Canon TX1 First Impressions Review

by Emily Raymond
Published on March 08, 2007

Navigation
Intro	Physical Tour
Components	Design / Layout
Modes	Control Options
Image Parameters	Connectivity / Extras
Overall Impressions	Conclusion
Specs	Photo Gallery

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 and rotates to just about any angle. Purportedly, it has 100 percent coverage 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 lines that help with framing. More info about the screen itself is in the next section.

 

The 1.8-inch LCD screen is small, but there really isn’t much real estate available on the camera for anything larger. The low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD folds out from the camera with a big sturdy hinge and rotates smoothly to just about any angle. The low temperature should draw less battery power. The screen itself has a wide view from side to side, but washes out when viewing above and below eye-level.

 

Canon flaunts new technology on the TX1’s screen: they call it Pure Color, which consists of three components. It resists 1) glare, 2) scratches, and 3) fingerprints. I didn’t get to take the camera outside, but indoors it seemed to repel glare and fingerprints. Honestly, I didn’t try to scratch the screen. I don’t think Canon’s booth representatives would’ve handled that well.

 

This LCD screen has only 115,000 pixels on it, which isn’t great. Though that the screen only measures 1.8 inches, the key to HD video is proper focusing, and a low resolution screen will make a manual focus difficult. Like other PowerShot digital cameras, there is an option in the setup menu that allows users to change the screen’s brightness on a 15-step scale.

 

The view is a bit small on the LCD screen, but it affects reading menus more than it does snapping pictures with the live view. The screen does a nice job of resisting glare and fingerprints, and the rotating hinge makes the view even more accessible wherever you are in relation to the camera.

 

The TX1 has a built-in flash unit at the top of the front of the vertically oriented camera. It doesn’t look too bad, but its specs indicate that it is. According to Canon, the flash can only reach from 1.6-6.6 ft at best when the lens is zoomed wide and 3.3-3.9 ft when zoomed in. In the macro mode, the flash is effective from 1.1-1.6 ft. The weak flash is quite disappointing, especially for a camera with a 10x optical zoom lens.

 

The flash power can be supplemented with the Canon PowerShot accessory flash unit, which can be purchased for about a hundred dollars. The HF-DC1 flash extends the reach much farther.

 

Despite the weak specs, the flash produced decent shots within range. I snapped several portraits and none of them were plagued with the white forehead that often occurs with overzealous flashes. The coverage looked even in the pictures I took, although I wasn’t shooting a plain background so it’s hard to tell if there are hot spots. Theoretically, the flash’s coverage should be even because the flash is located just above the lens – when held vertically.

 

By pushing the joystick to the right, users can change the flash mode between On, Off, and Auto. The list may seem skimpy, but that’s only because the other flash options are located in the recording menu: Slow Sync and Red-Eye Reduction can be turned on and off.

This hybrid model 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 create wider pictures suitable for landscapes. The lens has max apertures of f/3.5 in wide and f/5.6 in telephoto; both of these aren’t very impressive but are typical of small, cheap 10x lenses.

 

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 control is sensitive, stopping at about 30 focal lengths within the range. Usually, the zoom moves at a decent pace – about 3.5 seconds from one end to the other. While recording movies, however, the zoom slows down so that it takes twice as long to move from one end to another.

 

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. 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). The stabilization can be set to run continuously, from side to side only (Panning), and when the exposure is locked (Shoot Only).

 

The lens has its tradeoffs. It is very compact, which may attract consumers who want a hybrid camera without lugging around an enormous lens like on the PowerShot S3 IS. It doesn’t get a lot of light from the relatively small apertures though, and it doesn’t provide a very wide focal length. Still, the small lens has a comfortable zoom control that is sensitive and an optical image stabilization system that is effective.