Sony DSC-TX1 Stills/panorama/movies/macro/burst camera

My first thought was I wasn't going to like this little compact camera - too small to be of much good for anything, and I've got much bigger, better cameras... maybe the wife will like it?

I was pleasantly surprised by the picture quality this camera puts out, how easy and intuitive it is to operate, and my doubts about it quickly turned to happiness with how cool this camera is! Sure, it's not going to match a big DSLR or dedicated video camera, BUT those are bigger and bulkier... this WILL cover a good portion of the sort of picture taking you actually want a camera around for, and will be handy in a pocket or small camera case when opportunity comes a knock'in, and you need to get that shot!

If you like touchscreen interfaces, you'll like this camera (I know some people hate touchscreens, if you're one of them, pass on this one!). You can point to a part of the screen and it will focus on that point! Everything is super easy to access, and you can customize the buttons as well, so things are set the way YOU want them.

Highlights with this cam are the macro capability - if you you need to take closeups of small things, this might well be the camera of your dreams - you can get almost on top of the object you're photographing and fill the entire frame with something the size of a dime or smaller!

Video is "HD", but in this case that means it's 1280x720/30p (in an .MP4 file format), which isn't "full HD", but the video is still very good considering how small this camera is - definitely could do double duty if you don't use video a lot, or just want to catch a few clips here and there to remember those special moments. You will need a video capable computer of course - older machines may struggle with video playback at higher resolutions.

The feature is there, and works well, clips play back in the included Picture Motion Browser (Windows) software, which also helps keep your media files in order, that's a good thing, as you'll probably take a lot of pictures and video with a camera like this! Get a good sized (4G+) Memory Stick Duo!

Because it's easy to grab a small case or stick this in a jacket or shirt pocket, you'll be more likely to have this little guy with you when those great "photo opps" (or "video opps"!) pop up unexpectedly, and you'll get great results.

The relatively new EXMOR "R" CMOS sensor helps out a lot with getting good results in bad light. It won't get you a good photo of a black cat in a dark room without using flash, but it has a couple special tricks up it's sleeve that WILL get you decent results when other cameras would probably choke.

The hand held twilight mode automatically takes a bunch of shots and blends them together so that you get a fairly clean image using available light. There's an HDR (high dynamic range) mode that helps when there are really bright and really dark parts of a picture (like backlit shots) - the camera blends two shots into one to get the best of both, without blown out brights or murky shadows!

Once I tried this little camera, I found it to be one of the handiest cameras I've ever had, ended up having to get a couple for relatives who didn't want to give mine back once they saw how much fun it was to shoot with and what nice results it got!

Sony updated this camera in 2010 with the TX7, adding full HD shooting and tweaking a few features, but the TX1 is still a lot of bang for the buck, particularly if you don't need 1920x1080 video!

Sony TX-1

This camera is revolutionary!! The features it has combined with the functionality are wonderful. Looks great, operates great, and its promising. The camera is full HD, 10 megapixels, it also has 180 degree panoramic shot! You can swing it from right to left 180 degrees and it brings it all together in one picture, "WOW." Great zoom also (Carl Zeiss). Not to mention that it takes excellent night shots. I have longed to find a digital camera that takes good night shots, it was a nightmare. I have owned many cameras including other Sony cameras and none take a night shot as good as the Sony TX-1. It also has the slide cover in the front which protects the lens. 10 frames per second burst to catch those fast paced shots (cars, ball games, etc). 3" touch screen, and also smile detection! What else would you want. I would recommend this camera to everyone. It a wonderful camera and its easy to work with.