You know how it goes, first comes
the announcement, then comes
the pr0n, and now comes the
critiquing. Canon's first endeavor into the hybrid still camera / HD camcorder realm looked great at first glance, but after you peered beyond the admirable size, manageable price, and HD capabilities, how does this thing really stack up? DCRP got real with the TX1, and while the design was smiled upon, it was still oddly deemed "a bit too small," as reviewers claimed that the "controls were tiny, cluttered, and poorly placed," leading to a good bit of frustration when it came to actually operating the device. Still, the crew did praise the flip-out LCD, impressive optical image stabilization system, and SDHC support, but mirrored just about everyone's gripes when they complained about the Motion JPEG format choice. Put simply, "
Canon created a camera that's big on style and features, but lacking in terms of ergonomics, flash strength, movie recording times, and battery life." All in all, we fully expect the next iteration of the TX1 to be a serious contender, but the current rendition just seems to fall a bit short in the areas that matter most.
[Via
DigitalMediaThoughts]
posted Apr 10th 2007 7:01AM
The sample videos look pretty sweet. I think the reviewers kind of missed the point of this camera.
That being said, it's kind of a niche product.
I actually prefer the mjpeg compression and the 13 minutes recoeding time is not a big deal. However, they are not offering a waterproof case for this model and that is a dealbreaker for me.
Also, I would give up half that zoom for 28mm on the wide end.
I read this review a week ago and the one HUGE question I wanted answered was not. How well does this thing record with low light? Complaining about mjpeg is stupid, it has its pluses and minus. I just saw a 4gb 150x card for $30, I could buy 3 of those and have enough for a week vacation. Complaining about the price, have you seen all other HD camcorders they cost over $1000 (except the Sanyo that is similar to this camera).
So to be able to carry this camera in my pocket, for my soon to be born 1st child. To be able to get good video, and good photos, is way better than to have to carry around a large camcorder (well none fit in my pocket) and a camera. Yet if it is horrible in low light (a house with only a few lights on), then it is worthless.
MJPEG is a great choice, because it works well with iMovie. Temporal compression sucks.
This review was no shock to me.