Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T2 review

Frankly, we find the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T2 something of a market-segment mystery. It's identical to the T20 with a few exceptions -- a smaller, somewhat cleaner design, a marginally larger LCD, 4GB internal memory and some not-terribly-engaging playback options.

On the other end, for about the same street price you can get the T200 with its 5x zoom and significantly larger 89mm (3.5-inch) LCD compared with the T2's 3x lens and 69mm (2.7-inch) LCD.

They all deliver almost identical performance and photo quality. So despite the fact that the £215 T2 is a pretty good camera, we can't really come up with any situation in which it's the most sensible choice -- unless you want blue, green or pink, colours not offered for the more staid T20 and T200.

Design
Even the ways in which the T2 clearly distinguishes itself don't present clear advantages. For instance, we really like the new aesthetic. Unlike its increasingly larger siblings, which have slowly outgrown the 'ultracompact' designation, the 156g, 87 by 57 by 20mm T2 remains firmly trouser-pocketable.

It's more flat-faced and protrusion-free than the other models, with a cooler front-sliding vertical lens cover. But the buttons and switches -- most notably the Review and Scrap Book buttons -- are very difficult to press, and the LCD is too small for comfortable touch-screen operation.

Like the T200, the T2 doesn't include a dock and requires a dongle converter for the docking port (included) to connect the USB cable (also included), or to connect a cable for display on a TV (not included). But as the third Law of Consumer Electronics states, "One more small piece to lose: bad." It's doubly a problem with the T2. Since it includes 4GB memory and will only write to an external card if the internal memory is full, you need that dongle. The alternative is springing for a standard or HD-capable Cyber-shot Station.

And then there's the touch screen. Over time, Sony has streamlined the operation and layout of the various options, making it less onerous of an interface. But finger touches don't always register immediately.

Furthermore, unlike the higher-end model Ts, which have 16:9 aspect screens and use the blacked letterbox area for the touch-screen icons, the T2's 4:3 screen overlays the icons on the viewing display, and they can be difficult to see against some scene types.

Features
You access the frequently used shooting settings via the display. These include resolution, self timer, exposure mode (auto, scene, program or movie), focus (multi, centre, spot or manual), metering mode (multi, centre-weighted or spot), ISO sensitivity, exposure compensation, macro and flash.

Though it lacks aperture and shutter-priority modes, it does tell you the current shutter speed, aperture and ISO setting when you prefocus. There's also a live histogram for those, like us, who don't believe the display. Drive mode, white balance, colour mode (standard, vivid, natural or sepia), flash compensation, red-eye reduction and SteadyShot require a dip down deeper into the menus. Oddly, the T2 lacks manual white balance, but we doubt many will miss it on this camera.

The face-detection autofocus works very well at spotting multiple faces in a scene -- the T2 will optimise focus and exposure for the face(s) -- and one of the bonuses of the touch screen is you can use it to indicate the primary face. We still think that the Spot Focus feature, in which you touch the desired focus point is a faster, better solution, however.

The T2 also includes Sony's 'smile shutter' mode, which pauses shooting until the detected faces crack a smile. We wish it could be liberated from the scene-mode ghetto, though, it would be useful in general Program mode shooting, too.