Canon PowerShot TX1 digital camera reviewed

Posted on Thursday, April 05 2007 @ 4:16 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
This week Jeff Keller from DC Resource took a look at the new 7.1 megapixel PowerShot TX1 digital camera from Canon.

At $499 this digicam is fairly expensive but it stands out a bit with its 10x optical zoom and its ability to record videos in the 720p resolution.

Here's a snip from the review:
The TX1 is an ultra-compact ultra zoom camera that looks like a cross between a vertically-oriented camcorder and a Digital ELPH. It's small -- too small in my opinion -- and made almost entirely of metal. The one big weak spot on the camera is the plastic door over the battery compartment, which is really flimsy considering the price of the TX1. Holding the camera with one hand feels awkward, and I always found myself putting my left hand onto the LCD to take the strain off of my right. The controls are pretty tiny as well, with the four-way controller being especially difficult to use. Keeping with the "small" theme, the TX1's flash is very weak.

Somehow Canon managed to shoe horn a 10X optical zoom lens into the TX1's compact form factor. This lens starts out at the very telephoto 39 mm, so it's not great for indoor shots. The lens-shift image stabilization system does a good job of countering the effects of camera shake, and it can be used for both stills and movies. The TX1 features a flip-out, rotating 1.8" LCD that feels so small compared to what's on other ultra zooms, but there's really no room for a larger one. Outdoor visibility was average, while low light viewing was excellent. There is no optical viewfinder on the camera.
The Canon PowerShot TX1 seems to offer very good photo quality, extraordinary well video quality, big zoom and image stabilization. The bad things are the high price, lousy ergonomics because of the small size, the low battery life, noise artifacts at ISO200 and higher, the weak flash, inefficient video codec which leads to very large file sizes for movies and the lack of an optical viewfinder.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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