Picture Quality / Size Options (8.25)
The Canon PowerShot TX1 has a 1/2.5-inch CCD with 7.1 effective megapixels on it. The following image sizes can be found in the function menu: 3072 x 2304, 3072 x 1728 (widescreen), 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, and 640 x 480. There is no 3:2-formatted image size for perfectly cropped 4 x 6-inch prints, but there are guide lines available from the recording menu and display button. Superfine, Fine, and Normal compression options are available, but only if you find them. Users have to push the Menu button while viewing the image sizes in the Func./Set menu to access the compression options. It’s almost like a hidden track on a CD – one that not many people find.
Picture Effects Mode (8.5)
Canon has some of the best color modes available on compact digital cameras. The My Colors modes consist of the following: Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, and Custom. All but the Custom option are available in both the recording and playback modes, which is good for indecisive folks. The Custom color option lets users adjust contrast, saturation, sharpness, skin tones, and red, green, and blue channels on +/- 2 scales in full steps. In the manual position, the shooting mode can be changed to Color Swap and Color Accent, which Canon used to group with its My Colors modes. This allows users to center the camera on colors to "select" them; one color can be accented against an otherwise black-and-white image, or one color can be replaced with another. Color Swap doesn’t work as well as the demos: it has trouble with shadows and highlights in color, and works best with completely flat planes of color. Still, this color mode is unparalleled in any other digital camera’s offerings.
