Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M2 review

The only available exposure tweaking is exposure compensation or choosing a sensitivity of ISO 64, 100, 200 or 400. The camera automatically picks a shutter speed between 1/8 to 1/1,000 second at an aperture of either f/3.5 or f/4.4. You can choose automatic or programmed exposure, as well as among the camera's sparse selection of scene presets -- Twilight Portrait, Snow, Sports, Candle, Night-time, Landscape, Beach and Fireworks -- and from automatic or preset white-balance settings. Special effects include the standard black-and-white and sepia filters, plus saturation, contrast and sharpness adjustments.

Movie mode delivers only the basics -- movie clips at up to 640x480-pixel resolution and 30fps with stereo sound and the ability to use the optical zoom while shooting (a feature many cameras still lack). There's no electronic image stabilisation or in-camera movie-editing features.

Performance
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M2's performance ranged from decent to stellar. The 123,200-pixel backlit LCD looks great -- even under the full glare of daylight, we could compose images with no difficulty and saw little ghosting when the camera or subject moved. While viewing was not quite as good in dim light, it was more than acceptable.

The underpowered electronic flash located a scant 6mm from the camera lens is the DSC-M2's weakest link. It extends to about 2.5m at best -- with the lens at its widest and ISO set to Auto -- and reached to less than 2m when zoomed to telephoto end. We also found the flash controls inconveniently located; you access the auto, off, on and slow-sync settings via the down cursor, but Sony has buried the red-eye-reduction setting in the camera's menu system. Worse, it doesn't actually prevent red-eye.

As for shooting speed, the DSC-M2 woke up and captured its first shot in just 1.6 seconds but slowed to 2.8 seconds between shots (3.6 seconds with flash). The lightning-fast burst mode captured four full-resolution pictures in 1.2 seconds (3.3 shots per second) and approached an even 4fps rate when resolution was reduced to 640x480 pixels.

Shutter lag under high-contrast lighting was an outstanding 0.2 seconds but slowed to 0.9 seconds under low-contrast light when the focus-assist light became necessary.

Image quality
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M2 produced attractive photos and movies. Colours look neutral and pleasing, especially in the flesh tones. However, exposures tend to favour the shadows, which means lots of blown highlights. As with the previous model, the DSC-M1, details tend to be masked by excessive compression artefacts. Backlit subjects produce chromatic aberration, which appears as moderate purple fringing.

The DSC-M2's biggest issue is excessive noise, which is visible even at lower ISO speeds. While not too bad at ISO 64, by ISO 160 it became objectionable, and at ISO 400, the multicoloured flecks took on a life of their own. Since this camera's slowest shutter speed is 1/8 second and the electronic flash is so anaemic, the DSC-M2 is probably not the best choice for night-time or party photographers.

Edited by Lori Grunin
Additional editing by Nick Hide