As most of us already know, the Cyber-shot line refers to Sony’s digital camera models. But categorizing the M2 as just a digital camera would be a half-truth. According to Sony, the M2 is a very capable 5.1 Megapixel digital camera that can also shoot high quality video.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M2

Love at first sight.

Looking more like a clamshell mobile phone than a digital camera, I immediately fell in love with the M2’s appearance. One look and I could already tell that this gadget was not meant to be kept in a bag or to be left at home. The M2 was designed to be seen! With its aluminum body and luxurious metallic finish, it clearly exudes style. Along with the M2, the package included a docking cradle, manual, software cd, and different cables to connect the M2 to a pc, to a TV, or to a power source.

Like a video camcorder, the M2 is a twist-and-turn device. Switching the camera on is as easy as turning the LCD half of the device to the side. Adjust the large 2.5-inch Hybrid LCD screen to the desired viewing angle and the M2 is ready to shoot. It can also be closed with the LCD facing out for more convenient picture viewing or movie playback.

The layout of the control buttons has been designed for easy operation as well. There are separate shutter buttons for photo and movie and are within easy reach of the thumb. The shuttle control is also a cool feature for easy scanning of stored photos and videos. Whether open or folded, the M2 is ergonomically designed to fit perfectly on the palm for easy, one-handed operation.

Beauty and Brains.

More often than not, flashy-looking gadgets tend to be …well… just flashy-looking gadgets. From experience, ultra-stylish products tend to be over-valued and under-featured. The Sony Cyber-shot M2 aims to be an exception. With features like 5.1 Megapixel resolution, 2.5-inch Hybrid LCD screen, and Carl-Zeiss Vario Tessar lens, great quality photography with the M2 is almost guaranteed.

As with most digital cameras, the M2 has several built-in picture mode settings for various conditions. And if they are not enough, it also comes with a programmable setting for exposure compensation, white balance, picture quality, contrast, and sharpness among others.

Aside from being a very competent still camera, the M2 is also capable of taking videos. Video capture on digital cameras is not uncommon. But because of very poor and grainy results, it is also not a very popular feature. The M2 revolutionizes this with its VGA-quality (640 x 480) MPEG-4 videos at 30fps. For comparison, videos taken by the M2 are of similar quality to Hi8 recordings from the previous generation of camcorders.

All photos and videos are conveniently stored on a Sony Memory Stick Duo Pro which, unfortunately, is not included in the package.

Delightful and Fun.

To make sure that viewing stored photos would be a delightful and fun experience, Sony added the Pocket Album and Slide Show Plus features to the M2.

Instead of carrying photo albums around, Pocket Album stores up to 1,100 photos on the M2’s internal memory which can be viewed on the camera’s LCD screen. The photos are arranged by date for convenient searching.

The Slide Show Plus feature, on the other hand, plays back stored photos in a variety of slide show styles. When activated, photos are displayed at random at five-second intervals accompanied by a choice of four pre-set background music to complement the mood. The background music can be changed by uploading any mp3 file via the bundled software.

Both the Pocket Album and the Slide Show Plus features can be enjoyed on a TV screen by attaching the supplied tv-out cable from the M2’s docking cradle to the TV’s AV input.

In case I failed to clarify, all videos shot by the M2 has audio through its stereo microphone – a first for a Sony digital camera. This feature is especially useful when the videos are played back on a pc or a stereo TV.

The Sony M2 also features PictBridge making it possible to print directly to photo printers.

I love it. I love it not.

I have never enjoyed taking pictures as much as I did using the M2. I am not an expert or a hobbyist but the M2 is one of the easiest gadgets I have ever used. Being compact and light, it is so easy to bring it along all the time. Normally, I only use a digicam and a camcorder on special occasions. With the M2, I always have a digicam and a camcorder in my pocket.

Another thing I liked about the M2 is its form-factor. Because it can easily be operated with one hand, taking pictures from different angles was a snap.

Also worth mentioning is the M2’s start-up speed. From the off/folded state, it only takes an average of 4 seconds to turn it on and take a picture. This feature proved useful in shooting unexpected moments.

In spite of its wonderful features, there were also a few things I didn’t like about the M2. First, the zoom buttons are too small and response was too slow. Finding the buttons and zooming in or out takes too much time.

Second, some buttons have duplicate functions while some have different functions in different modes. Confusing? I’m sorry I can’t explain further because even after a couple of weeks with the M2, the exact functions of some buttons still confuse me.

Third, the M2 can only make connections to a pc or TV through the docking cradle. Since it doesn’t have any conventional port, the only way to make sure that it can be connected to both your home and remote pc and/or TV is to bring the cradle along. Yikes! Talk about portability.

Last, from experience I have learned that the more moving parts a gadget has, the more likely it is to break down. After only about 2 weeks with the M2, I noticed that the swivel is looser than when I first tried it out. Although not major, I am concerned about how it will affect the gadget in the long run.

The bottomline.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-M2 is a very stylish camera which does what it says it will do. If you don’t mind spending more, the M2 is the perfect accessory to add several “pogi points” to impress your friends.