Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX1 10MP “Exmor R” CMOS Digital Camera with 3-inch Touch-Screen LCD (Silver)

2 Replies to “Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX1 10MP “Exmor R” CMOS Digital Camera with 3-inch Touch-Screen LCD (Silver)”

1. John S. Dean "John" says:

   October 6, 2011 at 7:59 pm

   122 of 125 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Best camera I’ve had so far, September 5, 2009

   By 

   John S. Dean “John” (Sturtevant, WI United States) –
   
     
   
     

   This review is from: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX1/H 10MP “Exmor R” CMOS Digital Camera with 3-inch Touch-Screen LCD (Grey) (Electronics)

   I was looking at this last month when it was announced, and had decided I was going to go with the forthcoming 980 from Canon. My last four digital cameras were all Canon, and i was happy with them. But the more I dug and waited, the more I saw that there were things on this one I was hoping would make a difference, since many of my shots are indoors with my 5 year old, and the lower light benefits of this camera may make a difference.

   I was getting tired of the grainy blacks indoors even with good light on automatic settings… They looked better if I manually set the ISO, but if I’m just pulling it out for a quick shot, i don’t want to have to remember to go to manual settings all the time. This is replacing a Canon Powershot SD40 Elph that I liked very much other than the grainy blacks…

   So I thought I’d take a chance. The smile shutter may be useful with a 5 year old, the panorama mode looked pretty slick, battery life was more than acceptable compared to my SD40. I liked the thin form factor even if it is a little larger the other two dimensions. And the 3 inch touch screen would be a very nice upgrade from my tiny 1.2 or so inch on the canon.

   Since the big thing I was looking for was better indoor pictures with lower light and less grainy blacks, that was the first set of shots I took. I had both cameras in my hands, one on top, one below. Took shots at the same time from the same distances with the same lighting, both left on automatic. I know I can always get into manual modes to compensate for things, but I wanted something I didn’t always have to do that with. And this low light boasting on the TX1 had me curious.

   Got the pictures onto my computer, loaded them side by side, and dang if every single picture I took was not GREATLY improved with the Sony compared to my older Canon. The blacks were black, not grainy grey. The details were better (makes sense since it’s 3 MP more than mine) but the clarity of even far away things that weren’t in focus was astounding.

   I have played with a family member’s 900 version of the TX, and while it took good pictures, I didn’t see that much difference between those and my older SD40. So this one is definitely a notable improvement even over newer Sony cameras.

   The 10 shots per second is amazing – and they are great shots, not like they dropped in quality to get them so fast. panorama is cool, but I need to work on the speed to get the best speed it needs, since mine so far have a spot in most of them where it gets a little fuzzy, probably where my speed changed. Not very noticeable, but there nonetheless until I can figure out my panning method.

   Video i’ll want to wait till tomorrow to test out more, as it’s moving into evening here, indoor light is very very low. Video still looked much brighter in the viewscreen and on replay than it really was when recorded, so you can see the power of the light gathering in everything you do with the camera. But it was blurry when panning a bit (but i’ve yet to find a camera that doesn’t break the bank that doesn’t do this) so it’s certainly not going to replace my hard drive based non HD camcorder for everything.

   I’ll have to play with the more advanced features later after the battery recharges again, so I can test out the way it will take 6 shots and average them out for a crisp picture. And some outdoor night shots. But based just on what I’ve seen so far compared to the pictures I’ve been used to taking, I’m not too worried about them. Even if they aren’t as stellar as the photos, just having this kind of noiseless indoor low lighting shots more than satisfied my needs, and made this camera worth every penny.

   I would definitely buy this camera again. And if you’re like me, on the fence trying to figure out a good thing for indoor use, I can say that this is the best I’ve ever used so far.

   Edit a few days later – Movies I take in good light turn out fantastic. Pictures, movies, everything I’ve done with this has been outstanding. VERY happy with this camera.

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2. Culture Shlock says:

   October 6, 2011 at 7:39 pm

   232 of 237 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Great Pocket Camera With A Little Tinkering, October 12, 2009

   By 

   Culture Shlock (Los Angeles) –

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1/B 10MP “Exmor R” CMOS Digital Camera with 5x Optical Steady Shot Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

   It was probably a month or two ago that I saw some press releases on a new point and shoot Sony had coming out, the WX1, which intrigued me. Like a lot of photo enthusiasts, while a DSLR is the weapon of choice, the elusive holy grail seems to be a small point and shoot camera that can slip in your pocket so you can be packing at all times, yet would still take good looking photos that are not so riddled with noise (a problem almost always plaguing point and shoots because of their small sensors) that they look like your tv screen when the test pattern has gone off. As the old adage goes, the best camera is the one you have on you when you need it and a DSLR is a little tough to integrate into your daily accessories.

   So in evaluating this camera, perspective is required. This is not the camera you would go to for your best work. It is not the same package of everything you have with your DSLR and collection of lenses shrunk down to something the size of a couple of packs of gum. It is a tiny point and shoot camera that easily slips into your pocket with room to spare that does way better than the average point and shoot. In other words, it’s a top performer for the junior varsity but its not ready to hang with the varsity.

   Here’s the reasons I wanted one:

   1. I wanted a small camera I could keep in my pocket for daily use. What a lot of photographers call a “street shooter”, something you can pull out and use to grab shots of whatever you happen to run into during your day.

   This camera is certainly small. I’ve seen a few people refer to it as “chunky” and they must consider Ellen Page to be fat. This is tiny. I was surprised at how small the box it came in was, and even more surprised when I found the camera in the small box. My first impression was it wasn’t much bigger than one of those old minolta spy cameras. My previous point and shoot camera was the Sony W300, which most people considered slim and stylish, and this camera is smaller in all respects than that. Side by side the WX1 seems slight smaller than the W300, but looking at it alone it looks like a tiny toy camera. I gave the W300 to my wife, and when she caught a view of the WX1 her reaction was “But yours is so much smaller.” She was thrilled when I gave her the W300 but now has taken to calling it a hand me down. I went from hero to goat. As they say, size matters.

   2. Stealth factor – I wanted a camera that I could sneak into places that don’t allow cameras.

   You could drop this baby into the front pocket of your levis and still have room for a decent game of pocket pool. I can easily get it, a wallet and even a cell phone all in the front pocket of my jeans. Alone in the pocket, it scarcely makes even a bump that a security guard might notice.

   3. Low light capabilities – I dislike using a flash and wanted something that could take good pictures in natural light, and could function well in dark places.

   The low light capabilities of this camera are astonishing. The camera can basically see better in the dark then you can. Lots of the pictures I took in dark rooms look way more illuminated in the photos then they were in reality.

   Because it seemed to be everything I had been searching for in a point and shoot, I went ahead and ordered this as soon as Amazon had them available. Because they were not yet widely available, there were no hands on reviews by the usual photography sites and blogs. While waiting to get the camera, I would check Amazon every day to see if anyone who had actually used the camera had put up any reviews yet. The initial few reviews were alarming. People who said they wanted to love the camera didn’t. The gist of their complaints seemed to be that the camera took good pictures in low light (although a few didn’t even agree with that) and crappy pictures in good light. Sample photos that people began posting on Flickr also didn’t look too hot. Because of this I regretted ordering the camera so quickly and almost just sent it back to Amazon without even opening the box.

   I decided to try it for myself before deciding whether to send it back, and found it to be much better than the initial reviews had painted it (and subsequent reviews on Amazon now seem to be swinging towards the positive).

   I do have to agree that a lot of the shots I’ve taken outdoors in bright sunlight seem a little overexposed and dull, but I’ve also had this problem with my Canon DSLRs when set on automatic. In any case, I’ve found that with the WX1, all you have to do is open the photo in Photoshop and click “Auto Contrast” and the problem is instantly corrected. A reviewer on Amazon has also noted that you can get more vivid, warm outdoors photos from the WX1 by using the Program mode and moving the White Balance setting from Auto to Flash. I tried this, and with the White Balance set to Flash the pictures…

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