Rating

Wanted a highly-portable pocket camera that also took decent quality pictures. Had a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 that took brilliant pictures but was somewhat bulky in the pocket. A dump in the river while canoeing, even using a plastic baggie to protect, still let in enough moisture that the Lumix camera was DOA when taken into a repair shop. Looked around, talked to friends and found this camera. Waited until the price came down a bit and bought it. No regrets. Works well in most lighting conditions with/without flash. Only minor complaint is that the lens is located very near where you hold the camera (upper right-hand corner) so you have to be careful not to take a picture of your thumb or finger — have done that a few times . More detailed reviews can be found elsewhere.

Rating

I had a bought a Sony DSC-T3 a few years ago, wanting it so terrible I imported one from Japan! If its zoom hadn’t given out after many active years, I’d still shoot with it. The TX1 seemed to be the latest and greatest successor in Sony’s ultracompact line, and it hasn’t disappointed.

I thought I’d despise the touchscreen, but it’s really very convenient, and responds smoothly. About all it can’t do is pinch-zoom, and I’m guessing that’s more of a patent issue than anything else. Controls are laid out sensibly, and it’s simple to switch from automated settings to finer image control.

One of the coolest new features is Panorama mode, which makes ultra-wide photos quickly and easily. It absolutely works as advertised – it’s also fun to mess with, such as when I took a panorama of my friend as he followed the camera, making a crazy hall-of-mirrors effect.

The much-touted low-light settings are fantastic, as well, addressing an issue pretty much all compact cameras have. It can do a shockingly excellent job finding light and eliminating blur in dark situations, letting you avoid using the tiny, intrusive flash.

The 720p video is pretty nice, largely free of the dreaded wobbly effect many still cameras produce. As a bonus, you can zoom while recording video.

There’s drawbacks, of course – Sony’s continued, stubborn insistence on Memory Stick is irksome, but honestly, I don’t go memory cards around much. The zoom’s a bit unresponsive, not allowing very fine adjustment. You’re going to have to wipe off the touchscreen a lot. Also, I find it simple to hit the power button when the camera’s in a crowded pocket. Shots are going to be grainier than when you shoot with your D300 – such is life.

No camera’s perfect, but when you hold this thing, you can’t help but reckon of what a miracle it would look like to someone from even ten years ago. I’m pleased I waited for the TX1 to come out, and it’s going to be in my pocket for years to come, ready for when life happens.

Rating

I’ve owned Sony cameras for years and would never look at another brand of camera, until now. It seems like something has changed in the recent years. My older Sony Digital Cameras worked fantastic in all conditions – low light, outside, indoors. I never had a problem with blurriness or noise in my pictures. But my camera broke down last summer after years of use on vacations (at beaches and on the run), and I was forced to get a new camera. At first I looked at the Sony W290. I looked at the reviews and they were mixed, but I gave it a shot. Not pleased. All I got were very blurry pictures which was a huge disappointment after never having this problem in the past. So I went on to the Sony TX1, which was a GRATE improvement. I like the design and the style of the camera. It’s a fantastic pocket camera and it seems to have conquered the low light issues, to a point at least. I like the features of this camera, but I’m still tossed about it, which is why I’m only giving it 4 stars. I have a couple concern.

First, some Pros:

- Very stylish camera.

- Like the touch screen. Very simple to use once you get into it.

- The indoor shots seem pretty excellent (I’m still working on this. It still doesn’t seem to be as excellent as my “ancient” cameras).

- Like the clean features, like the screen shows with music, panaromic shots, HD video, face detection. All of these things make this camera very “hip” and up to the times.

My concerns:

- Small zoom. For a camera of this price, I feel it needs a much better zoom. 7x would give more flexibility when taking pictures. It seems like most the Sony models lack on the zoom capability.

- Taking HD Video takes up so much space on the memory card. Be prepared to download to the computer, or a portable computer drive that stores a lot of gigs. I still struggle with how to edit these HD files and place them together to form a movie and burn to a DVD. The documents say you can take video in lower version, but I haven’t figured that out either. It seems all my video files are HUGE. This could be my user error, so I take some responsibility, it just seems like this should be simple to accomplish.

Overall it’s a fantastic point and shoot camera. Some people might not like the touch screen, but it’s really quite simple to manipulate. In the end the video capability might be too advanced for me and I had to return it in lieu of basic video functions. I need to educate myself on this…being able to edit and play with the HD video files.

Rating

I would strongly diasgree with the previous review that was just written. I too have owned several cameras, including 2 DSLRs, so I can comment on the capabilities of the camera in a broader context. This is a technological tour-de-force. Its picture quality during daylight shooting is certainly excellent. The images are generally well exposed and have noise that I find average for its class (ultracompact). But, this camera rocks at low light shooting. Using the twilight mode, I get amazingly bright and smooth photos for dark environments. I’ve never seen such a small camera have such detailed low-light photos. The touch-screen interface is slick, but does have a bit of a learning curve. Plus, the camera camera has 720p recording capability. Other unique features such as smile detection and a panoramic mode both work surprisingly well. Last, I cannot help but be amazed at the size and design of this camera. It is truly pocketable. Perfect… no. But a right step forward for ultracompact cameras.