Viewfinder (0.0)
There is no optical viewfinder on the TX1, but a more useful live preview is available on the 1.8-inch LCD monitor. This monitor folds out 180 degrees and rotates 270 degrees. It can also tilt downward while angled; this joint gives it its Vari-Angle name.
The monitor covers 100 percent of the field of view, so what you see is what you get. The info on the screen can be changed with the Disp. button on the back; file info can appear and disappear along with grid and guide lines, which can be activated in the recording menu, that help with framing. In the menu, there is also an option to reverse the display whether the camera is held vertically or horizontally. Holding it horizontally is very awkward and probably won’t happen often though. More info about the screen itself is in the next section.
Viewing images on the screen outdoors is difficult at the default brightness setting, but fine if users enter the setup menu and boost the brightness to the top of the +/- 7 scale. Overall, the 1.8-inch screen makes a decent viewfinder but is a bit small and can be a pain to rotate while shooting video.
LCD Screen (3.0)
At 1.8 inches, the TX1’s screen is on the small side, but there really isn’t much real estate available on the camera for anything larger. Its size affects reading menus more than it does snapping pictures anyway. The screen only has 115,000 pixels, which isn’t great but sufficient.
The TX1’s low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD is on a big sturdy hinge and rotates smoothly to just about any angle. The screen itself has a wide view from side to side, but washes out when viewing it above and below eye level - this is where rotation is a plus though as it lets you view the screen from any angle.
The TX1 has Canon’s new Pure Color technology, which resists glare, scratches, and fingerprints. The anti-glare coating looks almost purple when the screen is off and viewed in moderate light. The surface feels more like soft plastic than glass and thus doesn’t scratch easily. As for fingerprints, I still left a few prints on the screen but they didn’t look as greasy and gross as the ones on the rest of the stainless steel camera body. Overall, it seems to work pretty well.
One big drawback to the LCD screen is that it must be folded out at all times. Canon’s A-series digital cameras allow users to either fold the LCD out or leave it in and view the image on the back. The TX1’s LCD folds out of the left side and can be folded back in with the screen facing out, but then to view it, the camera would have to be flipped horizontally, which puts the LCD on the top of the camera and the shutter release button on the right side; it feels very backwards. The screen also has to be folded out when changing memory cards because the screen blocks the door.
The screen does a nice job of resisting glare and fingerprints, and the rotating hinge allows the screen to be viewed at any angle. However, rotating the screen while shooting video makes for jumpy movies and folding it into the side of the camera isn’t practical.
Flash (4.0)
The TX1 has a built-in flash unit just above the lens at the top of the camera’s vertically oriented front face. According to Canon, the flash can only reach from 1.6-6.6 feet at best when the lens is zoomed wide and 3.3-3.9 feet when zoomed in. It’s almost laughable that a flash wouldn’t be effective more than 3.9 feet when users are zoomed in 10x. Perhaps laugh, but perhaps cry too.
In the macro mode, the flash is effective from 1.1-1.6 feet. The flash is so weak that it doesn’t often overexpose subjects, a common problem with the flash in macro mode. There is no flash exposure compensation like on some other Canon digital cameras, so users may have to supplement the flash with their own lighting.
Canon sells a PowerShot accessory flash unit, which can be purchased for about $100. The HF-DC1 flash extends the reach much farther, but is also about the same size of the camera and will look a bit ridiculous next to it.
By pushing the joystick to the right, users can set the flash mode to On, Off, or Auto. The list may seem skimpy, but that’s only because the other flash options are located in the recording menu where slow sync and red-eye reduction can be turned on and off.
The red-eye reduction should be turned on at all times, but the drawback is that it adds to the actual time it takes to snap a picture. And sometimes it still doesn’t work. This is the worst flash I’ve seen in awhile in terms of red-eye. In about 20 percent of the portraits that I took, red eyes glared back at me. There is a red-eye fix feature in the playback menu and it appears to be effective (and even saves the picture as a separate file), but it’s annoying to have to fix every fifth image.
The flash fired fairly evenly when zoomed out with only a little darkening in the corners of the frame. When zoomed in, the entire bottom edge of the picture was darker. The TX1’s weak flash shouldn’t be relied on to illuminate scenes. And once again, beware the scary red eyes.
Zoom Lens (8.0)
This hybrid digital camera has a Canon 10x optical zoom lens that reaches far, but not wide. It measures 6.5-65mm, which is equivalent to 39-390mm in 35mm format. This won’t be good for landscape shots, although there is a panorama stitch mode that can merge multiple images to create wider pictures. The lens has max apertures of f/3.5 in wide and f/5.6 in telephoto; neither is very impressive and won’t let in as much light as other f/2.8 lenses, but is typical of small 10x lenses on the market.
The Canon PowerShot TX1’s lens has a sliding metal door that protects it when the camera is turned off. When powered on, the door snaps open and the lens pops out of the camera about ¾-inch. The lens moves when the paddle-like zoom control is pushed up (telephoto) or down (wide). The lens on the TX1 is placed just above the middle of the back; it didn’t seem high enough – although there really isn’t any space above it either. It is stuck in an awkward place that makes handling a difficult endeavor. The control is sensitive, stopping at nearly 40 focal lengths within the range. Usually, the zoom moves at a decent pace – about 3.5 seconds from one end to the other. The optical zoom is available while recording movies. However, the zoom moves twice as slowly from one end to the other. The control is sensitive to the touch too, so it can slow down even more than that.
If users want a little more than 10x zoom, there is 4x digital zoom available. It can be turned on in the recording menu. The digital zoom can be used with standard 4:3 movies, although it isn’t recommended because it degrades image quality.
Users should be wary of the telephoto end of the zoom range. The flash is only effective from 3.3-3.9 feet when the lens is zoomed in, which is laughable and will rarely be useful. The auto focus is a little slower too, so there’s a greater chance of missing fleeting moments.
The long zoom lens is backed up by an optical image stabilization system that noticeably reduces blur in still images and keeps the picture steady in movies. Read: “Reduces,” not “eliminates.” Even with image stabilization turned on, blurry pictures still appeared when shutter speeds were too slow or the lighting was too dim. It works well in eliminating the effects of shaking hands but doesn’t do as well with shaking subjects.
The image stabilization mode can be changed in the recording menu. It can be turned off, although it probably shouldn’t ever be turned off unless trying to conserve battery power, which unfortunately may need to be done more often than you’d like. See the battery section for details.) The stabilization can be set to run continuously, from side to side only (Panning), and when the exposure is locked (Shoot Only). The image stabilization works well and is most effective in the movie mode when hands are fumbling with the awkward camera.
The 10x lens has its tradeoffs. It is very compact, which may attract consumers who want a hybrid camera without lugging around an enormous lens like the chunky 12x one on the PowerShot S3 IS or S5 IS. The TX1’s lens doesn’t get a lot of light from the relatively small apertures though, and it doesn’t provide a very wide focal length. It is a very basic long zoom lens and is typical of tiny lenses crammed into tiny cameras.
