Canon Powershot TX1

W

Whatever

Member
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.
If so, Mods please help me out and move this post to the correct one.

I work in video production, and own an HVX200.
With the birth of my daughter, I wanted a smaller, more portable
camera that I could just throw in the diaper bag on walkies.
I was using a Sony HC30 for shooting miniDV, but the HVX has
addicted me to HD.

I recently picket up a Canon Powershot TX1.
Have you guys checked this thing out? It's so light and simple
that you can toss it in your back pocket any time you think you
might find yourself in a kodak moment. It's 7.1 megapixel stills
come out great for a point and shoot. BUT...

The fact that it will also shoot HD at 720/30p is unbelievable!

I had some friends standing in line for an iPhone, and we wanted
to do a little 'man on the street' piece with them and others in line.
Since I figured Mall Security might kick me out, I took the TX1.

Now, I know that the HV10, and many other cameras have more
manual control, and better compression algoritm, but the footage
from the TX1 is surprisingly good.

So anyhow,
Here's the little video I shot today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSJaXz5ZVIM

Sorry it's youTube.

Whatever.
 
Just curious; how much SD card space did the video take up?

Also, the hand mic appears to be just a prop: is the audio from the TX1's onboard mic?

Shame about the youtube; it makes it difficult to compare the picture quality ...
 
6 gigs.

6 gigs.

I filled 6 gigs of card space.

They now make 8 gig cards, though and that should give 27 minutes of recording.
I gots to gets me one o' does.

Yeah, the mic is real, but hooked to nothing.
Just like the HV10, it would be awesome to have a mic in plug.

Yup, youtube blows.

Whatever.
 
Well, the little camera is certainly not any sort of 'be all, end all' or 'holy grail' of cameras.

There is no way that I could shoot anything that I could inter-cut with my HVX with it.

BUT...
The convenience of having that little bugger in my back pocket has already yielded me
quite a few easily watchable clips. Right now, I just have 3 2gig cards, and that's been the only draw back.
I'd like to pick up one of those 8gig ones out now, then I can run more that just a few little clips.

The only other problem has been color correction, because of the photo jpeg codec.
I'm still able to push the footage a decent amount,
and if I can't get it looking good, then I probably shouldn't have been shooting without enough light!

Thanks for the link, that was a really good article.

Here's another in-depth review:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_tx1-review/index.shtml

Whatever.
 
Whatever,

I also bought a TX1 and experimented with it. The video quality is good, but I wouldn't call it stunning...

I have a question: The bit rate that I am getting from the avi file is 1411 kbps (It's under the properties of the avi file). This seems quite low for an HD camera. I was wondering if you get the same bit rate for your avi footage, or is it a problem with my camera?

Thanks.
 
dr_bernie said:
Whatever,

I also bought a TX1 and experimented with it. The video quality is good, but I wouldn't call it stunning...

I have a question: The bit rate that I am getting from the avi file is 1411 kbps (It's under the properties of the avi file). This seems quite low for an HD camera. I was wondering if you get the same bit rate for your avi footage, or is it a problem with my camera?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Is it 1411Kb/sec or 1411 KB/sec? The b stands for bit and B for byte. 1 byte is 8 bits. So if it is 1411KB/sec it is 1.3779MB/sec which is 11Mbps. In the highest quality setting it should record 4480KB/sec which is 4.375MB/sec (megabytes), or approximately 35Mbps.
 
Last edited:
Windows Media Player expresses bit rate in bits per second. So It's 1411 kbits per second, not kbytes.

1411 kbits per second seems quite low for a camera that records at 35 megabits (or roughly 35,000 kbits) per second, so that's why I'm wondering if something is wrong.
 
What puzzles me is that I get the same bit rate of 1411 kilobits per second regardless of the resolution. The bit rate stays the same whether I shoot in 320x240 or 640x480 or 1280x720.

Canon's manual states the following bit rates:
  • 320x240 @ 60fps (4:3)
    • 1,370KB/sec
  • 320x240 @ 30fps (4:3)
    • 746KB/sec
  • 640x480 @ 30fps (4:3 High Quality)
    • 1,920KB/sec
  • 640x480 @ 30fps (4:3 Long Play)
    • 1,020KB/sec
  • 1280x720 @ 30fps (16:9 High Quality, High Definition)
    • 13 minutes per 4GB, 4,480KB/sec
  • 1280x720 @ 30fps (16:9 Long Play, High Definition)
    • 26 minutes per 4GB, 2,280KB/sec
Hmmm... Something isn't right.
 
dr_bernie said:
What puzzles me is that I get the same bit rate of 1411 kilobits per second regardless of the resolution. The bit rate stays the same whether I shoot in 320x240 or 640x480 or 1280x720.

Canon's manual states the following bit rates:
  • 320x240 @ 60fps (4:3)
    • 1,370KB/sec
  • 320x240 @ 30fps (4:3)
    • 746KB/sec
  • 640x480 @ 30fps (4:3 High Quality)
    • 1,920KB/sec
  • 640x480 @ 30fps (4:3 Long Play)
    • 1,020KB/sec
  • 1280x720 @ 30fps (16:9 High Quality, High Definition)
    • 13 minutes per 4GB, 4,480KB/sec
  • 1280x720 @ 30fps (16:9 Long Play, High Definition)
    • 26 minutes per 4GB, 2,280KB/sec
Hmmm... Something isn't right.
Click to expand...

What about the file sizes? Is it the same for the same resolutions.
 
vsansal said:
What about the file sizes? Is it the same for the same resolutions.
Click to expand...

The file sizes are actually pretty much in line with what Canon says. To be honest I did not try the 320x240 at 60 fps, But all other modes are giving me a file size consistent with the figures I stated in the post above, but in the properties of the avi clip it shows 1411 kbits per second, regardless of the resolution. What makes me think that something isn't right is that in clips of fast moving objects like cars, a single frame is often blurry, while I expected to get a crisp picture. That's what MJPEG is for, anyway.
 
Canon Tech Support solved the problem. The 1411 KBits per second is the audio bit rate, not the video.

For a moment I thought this camera is either defective or totally worthless. Now I think it's plain great.

:thumbsup:
 
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