I had high hopes for this camera but alas, the images I got were not that impressive, excepting the panorama which was strikingly good and the camera malfunctioned very quickly needing repair. I found the menus a bit confusing and not intuitive even though I am an iPhone junkie and very tech savvy. What if I dont WANT smile trigger? Admittidly, I probably needed to spend more quality time learning all of the functions but I bought the camera for super fast point and shoot in a variety of lighting conditions.

In any event, two weeks after purchase (and one actual location use), the zoom function of the camera malfunctioned and started engaging automaticly regardless of mode. The only way to stop the camera from zooming in, is to turn it off. I reported the problem 32 days after buying so I was out of luck with the retailer. Sony said they would repair the camera but that means shipping, waiting, and considerable trouble. And, when directed to the service website to make a repair request, that malfunctioned too. It could be just some bad luck today but I’m not happy at all.

Moral of the story: check the zoom function before you buy if possible. If not, make sure you check it before your 30 day return option expires

I own an old 6MP Sony T9 slim camera from 4 years or so back and this looked like a promising upgrade for a slim pocketable camera. HD MP4 video, 4x zoom, almost twice the MP, touch screen and this new touted Exmor R sensor.

The T9 isn’t a great camera, in fact it’s one of the worst at image quality of all of my cameras, and it’s memory stick duo format is constantly a hassle.

Unfortunately this new TX1 still uses Memory Stick Duo, and is somehow just as bad in terms of image quality as the old T9. It’s better in low light but still very grainy, however it’s worse in good bright light. Set manually to the lowest ISO (125) and placed on a tripod, the T9 produces shots with more detail and dynamic range while the TX1 has a grainy soft and blown highlight look to everything. This is with the best possible conditions, and in my opinion the shots from this camera are completely unacceptable. That means it only gets worse from there. Handheld shots in the automatic modes have much more noise and grain in them, even in full daylight. Trees in the distance look like water paintings. Neither camera is good with contrasty scenes, but all I want out of a small pocket camera is acceptable images to resize and post on facebook and so on.

The TX1 will do, but for the price the quality is terrible. Cut the price in half and I might think about keeping it but this is all about style over design.

It does have some neat features like a high speed burst mode, an anti shake mode that takes multiple exposures and combines and aligns in camera, face detection and so on. It also has one of the best touchscreen interfaces I’ve used on a camera, it’s not in the way and it’s easy and quick to use. Just double tapping on where you want the camera to focus is very nice as well. The zoom slider is probably the worst physical part on this camera, not very sensitive, and then when you finally get it to zoom, it shoots quickly from the wide end to the telephoto end which means you are always overzooming and having to back off, which is frustrating when all you want is to frame the image.

If this is going to be your only small camera I would choose something else probably from Canon or Panasonic, it will be a slightly larger camera but the jump in quality will be very noticeable.

I’m going to return it and keep the T9 for the pocket slim camera that I don’t care about, and use the SD870is and LX-3 as my other smaller cameras. Unless the price on this really drops, or you just have to have this for the style and don’t care about camera-phone quality pictures from a dedicated camera I would stay away from this model.

After a year of research and looking at many cameras, I came across the Sony DSC-TX1. It got me thinking about all of the Sony products we have had in the past. Which included at least 2 Sony camcorders, a very early digital camera; Sony Mavica MVC-FD75, various other electronics and most recently a Sony Bravia V-Series KDL-40V3000 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV. We have been very pleased with every one of those products. As a matter of fact, the MVC-FD75 took amazing pictures even though the megapixels were only 0.3 and used a 3.5 floppy to store images. My husband still uses that camera.

So, mostly on a whim, I thought to h*** with reviews and purchased the TX-1. I LOVED it from day one! It is very intuitive, and easy to use. I used it as soon as I got the battery charged – and that, the battery, is the only thing I can say is a slight negative. I prefer a camera that uses off the shelf AA batteries, to the inconvenience of having to charge a battery. However I am more than willing to suffer that inconvenience for a quality, sleek, sexy, fun to use camera.

I flipped through the manual while the battery charged. As soon as the battery charged, I started using the camera. I found it amazingly easy to use with just that little bit of reading. I took panoramas, photos with the foreground in focus and the background unfocused and vice versa, and very clear macros (the canon could do all of these things, but it was a pain, and the macros were almost impossible). The low light pictures were much better then any other camera I have owned. The size is another thing I love…it’s about the same size as my cell phone.

I suspect that a professional photographer may disagree with my assessment. That being said, if you are a casual user looking for a point and shoot that is easy and fun to use and small in size, this is the camera for you.

I’ll be brief and to the point – the video was pretty good, but the pictures were actually horrible. Instead of there being reduced noise as promised in news and reviews, there seems to be more (see my other reviews for most of the other cameras I’ve tried), even in bright light. I’m pretty tech savvy and went through ALL of the setting, trying everything possible to get good consistent pictures, but to no avail! We set the camera to various ISO settings to try and minimize the noise, but no good. It just is not good for viewing on the big screen, it most likely be OK for 4 by 6 printing but I did not try to print my samples. I have a media computer hooked up to my HDTV and the pictures just look terrible!

I mentioned above that the video was good and this is true – and I knew this going in – but why did Sony remove the stereo recording? If the pictures and other features where good, the lack of stereo would have been OK, but WOW what a disappointment all around.

This is just my opinion! I wish these camera makers would actually improve with subsequent models – I just don’t get it! Sorry Sony. Oh and one more thing, don’t tell me to just get a DSLR or it’s just a P &S – I know that already! I just want the cameras to live up to their billing! By the way, I have the Panasonic ZS3 and it BLOWS the Sony away.

So to summarize: It’s a great camera for the push-just-one-button crowd but will drive more advanced users crazy. I’ll probably return mine for a Lumix TS1

It films amazing HD video, takes great photos, and overall is just a perfect pocket cam. I then got a Kodak Zi8, which also takes great videos (better quality then the T500), decent photos, but the low light video quality suffers from being darker then the T500.

So my journey continues to find a better low light pocket cam, since I mostly work from dark comedy clubs and situations. Well Sony later released the T900 a sequel to the T500, and its lower light quality was no better and it got a downgrade from a 5X optical zoom to a 4X. But.. the T900 was slimmer and had a few tiny software upgrades that still made it a great camera.

Now just months after the release of the T900, Sony surprisingly pulled the T900 from the shelves and released a new camera called the DSC-TX1. While this camera is stated as the new version of the T500/T900 series on many websites (including Amazon), I dont believe it.

It has a smaller LCD (3″ down from 3.5″) a mono mic (instead of the stereo mic of the t500/t900) and familiar 4X optical zoom. So why am I reviewing a camera that seems like a downgrade?

Well Sony is using a new lens system called the “Exmor R”. It’s been said that these new optics have TWICE the low light quality as the previous cameras. The touchscreen also got an upgrade even if it’s smaller and has more of a iphone’isk menu system. With finger swipes you can view new photos, even draw on photos using your finger or the included stylus. The hardware is slimmer, tiny in fact.. and the photo quality (especially during low light) is way better then the t500/t900.

This camera is packed with new features and shooting modes, like my favorite, “Hand-Held Twilight” which take 7 photos in a second of a subject with no flash, combines the photos using software and makes the perfect single photo. Its cool how it works, it detects things like walls, and removes the static. It does an amazing job.

So why am I returning this camera?

Well for most people I would say buy this camera now.. its a great photo camera for it’s size, and has some really neat features. But as a owner of the previous model i’m spoiled. The TX1 doesn’t have a “movie mode” button like the t500/t900, you have to use the menu system to turn it on. The MONO mic sounds fine, but its no where close to being as good as the STEREO mic of the past. The LCD screen is bright, and high quality.. but its smaller.. and the menu system seems cluttered and annoyingly thought out. The zoom is now buttons on top of the camera, so its clumsy to use, compared to the t500′s rocker which you slide your finger on to zoom.

But here is the main reason… The video, while has amazingly richer colors, and blacker blacks.. is no brighter in low light situations. How is that possible? When comparing the videos of the T500 to the TX1 the T500 actually had better low light! While the video had more static, it was alot better. So it might be a little more washed out on the T500, and have more of a grainy look to it, at least I could see things that the TX1 couldn’t even pick up. It’s not a HUGE difference, but it was noticeable when shooting.

So for whatever reason the video does NOT benefit from the new low light lens system. So now I have a camera with better colors, but mono sound and poorer low light.

So for my purposes, I will return and wait. I have a feeling sony is prepping a true sequel to the T500/T900. My guess is they are adding 1080P. So I will wait, and see what happens in the next few months. I just don’t see them replacing a camera with one that is missing some key features of the previous. I honestly think this camera is a T700 or T90 replacement. As for the rest of you, I DO recommend this camera.. it great for what it is, just not for me.

Hopefully since they pulled the recently released T900 off their website, something better will replace it soon.

PROS:

-New Exmor R lens system does reduce grain and increase low light photo quality

-Great low light features and options for photos (only)

-The Auto modes work well (photos)

-720p video is great for it’s size, and the colors are rich, and blacks are black

-Video can record up to 32 min or 2GB at a time, then it stops and you have to hit record again, compared to the T500′s 10 min limit. (T900 also had the 32 min limit)

-Great Slim Design, better battery door lock then DSC-t500

-Panoramic mode is quick and painless with stunning results

-10 FPS mode for action shots is great

-Touchscreen works well, and looks great

-It’s fast to take photos

-You can zoom during video!

CONS:

-Mono Microphone

-3″ screen instead of the previous 3.5″

-Amazing Low light quality doesn’t seem to work in Video mode.

-No actual video mode button (touchscreen based)

-Zoom buttons seems awkward to use during filming

-Battery/memory card is squeezed in camera’s tiny body

-4X optical zoom instead of 5X of DSC-T500

If you search the internet for “redban and dsc-tx1″ I have numerous videos and photo samples available from my full review.

I carry the TX1 all the time. It has an anti-blur mode which is awesome indoors without a flash. It’s perfect for still objects, as in a museum or store. Remarkable, actually.

The touch screen is easy to use. Focus is fast.

I’ve had the DSC TX-1 camera for 24 hours and having mastered the touch screen am running it through its paces:

* Low light, wonderful! That will help in museums and the interior of historic homes where flash and tripod are not welcome, not to mention sparing people (especially babies) temporary flash blindness when taking candids at parties.

* Panorama? Not a gimmick to me: I can shoot the local lighthouse which means I can shoot cramped cathedrals.

* The pet feature is great. Don’t laugh, my first dog was a ham and it didn’t matter, but the new one’s camera shy.

* Closeups of the flowers in the garden and some figurines inside without flash came out beautifully.

* I tested out the film feature, and caught a pair of squirrels chasing on the fence in perfect clarity (not to mention hilarity.)

I don’t have an SLR and I don’t want one. I’m strictly point and shoot. The memory stick duo is what Sony uses; save to an external hard drive (you’re going to need one either for the quantity of VGA photos or the memory required to store all your 10.2 megapixel treasures) and re-use to bring down your expenses if the price differential with other media is such a big factor. Maybe I should know what “noise” is without having to look it up, but I don’t. The outdoor and indoor pictures look just fine, even at full magnification. I haven’t transferred them to the computer, but I don’t show my pictures on my computer. Neither do I have a huge HD television, nor a super-duper printer for printing large images on photo paper. If you’re like me, then you probably won’t see odd color flecks either (that’s what noise is, for the uninitiated.)

For me, it’s a sweet little camera, a perfect fit. Did I pay too much? Having the first decent portrait of my three-year-old Sheltie, in glorious true sable and white color (unlike the competition), is worth every penny I paid.