New Canon TX-1 Looks Weird

Hi All,

In the new releases is the Powershot TX-1, a weird still camera that
also shoot HD video:
http://www.dimagemaker.com/article.php?articleID=896

Cheers,

Wayne

--
Wayne J. Cosshall
Publisher, The Digital ImageMaker, http://www.dimagemaker.com/
Blog http://www.digitalimagemakerworld.com/

"Wayne J. Cosshall" writes:
In the new releases is the Powershot TX-1, a weird still camera that
also shoot HD video:

It has a bunch of really stupid limitations, such as max 13 minute
movie clips (4GB) and max 1.5 hour audio (1GB), even though it takes
SDHC cards (8GB cards are already available with 16GB coming). Plus
it has a tiny sensor with too many pixels, and looks like it uses an
internal lithium battery that's both proprietary and runtime-limiting.

It's an indication of what's coming, though. Maybe they'll make an AA
version sometime.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022203canontx1.asp

Paul Rubin wrote:
"Wayne J. Cosshall" writes:
In the new releases is the Powershot TX-1, a weird still camera that
also shoot HD video:

It has a bunch of really stupid limitations, such as max 13 minute
movie clips (4GB) and max 1.5 hour audio (1GB), even though it takes
SDHC cards (8GB cards are already available with 16GB coming). Plus
it has a tiny sensor with too many pixels, and looks like it uses an
internal lithium battery that's both proprietary and runtime-limiting.

It's an indication of what's coming, though. Maybe they'll make an AA
version sometime.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022203canontx1.asp
Yes, there is definitely going to be a merger of at least some types of
still camera and video. Both will likely still exist separately for a
long time, but I can see a growing segment of crossover cameras. Why
have two when one will do it all, I am sure, will be the marketing motto.

Cheers,

Wayne

--
Wayne J. Cosshall
Publisher, The Digital ImageMaker, http://www.dimagemaker.com/
Blog http://www.digitalimagemakerworld.com/

"Wayne J. Cosshall" writes:
Yes, there is definitely going to be a merger of at least some types
of still camera and video. Both will likely still exist separately for
a long time, but I can see a growing segment of crossover cameras. Why
have two when one will do it all, I am sure, will be the marketing
motto.

I used to be very opposed to that but I'm sort of ok with it now.
However, this TX-1 seems to me to do a lousy job, for the reasons I
mentioned. Basically I'd rather have a gadget that does one thing
well than two things badly. And yikes, it seems to have no external
mic input!

I wonder how the TX-1's audio quality is. I've shot some video clips
with my A530 and it's kind of fun, but the A530's audio is terrible.

Paul Rubin wrote:
"Wayne J. Cosshall" writes:
Yes, there is definitely going to be a merger of at least some types
of still camera and video. Both will likely still exist separately for
a long time, but I can see a growing segment of crossover cameras. Why
have two when one will do it all, I am sure, will be the marketing
motto.

I used to be very opposed to that but I'm sort of ok with it now.
However, this TX-1 seems to me to do a lousy job, for the reasons I
mentioned. Basically I'd rather have a gadget that does one thing
well than two things badly. And yikes, it seems to have no external
mic input!

I wonder how the TX-1's audio quality is. I've shot some video clips
with my A530 and it's kind of fun, but the A530's audio is terrible.

Agreed. In theory it should be possible to make a camera that is good at
both, but I think it is a long way till we get there, if ever in
practice. That said, because I tend to mostly take a still camera with
me (well usually two, my IR body and the normal one) I have had
occasions when some decent video capability would have been nice. On the
other hand if I could only get my wife to carry the video camera, I'd be
set

Cheers,

Wayne

--
Wayne J. Cosshall
Publisher, The Digital ImageMaker, http://www.dimagemaker.com/
Blog http://www.digitalimagemakerworld.com/

"Wayne J. Cosshall" writes:
Agreed. In theory it should be possible to make a camera that is
good at both [stills and video], but I think it is a long way till
we get there, if ever in practice.

Maybe the requirements are different. I'm never going to shoot a
feature film with a pocket sized camera, and I'm not going to pixel
peep video frames. So I'm ok with VGA resolution for video in a
pocket camera. On the other hand I'm always after more and more low
light performance.

They are using a 1/2.5" sensor in that TX-1, so if they went for
making it a pure video camera, at 640x480 that would give around 9
micron pixels, beating all current DSLR's for pixel size. With a
640x480 APS-C sensor (not so expensive any more, due to mass market
consumer DSLR's) they could beat even professional video cameras.
They just don't dare to make the resolution that low.

"Wayne J. Cosshall" wrote in message
...
On the other hand if I could only get my wife to carry the video camera,
I'd be set

Now that's a serious admission of failure on your part :-)

MrT.

Wayne J. Cosshall wrote:
Paul Rubin wrote:
"Wayne J. Cosshall" writes:
In the new releases is the Powershot TX-1, a weird still camera that
also shoot HD video:

It has a bunch of really stupid limitations, such as max 13 minute
movie clips (4GB) and max 1.5 hour audio (1GB), even though it takes
SDHC cards (8GB cards are already available with 16GB coming). Plus
it has a tiny sensor with too many pixels, and looks like it uses an
internal lithium battery that's both proprietary and
runtime-limiting. It's an indication of what's coming, though. Maybe
they'll make an
AA version sometime.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022203canontx1.asp
Yes, there is definitely going to be a merger of at least some types
of still camera and video. Both will likely still exist separately
for a long time, but I can see a growing segment of crossover
cameras. Why have two when one will do it all, I am sure, will be the
marketing motto.

I'm not into shooting lots of video, but I did choose to leave the camcorder
at home when I traveled to and worked in Ukraine last summer. I decided
that the 30fps VGA video of my little pocket camera was enough for me, since
I primarily shoot stills (5D). As it turned out, I actually figure I shot
MORE video with it than I would have with my camcorder, simply because I
could slip the tiny SD700IS into a pocket, where the camcorder would never
have come along anyway. It's not as good as "real" video, but it was very
usable for my purposes. There are plenty of folks who are tired of lugging
around even the smaller tape-driven video cameras.
--
Images (Plus Snaps & Grabs) by Mark² at:
www.pbase.com/markuson

"Mark²" mjmorgan(lowest even number writes:
As it turned out, I actually figure I shot MORE video with it than I
would have with my camcorder, simply because I could slip the tiny
SD700IS into a pocket, where the camcorder would never have come
along anyway. It's not as good as "real" video, but it was very
usable for my purposes. There are plenty of folks who are tired of
lugging around even the smaller tape-driven video cameras. --

Right, so why not make a "real" video camera that size, with video
performance comparable to fairly high end consumer camcorders, if all
it takes is slightly different electronics inside, plus ditching the
ability to shoot high-resolution stills? The 1/1.8" CCD should be at
least comparable to the 3x 1/6" CCD's in the current
Sony/Pana/whatever lineup. You can always stick yet another digicam
in your pocket if you want to also shoot stills.

Paul Rubin wrote:
"Mark²" mjmorgan(lowest even number writes:
As it turned out, I actually figure I shot MORE video with it than I
would have with my camcorder, simply because I could slip the tiny
SD700IS into a pocket, where the camcorder would never have come
along anyway. It's not as good as "real" video, but it was very
usable for my purposes. There are plenty of folks who are tired of
lugging around even the smaller tape-driven video cameras. --

Right, so why not make a "real" video camera that size, with video
performance comparable to fairly high end consumer camcorders, if all
it takes is slightly different electronics inside, plus ditching the
ability to shoot high-resolution stills? The 1/1.8" CCD should be at
least comparable to the 3x 1/6" CCD's in the current
Sony/Pana/whatever lineup. You can always stick yet another digicam
in your pocket if you want to also shoot stills.

Probably has to do with the huge amount of memory required to store high-def
video. The Canon can only do 13 minutes(!) on 4GB, or so I was told...

--
Images (Plus Snaps & Grabs) by Mark² at:
www.pbase.com/markuson