is the program which imports position information (GPS log
files) captured using a separate GPS Unit. The position information
can then be applied to images captured with the DSC-N2.
Finally, Picture Package Music Transfer
is a tool designed to upload music that will be used with
the DSC-N2's on-camera slide shows.
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Interface & Software
