Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Canon PowerShot TX1 Concise Review

the PowerShot TX1 is an unusual offshoot of the hugely popular IXUS / ELPH range that attempts to straddle the divide between digital stills and digital video cameras with its unusual vertical styling and 720p HDTV video capture. Despite its diminutive dimensions (it's little bigger than a pack of playing cards) the TX1 packs a fairly impressive punch, offering a 10x optically stabilized zoom, 7.1MP CCD, vari-angle LCD and 1080i HDTV component video output. So does the TX1 represent a new direction for compact digital cameras or has Canon set off down a blind alley? Let's find out, starting as ever with the headline features:

New vertical design
New 1/2.5-inch 7.1 million pixel CCD
Vari-angle LCD monitor (1.8-inch)
10x optical (39-390mm equiv.) zoom lens - 12 elements (one UD & one Aspheric element)
Optical image stabilization
ISO 80-1600
DIGIC III and Face Detection
720p (1280 x 720) movies at 30 fps with stereo sound
1080i component video output
Flexible movie / still shooting Shoot a full-resolution still image during movie recording, or start movie recording by simply pressing record button