Canon PowerShot TX1 Digital Camera Review

Auto Mode (6.75)
The camera’s auto mode is denoted by the red camera icon on the dime-sized mode dial. This automates just about everything, but doesn’t mangle the menu into something idiotic like Panasonic’s Simple mode (think bright colors, hearts, stars to represent features). The Canon PowerShot TX1’s auto mode still allows access to most of the options in the recording menu and several from the function menu: aspect ratio, video resolution, and image size. The Auto and High ISO Auto modes are available by pushing the joystick up, the flash can be set to Auto or Off with a push to the right, the self-timer can be turned on with a push to the bottom, and one to the right will turn on the macro mode. Generally, pictures taken in auto mode look good.

Movie Mode (8.25)
The Canon TX1’s identity rests upon its movie mode, for it is the only compact digital camera on the market to include high definition resolution. This move is quite a gamble for Canon as previous attempts by other manufacturers at this market niche haven’t gone well.

The reason the TX1’s movie mode is so unique is because it records 720p high definition video. The 1280 x 720-pixel movies are recorded at 30 fps, which makes it better than the Panasonic LX2, which records the same resolution at a choppy 15 fps. The TX1 comes with a 32MB MMCplus card, which is just about enough memory to capture yourself fumbling with the zoom toggle before running out of memory: 6 seconds. An immediate upgrade in media will be required.

The camera records in the Motion JPEG format at data rates of up to 4480KB/second (in the common camcorder parlance, this translates to 35Mbps, or megabits/second). Motion JPEG is a bit of a throwback in a world of high definition video moving quickly towards smarter, faster, more efficient codecs like H.264 AVCHD, co-developed by Panasonic and Sony and employed in several of their products. While the quality should remain high, potentially higher than current AVCHD camcorders, Motion JPEG is an inefficient method, requiring a lot of memory space for little video. This seems somewhat illogical since the TX1 is marketed to general shooters and casual videographers - those who often choose flexibility over image quality. Unfortunately, the TX1 doesn't really live up to the hype in either area; video quality is severely compromised by the processing and compression imposed, and recording space is limited. 

Canon claims the TX1 can record HD video for up to 26 minutes on a 4 GB card. Indeed, high definition video will only record for up to 10 seconds on cards that are not “high-speed” (carrying a transfer rate of 20MB/s or faster). The TX1 has other video resolutions that can record up to an hour at a time. 640 x 480-pixel video shoots at 30 fps for up to 56 minutes. The e-mail-friendly 320 x 240-pixel video can shoot at 60 or 30 fps. Some other PowerShot cameras record 320 x 240-pixel video at 60 fps, but they maxed out at a minute. The TX1 has only the limit of the memory card capacity.

The vertically aligned camera is designed like pistol-grip-type camcorders such as the similar Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2 (marketed more as a camcorder with great camera abilities – and high def video). The PowerShot TX1 has a 10x optical zoom lens complemented by an optical image stabilization system that keeps the picture steady. The system works very well and is noticeable even on the small 1.8-inch LCD screen. When in the movie mode, it can be turned on or off but it should be kept on, except when you’re really scraping for battery power.

The zoom moves quickly when not recording video, but slows considerably once it starts; it takes about 4 seconds to zoom 10x at its quickest. This keeps users from getting too jumpy with the zoom, but some consumers may not like the lack of speed control. The control is sensitive to the touch, so the harder you push, the faster it zooms.

The zoom lens is available at all times, even with the audio, unlike many other compact digital cameras. The Canon TX1’s audio is exceptional when compared to other digital cameras. For one, it records in stereo whereas most cameras record mono audio. The microphone level can be changed, complemented by a live mic levels display. A wind filter can be turned on and off. Wind filters typically work as high pass filters, killing the low, rumbling sound of wind against a microphone.

The white balance and exposure controls can be changed as long as the mode dial is switched to the manual position. My Colors modes can even be added if you really want a sepia-colored movie. Still images can be snapped while recording video because of the dual release buttons: the shutter release button is on the top and the movie recording button is on the back of the camera. The move isn’t seamless though: there is a snap and a frozen frame for a split second before video feed resumes. The video keeps recording though. Many digital cameras can pull still frames from the video, but this system allows those frames to be in the full 7.1-megapixel resolution rather than the third-of-a-megapixel standard video frames.

On the tiny 1.8-inch LCD screen, all of the video looked the same: 320 x 240, 640 x 480, and 1280 x 720. I could only see the difference when the videos were played back on an HDTV. So if you don’t have an HDTV, there’s no need to buy this digital camera. The smallest resolution looked as poor as its pixel count implies, but the difference between the standard 640 resolution and the 720p resolution was defined by sharper edges and crisper details.

HD Sizes	SD Sizes

Although the Canon PowerShot TX1 records 1280 x 720 progressive video, footage is output in 1920 x 1080 interlace component video on HDTVs via the jack on the bottom of the camera labeled "component." With standard televisions, there is an AV jack too that can be set to NTSC or PAL. Users who watch high definition videos will need to connect all of the cables, as the component cable doesn’t transfer audio.

Videos can be played back in the camera too: normally and in five levels of slow motion. It has VCR functionality with its rewind, fast forward, stop, play, and pause buttons. Files can also be clipped into two and saved as separate videos.

Overall, the high definition resolution is functional, but it has a lot of physical limitations that will scare away those who would have otherwise enjoyed the camera most. The Motion JPEG file format takes up a ton of memory, cards not designated as “high speed” only record 10 seconds at a time, poor handling makes it a pain to hold, and the battery doesn’t last long anyway. Despite all this, if the point of the Canon TX1 is to put high definition video capabilities in your pocket, it is successful. However, the increased resolution comes at the expense of comfort, price, memory space, and worse of all - image quality.

Click here to read the TX1's video performance test results.

Drive / Burst Mode (6.0)
The burst mode is accessed by pushing the camera’s navigational joystick down. Single, Continuous, Continuous AF, and self-timer options are available. The single drive is the default, but the continuous mode snaps the true burst at 2.2 fps. It can do this for about 22 full-resolution shots before it starts stuttering and slowing to a shot about every second or second-and-a-half. The continuous auto focus mode focuses between shots and takes twice as long at 1.1 fps, but it can shoot to the capacity of the memory card. The Canon TX1’s self-timer can be set to delay for 2 or 10 seconds; it can also be customized in the setup menu to delay for 0-30 seconds and then snap a string of 1-10 images.

Playback Mode (7.0)
The playback mode is accessed with the mode dial, which takes a little longer than access from a button. The last image or video taken is the first to pop up on the tiny LCD screen. The screen can be viewed from many angles but it’s hard to cram friends around it for a look at the images because of the small size of the screen and its attachment to the left side of the camera, which blocks the view from the right.

Images are displayed individually or in index frames of 9 at a time when the wide end of the zoom control is tapped. The telephoto portion of the control magnifies individual pictures from 2-10x and the multi-selector can then scroll around the image.

Pictures can be organized into categories through the playback menu or the button atop the camera. Categories include people, scenery, events, to do, and three customizable categories. Users can jump through loads of pictures by pushing the joystick up; this allows users to jump to categories, dates, folders, movies, and image files by 10 or 100. In this fashion, pictures can be erased by category or by date, as well as one by one or all at once via the playback menu.

There are plenty of editing options available from the playback menu, which is shown below.


Slide shows look good but aren’t anything fancy like the ones on new Nikons and Sonys, which include music. The menu option for categorizing photos would be good for someone who has a large memory card and doesn’t download pictures to their computer often and thus needs some on-board organization. The red-eye correction tool was very useful because there were so many pictures with red-eye in them. This simply turns the red spots in eyes to white spots, so it looks really scary if the spots are big. This also doesn’t work if the memory card is completely full; there must be some free memory to create a new file.

My Colors has a nice palette that allows users to accentuate things in an image such as skin, green grass, blue skies, and red lips. It also allows users to completely change the mood of a photo with vibrant, neutral, or black-and-white settings.

The sound memo is useful for biologists snapping pictures of plants and needing to add a few notes without grabbing a pen and paper. The TX1 records WAVE format files for up to one minute. The sound recorder is an interesting feature, although it seems strangely placed in this menu because it doesn’t have anything to do with playing back images. The sound recorder can record up to the capacity of the memory card and is a free-floating file, while the sound memo feature attaches the audio to a specific image.

Videos can be played back in the camera too, although they look much better on a larger television screen. Videos can be played back with VCR-like controls and can even be played in five levels of slow motion and at various volumes. Files can be cut into two, but that’s as far as video editing goes on the TX1.

Overall, the playback mode’s options and features are above average, but the screen upon which the images and videos are reviewed is too small to gather friends and family around. Images and videos are better reviewed on a television screen or computer monitor.

Custom Image Presets (7.5)
A "SCN" position on the mode dial provides users with a host of easy–to-use preset modes. The list appears at the top of the Func./Set menu when the joystick is pushed inward: Portrait, Night Snapshot, Indoor, Foliage, Snow, Beach, and Aquarium are available here. Surprisingly, there is no Landscape scene mode, which is a basic offering on other digital cameras. Perhaps it’s the 39mm focal length that prevents a decent landscape mode? Also, there isn’t a “high ISO sensitivity” mode like on many other digital cameras. The Indoor mode is the closest thing users have, but they still have to remember to manually disable the horrid flash.

The scene modes still allow access to exposure compensation and image size, but not options like white balance and color modes. Several other preset modes are available from the shooting mode portion of the function menu in the manual position. Color Accent, Color Swap, Super Macro, and Stitch Assist modes can be found there.

Color Accent and Color Swap let users select colors by pushing the display button, framing a color in a superimposed box (much like setting the custom white balance), and pushing a specified direction with the joystick. Color Accent turns the image to black-and-white except for the selected color. Color Swap changes one color to another. These modes only work well for large blocks of solid color; they don’t do well with highlights and several shades of a single color.

The Super Macro mode works well but the flash is disabled (it isn’t effective when this close to a subject) and it takes the camera longer to focus. Stitch Assist is the closest thing the TX1 has to a landscape mode. It can be set to guide users left to right or right to left so a string of images can be taken without missing anything. The screen shows a tiny sliver of the previous image so users can line it up for the next shot. This is handy, but uploading the images to stitching software (it’s included) can be a pain – certainly more painful than just having a landscape mode.

Overall, the scene mode list is missing a few key items, which is unfortunate for a digital camera that caters to point-and-shooters.