Photography and Digital Camera

Review based on a production Canon PowerShot TX1

Announced back in February just before this year’s PMA, the PowerShot TX1 is an unusual offshoot of the hugely popular IXUS / ELPH range that attempts to straddle the divide between digital stills and digital video cameras with its unusual vertical styling and 720p HDTV video capture. Despite its diminutive dimensions (it’s little bigger than a pack of playing cards) the TX1 packs a fairly impressive punch, offering a 10x optically stabilized zoom, 7.1MP CCD, vari-angle LCD and 1080i HDTV component video output. So does the TX1 represent a new direction for compact digital cameras or has Canon set off down a blind alley? Let’s find out, starting as ever with the headline features:

• New vertical design
• New 1/2.5-inch 7.1 million pixel CCD
• Vari-angle LCD monitor (1.8-inch)
• 10x optical (39-390mm equiv.) zoom lens – 12 elements (one UD & one Aspheric element)
• Optical image stabilization
• ISO 80-1600
• DIGIC III and Face Detection
• 720p (1280 x 720) movies at 30 fps with stereo sound
• 1080i component video output
• Flexible movie / still shooting Shoot a full-resolution still image during movie recording, or start movie recording by simply pressing record button

PowerShot TX1 specifications

The enduring popularity of Canon’s ‘big zoom’ range began on the day the original PowerShot S1 IS was announced back at the start of 2004, heralding a return to a sector of the market many believed the photo giant had abandoned when the Pro 90 IS was discontinued a few years earlier. Since then it has been rare for there not to be an S series big zoom PowerShot in our top 10 most popular cameras (measured by clicks) despite stiff competition from Panasonic (responsible for the reinvigoration of the whole ‘superzoom’ sector), Sony and a handful of other players. Perhaps this is why Canon has been loathe to tinker too much with the formula established in the original model for subsequent generations. Sure, the S2 IS was a much-needed upgrade (bigger lens, big performance boost), but since then Canon has pretty much left well alone with fairly predictable upgrades to the sensor and screen, and minor feature tweaks.

And so we arrive at the camera on test here, the PowerShot S5 IS, another incremental upgrade to its predecessor that adds a couple of welcome (and some would say long overdue) features but, for the most part, doesn’t mess too much with what made its predecessors some of the most appealing cameras in their class. The extra two million pixels and bigger, better screen were inevitable, the flash hot shoe a welcome surprise. Surprising too is that Canon avoided the temptation to go for a longer zoom range (now that 15x and 18x optics are becoming commonplace) – the S5 IS has exactly the same lens as the S3 IS and S2 IS before it, meaning you still don’t get a true wideangle unless you attach the large optional lens converter. There is also still no raw mode (perhaps the most requested feature from serious S3 IS users) – it would now seem certain that Canon has abandoned raw capture in non-SLR models.

Powershot S5IS vs Powershot S3IS – key changes

• Higher resolution sensor (8MP vs 6MP)
• Digic III processor (S3 IS was Digic II)
• Larger, higher resolution LCD screen (2.5 inches vs 2.0 inches)
• Hot shoe flash connector
• Higher top ISO sensitivity (1600 vs 800)
• Increased movie clip limit (was 1.0 GB, now 4.0 GB)
• Couple of new features (including red-eye removal, face detection AF)
• Reduced continuous shooting (burst) speed
• Slightly heavier

Move your mouse over the image below to see the design changes, which are fairly subtle.

Review based on a production Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS (SD870 IS)

The SD870 IS (known in Europe as the IXUS 860 IS and in Japan as the IXY Digital 910IS), announced in August, is a replacement for the SD 800 IS (IXUS 850 IS), one of last year’s most popular ultra compacts. It retains the SD800′s optically stabilized 28-105mm (equiv.) zoom lens, making it one of the only cameras in this sector of the market with this useful wideangle capability, and throws a few new or upgraded features into the mix, including improved Face Detection AF and red-eye reduction in playback mode, and Auto ISO shift. The other changes are fairly predictable, with a larger screen and just under one million extra pixels. The highlights of the specification are as follows:

• 8.0 Megapixels and 3.8x zoom
• Wide angle 28mm lens with Optical Image Stabilizer
• DIGIC III with Advanced Noise Reduction and Face Detection AF/AE
• Safety Zoom (limits digital zoom to avoid interpolation)
• ISO 1600
• High resolution 3.0″ LCD
• 17 shooting modes including VGA movies (30 fps) with sound
• Optional accessories available, including Underwater Case

Key differences compared to SD 800 IS

The SD 870 IS is a distinctly gentle revision of the SD800 IS, launched around a year ago. It offers a larger screen than its predecessor but it loses the optical viewfinder to keep the overall body size virtually unchanged. It also gains a higher resolution sensor but loses out in terms of continuous shooting speed, with the frame rate dropping from 1.7fps to 1.3, suggesting the buffer has not been increased. Other noticeable gains include a useful user-definable function button, a touch control wheel and Auto ISO-shift function.

• More pixels (8.0 vs 7.4)
• Larger screen (3.0″ vs 2.5″)

SD870 IS / IXUS 860 IS specifications