3rd
March
2007
My next camera- Canon TX1
posted in Canon TX1, Photography |I’ve never been a pro photography type. I’m very impressed by some of my friends who are just amazing photographers but I’ve never been willing to be bothered with carrying large cameras, lenses and all that junk. Having said that I’m always eager to get better results as long as my camera can fit in my pocket easily. Given that criteria I’ve had a pretty steady line of the Canon Elph models- pretty much a new one every other year for the past decade they have been making them.
My biggest frustrating with the Elph series has been the lack of more than 3x optical zoom (followed by poor low-light shooting and more recently lack of image stabalization). Last year’s models were very frustrating because they had no camera that was clearly the top of the category- there was the SD800 that had image stabalization or the SD900 that had better video and faster shooting. I’ve seen this mistake many times- for example Windows used to not have any clear “top” sku, or routers where you had to choose between either better performing router or better wireless. Its a really important concept that you need to have a “this is the best we make” model, and the bonus is you get to charge premium pricing for it. Microsoft really figured this out with Windows Vista Ultra- some focus accuse them of charging too much of a premium for it, but the mindset is that this is the version for the guys paying $500 for a video card, an extra $200 for the OS shouldn’t kill them.
A week or two ago Canon came out with their new spring line and this time they have what I’m hoping is the perfect camera for me. The Canon TX1 is small enough to fit in your pocket, but you flip open the screen and its got 10X optical zoom, optical image stabalization, and supports HD video. Plus the vertical way to hold it is probably more stable to begin with. I haven’t actually gotten my hands on one but this looks like a winner- and at $499 its priced right in the mainstream range. Of course i’m going to have to invest in an 8gb SD card now so that I can store enough video (8gb should net you about 40 minutes which is plenty for me).