Click to Enlarge Gallery Preview
SHOOTING MODES
The camera offers a variety of shooting modes, including an auto mode, which allows the user to touch a focal point on the display, change the flash mode to auto, on, slow-sync and off, and to control the camera's surprisingly functional macro mode. The macro setting offers close focus with a minimum focal distance of 0.39 inches for extreme close-ups, as well as standard macro off and on settings. Program mode gives the user the most control, enabling focus mode selection, as well as metering, ISO and exposure compensation settings, in addition to the flash and macro settings offered in the automatic mode. A bracketing mode is also available, capturing three images each at either +/- 0.3, 0.7, or 1-stop. A full resolution burst mode is also available in auto and program modes, capturing images at approx. 2fps for up to 100 continuous frames.
The camera's scene selection modes include a high sensitivity (ISO 3200) mode, a smile shutter mode, a soft snap mode for shooting subjects with a soft background, as well as twilight portrait, twilight, hi-speed shutter, beach, snow, and fireworks modes.
The most fascinating of these ten otherwise ordinary modes is the smile shutter mode, which captures an image only when all subjects in the frame display their pearly whites. Unfortunately, smile shutter didn't seem to work very effectively, rarely releasing the shutter even when using the high smile sensitivity level. When the mode did work, smiles tended to look less genuine than usual, as subjects often forced a big grin just to get the camera to fire. While a promising concept, smile shutter has yet to deliver; you'd be best off using the standard self-portrait timer.
For shooting in low light, the T2 offers an ISO 3200 high sensitivity mode, capturing a full resolution 8.1MP image. As expected, image quality at ISO 3200 was awful, and noise was visible when viewed on the camera's display or on a computer at sizes larger than a thumbnail. The camera's optical image stabilization makes extremely high ISO shooting seldom necessary, as the camera can usually capture sharp images of still subjects even at slow shutter speeds. The T2 offers an ISO range of 80-3200, but visible noise becomes an issue with images captured at ISO 400 or higher.
The camera offers an aperture range of f/3.5-f/10 and shutter speed ranges of 1"-1/1000 and 1/4-1/1000 in program mode and auto mode, respectively. Users can select from 9 area multi-point autofocus, center autofocus, or a flexible spot AF mode that allows users to select a focal point using the camera's touchscreen. The camera's macro mode offers incredible flexibility, allowing the photographer to capture tiny subjects such as a droplet of water on a blade of glass in incredible detail. At the widest focal length, the camera can focus as close as approx. 0.39 inches when using the magnifying macro mode and approx. 3.15 inches when using the standard macro mode.
For portraits in low light, the built-in flash offers several modes including auto, forced, slow syncro, and off. Slow syncro mode allows the photographer to capture a subject while exposing for the background, allowing more background detail in low light than with traditional flash portraits. Direct flash using the auto flash mode was properly exposed, but subjects were often blown out when using the slow syncro mode without adjusting the flash intensity (low, standard, and high flash intensity can be selected in the shooting menu).
While no manual white balance setting is offered, the camera's auto white balance mode felt very accurate in a variety of lighting situations. If you prefer more control over the camera's white balance, cloudy, daylight, incandescent, flash, and three fluorescent white balance settings are offered as well.
VIDEO CAPTURE AND PLAYBACK OPTIONS
While no HD video options are available, the T2 can capture VGA (640x480) video at 30fps with sound. While Sony claims that a Memory Stick Pro Duo is required to record at 30fps, we found that the T2 recorded video just fine without a Memory Stick present. Recording length is limited to approx. 10 minutes, which is surprising, considering most competing cameras will capture video until the memory card is full. For users not set on 30fps video, VGA video with sound can be captured at 16.6fps and a "presentation mode" (320x240 at 8.3fps) is offered as well. Optical zoom is available in all three video recording modes.
In the field, the T2's battery lasted for an entire day of aggressive shooting. At the end of a day of shooting more than 300 images and a handful of videos, with most images captured outside on a bright day, the camera's battery indicator displayed nearly a full charge. While battery life may vary depending on flash and display use, according to Sony the camera achieved a CIPA rating of approx. 280 images or 140 minutes of use while shooting, and approx. 5000 images and 250 minutes in playback mode.
The T2 offers a variety of playback options. Because of the large amount of built-in storage, I was able to keep several weeks of images on the T2 and still have plenty of room for shooting. Like all other settings, image playback is controlled using the touchscreen. By default, images are grouped by date, allowing playback of all of the images and videos stored on the camera using the default playback mode, but only displaying the total number of images shot on a given day. In other words, rather than displaying the total number of images stored on the camera, the T2 displays the number of images shot on the same day of the current image on screen, helpful for keeping track of how many images you shot each day, but not so helpful in keeping track of your overall total on the camera.
In addition to the default playback mode, images can be viewed using a thumbnail grid, or presented on a calendar. Selecting an image in calendar mode brings you to that day's thumbnail page, allowing you to select an image to view full screen. Once in full screen mode, images can be selected using forward and reverse arrows on the touchscreen. A slideshow with built-in music and transition effects can be activated from both the index page and full screen mode. In addition to the four included musical selections, additional music can be downloaded from a computer, as well. Images can be displayed on an HDTV (1080i) using the HD output adaptor cable (not included, $40) or on a standard television using a separate cable (also not included, $40). Both cables include RCA connectors for audio playback.
The T2's scrapbook mode can be activated using a dedicated button to the left of the display. This mode allows the user to display a selected group of images with a selection of 16 scrapbook designs. In scrapbook mode, a slideshow without sound can be displayed using the scrapbook templates, or you can choose to enter the normal slideshow mode, displaying images full screen but without the cutesy scrapbook templates. In scrapbook mode, images are displayed at only a fraction of their normal size, so if viewing a slideshow in-camera, the normal slideshow mode might be preferable. If viewing images on a television, the scrapbook mode might be more appropriate-if you've sprung for the cables.
In addition to the T2's image presentation options, the playback mode also offers the ability to apply basic image retouching. While color correction is not an option, images can be cropped, and seven other effects including red-eye removal, fish-eye, and vignetting can be applied. A new JPEG file is created once effects have been applied, and the original file remains unchanged.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Overall, the Sony CyberShot DSC-T2 offers good performance in a small package, but with a MSRP of $350, the camera's feature set is not enough to justify the price. While 4GB of built-in storage is nice to have, the camera's single proprietary connector makes the easily misplaceable dongle a necessity for removing images, making a removable memory card more practical. Sony also leaves a lot of opportunity for beyond the box purchasing by leaving out HD component and standard video cables ($40 each). Docking stations for your PC ($50) or television ($80 with remote) also add to the price. Consider purchasing an additional data cable if bringing the camera on a vacation. Be prepared to spend upwards of $400 in order to take advantage of all the features Sony advertises with the T2. Unless built-in storage and a touchscreen interface are must-have features, your hard earned money may be better spent on a Sony T70 or T200.
Print
Stumble It 
Comments
Be the first to comment!