Canon TX1 720p videos
Having tested the stills capability of the TX1, I moved with great anticipation on to the video side of things. Any fears about ropey video quality, which I'd read about in one or two reviews, were unfounded. The TX1 is not going to be anyone's best friend on the set of the latest HD blockbuster, but in comparison to the other flash based camcorder options out there (think Xacti HD1), and its eminent pocketability, there's little to complain about.
Considering the TX1 is not a dedicated camcorder, rather a point and shoot digicam with video capabilities, I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I gotta say I was pretty chuffed to be capturing 720p on something so damn small and inconspicuous. I was able to snap away with the DSLR and then reach into my pocket and pull this out for a few seconds of video without having to fossick around in a bag to swap cameras. Nor did I look like a complete dork carrying a DSLR and a chunky camcorder around my neck, just asking to be bopped on the head and relieved of all my expensive kit. When you consider that you're capturing 720p HD footage one moment, and can then slip the svelte little sucker back into your pocket the next, it almost makes you want to carry it with you all the time.
The TX1 is by no means the most finger friendly camcorder around. The buttons are small and somewhat fiddly when you're trying to keep the frame steady and zoom at the same time. That said, if you use your left hand on the outer edge of the LCD screen, you can get surprisingly solid results. Too much fiddling and the handling sounds get recorded via the stereo mics on the front side of the LCD. Speaking of those, the sound recorded was clear and did not distort very much at all if the volume got too high.
When I first downloaded the vids and looked at them on my Macbook Pro, I thought they were a little soft and undersaturated, but when I ran them through my 720p LCD TV they really seemed to pop with detail and colour. Seeing as that's the main output I'll watch them on, I am very happy with the results.
If I was going to nit pick, and I will, my main gripe with the TX1 is that at its widest, the lens is 49mm, which is not very wide at all. Seemingly without the capability for add-on adaptors, I can see this being a bit of a pain, especially indoors. There is a thread on the end of the lens but the way it whips back into the housing when the camera switches off seems to preclude the connection of anything that might protrude from it.
Unfortunately, with this limitation I can see myself backing into room corners to get a wide shot, or I could just go all DeMille and opt for a lot of close-ups. In that regard the TX1 is an amazement. In super macro mode you can literally stick the lens right on top of your subject, revealing every minute detail (perhaps too much!).
Having come from the world of interlaced Mini DV, I am really impressed with the progressive frame video taken on this camera. Take a look especially at some of the vids of the pigeons flying off, and frame-by-frame them - no jaggies to be seen anywhere.
One 'feature' that seems to be getting the most criticism in reviews is the choice of Motion JPEG codec for the video capture. With a meagre 13 minutes of 720p video per 4GB, any serious recording is going to chew through a few flash cards (and hard disk space once you've downloaded them all). Many reviewers see this as a real limitation, but it could also be an opportunity to move away from the capture every possible moment mentality many tape based camcorder owners have gotten used to.
Here's a sample of 720p videos taken with the TX1.
VideosIf you have any specific questions about the TX1 you'd like me to answer in a future post, just drop it in a comment.
These vids were taken out and about in Covent Garden, Leicester Sq. and Trafalgar Sq. in London. All files are pristine, direct from the camera, no recompression or processing involved.
These files are not small given their duration. Thanks to BlipTV for hosting these files. IMPORTANT: I really recommend right clicking and saving these files rather than trying to load them up in the browser .
- Covent Garden, overly exuberant dancers (20secs, 89MB)
- Covent Garden, more dancers (19s, 86MB)
- Covent Garden, band getting down (12s, 52MB)
- Covent Garden, crowd shot and pan (9s, 41MB)
- Leicester Sq., pan with sun flaring (9s, 42MB)
- Trafalgar Sq., pan around (9s, 40MB)
- Trafalgar Sq., pigeons being harangued (27s, 120MB)
- Trafalgar Sq., fountain shot (10s, 44MB)
- Trafalgar Sq., Nelson's column (16s, 60MB)
- Trafalgar Sq., fountain and National Gallery (12s, 53MB)
- Trafalgar Sq., lion (8s, 36MB)
- Trafalgar Sq., one final pan around (8s, 37MB)
59 comments:
Great initiative to start a blog about this!
I have a few questions I would like to have answered before I oder a TX1:
1) Could you post a video recorder with the 720p Long play (LP) mode?
2) battery life: how long can the camera continuously record in LP mode before running out?
thanks for the effort! I really appreciate it. UP
haha.. you don't actually have to post a video recorder. just post a video and it'd be fine :)
Hehe yeah, not a VCR. I will take a video in LP mode and put it up in the next couple of days. Stay tuned!
As far as I know the LP mode will record twice as much as the high quality mode, so I reckon 26 minutes. I will test the battery with this as well and post it up on the blog.
Cheers, Matt
I would like to know if you can manually set the ISO rating of this camera when taking video? (in an attempt to reduce grain in low light/indoor video quality – ie: ISO 100/200?). I've read that someone has tried it but it didn't seem to make any difference?
Any chance of a link to some indoor/low light video and stills? (after seeing an indoor video clip from PMA this year from the TX1 I’m a bit apprehensive). Would also like to see a wide indoor group photo with room size to see if it fits my needs.
Thanks.
This question is way below your level of technical expertise but it is VERY important to me. Background,...I'm a quail hunter and like to video my bird dogs pointing and retrieving quail. With my Sanyo C5, after I open the screen, I can easily video with one hand, zooming and going from still to video etc. There's a shotgun in the other hand.
So the question is, after I turn the TX1 on and open the screen, can I use all the functions effectively with one hand? Thanks! And, by the way, thanks for this blog! Jack
Jack,
I take it you are looking for a step up(zoom/def.)from the c5, similarly I have the C4, which has never let me down(my brother has the c5, which seems very good also)
I actually have the hd1 as well, but the lack of optical stab is a problem, that and the light sensitivity( we are talking very poor comnpared with the C4/C5) and the fact it's now broken means I wont go the hd2 route so would rather stick with the C4 or go TX1( which I have ordered from E-BAY) the sanyo's though have a winning formula with ergonomics and am hoping the TX1 doesn't dissapoint to much. Also like you and alll othe xacti users you realise early on that setting iso low, even in dark settings improves the video quality!!
Since you are a Sanyo user, I hope you'll give us a direct comparision between those cameras and the TX1.
Although I like the C5, I've been using a Canon A710 for most of my outdoor video. The quality is better, especially autofocus and stabilization. The main limitation is the lack of zoom capability while taking videos. Really looking forward to your comparisons, especially about handling. Thanks.
Hi Jack, the answer is yes you can definitely operate the TX1 with one hand, although it'll need to be your right one, as the stills shutter release is on the top right hand side. The TX1 is let down a little by its ergonimics, it doesn't sit naturally in your hand like the Sanyo's do, but its small size and weight help with this.
Regarding the low ISO's indoors, I think it was me who said elsewhere that it didn't seem to make a difference for video. I gave it a quick try the other day where I used different ISO settings for video and shot down a dark hallway. I only reviewed the video on the little LCD not on a computer, so will try this and report back in the next day or two. Cheers, Matt
That would be great! The reason I ask is because I read somewhere on the dpreview forum, that recording at the highest quality setting, the battery only lasts 15-20 minutes or something. Combine that with the 13 minutes 4gb limit and it is not convenient for me. However, if the quality of the LP 720p setting is still far better than 480p, and the camera can record half an hour on 4gb with one battery, things start to sound a bit better.
the macro shots of the flowers look quite professional by the way.
Thanks UP,
I did a quick and dirty test the other day. From a fresh battery I managed 3 full 13 minute runs at 720p and a 20 minute run at 720p LP before the battery light started to flash - so that's 56 mins, pretty much straight in a row. Now this didn't include any photos or much zooming, but I did have it pointed at the TV so it was having to deal with a quickly moving image.
One thing I found quite amusing was watching the face tracking indicators following people's heads around on the TV!
Cheers, Matt
Hey make that 59 minutes - I am sure another minute could have been squeezed out of it though!
Thanks for taking your time on this! I must say I did not expect the battery would last that long. I can imagine that moving the camera and switching between exposures would shorten it's battery time, but it won't be much shorter. I'm sold now. UP
Hello,
I plan to purchase this TX1 in Singapore next week and bring it back to US. My question is, is the video setting can be changed to NTSC from PAL?
Thanks,
Max
Thanks for the blog. I just got mine, (USA) and shot some video which I showed using the component cable and a hidef TV. very satisfactory. I can download to my PC. Now as an elementary question what is the preferred way to edit and record so that other people with Hidef TV can see my output ?
Hi. Yep the camera has both PAL and NTSC video settings.
Hi Henry. I am yet to get the component cable, were the results good?
I have been editing video in the original format from the camera. Once complete, you could choose to export it in a number of formats. Because I am on Mac I use H.264 which cuts the file size down to about 15-20% for the same look as the original and it is still in HD.
On PC you could use Windows Media or maybe DivX as the export for wide compatibility with other people's computers. These will also make the file size a lot smaller and are mainly aimed at web distribution.
If you want people to be able to watch your movies on their TVs, you could create a podcast or RSS feed that people could subscribe to and download to their media centre and watch in HD. There's lots of resources on the web to help you do that.
via component cable.. fills the screen. I would judge the quality not quite as good as hi def from the cable, but amazing for a guy who last shot in super-8! Also the difference may be less if the camera is not hand held at long zoom. in my original query I was hoping to send people video CD or DVD. I opened a movie in Windows movie maker, and could edit it, but it seemed to save in a lower definition. i'll explore some more. Henry.
Useful info. a 2 Gig card will download onto an Ipod via the camera adapter in about 30 minutes, but uses up most of the battery charge.
Henry, was that video files as well, or just stills? If it's video that's brilliant.
yes all rthe video and stills on a full 2 Gig card. I knew that the ipod was capable of a 2 gig download from a still camera, so I bought 2 gig cards for the TX. for what I am doing, I do not need a long continuous shoot. Now I can travel without a computer. As a bonus, I discovered that the ipod also can store music, so I downloaded 30 classical CDs! I cannot imagine why Apple did not run the power lines through the adapter.
I've wondered about this too, especially when the using the camera adaptor. I have read tho, that if the iPod is fully charged, you can ignore the battery indicator dropping so rapidly, and should be fine to get through the upload without dying.
Hi Jack,
I bought an Xacti VPC-C6EX last year. Its photos taken outdoor with sufficient lighting are very good. However, in indoor environment with fair lighting, the photos are totally unacceptable even the flash and high ISO 400(max) is used. This may be due to its bad aperture (open F=3.5 (wide)) limit. In addition, the quality of Mpeg 4 video is also unacceptable cos it is very shaky even I pan it slowly. So, on the whole I regard the Sanyo Xacti VPC-C6EX as a very bad camera.
I am now looking for a new similar camera with video taking ability. I won't choose Sanyo HD models cos I am terrified by my Xacti. Canon TX1 appears to be suitable to me. But its aperture is also not good (also only F=3.5). Would you please tell me whether TX1's photos taken indoor are good and the video not shaky?
Thank you for your attention.
Edm
Your point about the battery indicator misleading is supported by the observation that the indicator pulled up from red back into the green after a minute or two. I'll download 2 2 gig cards in successipon and report back. Henry
just downloaded a full 2 gb card into the fully charged Ipod, and then immediately did it again. Both worked, the battery indicator in the Ipod was red, the camera still functioned. About 63 minutes for the 4 GB. Henry
I got a white spot in the picture when shooting fairly close to the sun, which leads me to ask if I could put on a lens shade that is intentionally made so loose fitting that it just shrugs off as the camera retracts. Henry
Lens flare is common and I've seen many rubber based lens hoods around for SLRs but never one so small it could fit on the TX1 - it might need to be made bespoke, or some supplier may bring one out of there was demand. It would fall off every time the lens retracted, which I know would annoy the hell out of me.
Are we expecting too much from this little camera?
It would certainly have to be made. I was contemplating turning it out of black Delrin or perspex. One might try a hole in the bottom of a plastic film can. There are obviously compromises made to get such a compact package, but they are not that burdensome. I used to enlarge Minox negs! Henry.
Hi, can anyone make availavale a TX1 Advanced Camera User Guide. I received the TX1 this week though a UK source but it's obviously Japanese/Chinese original source. With a photocopied short user guide supplied and having used an Ixus a lot, I can get around the basics. But I'd like the advanced guide. an anyone help?
PS Camera feels and works great. Its curently living up to expectation.
Peter.mk - you can download the advanced manual from here:
http://www.usa.canon.com/... ...ct=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=14903
Click on the last tab ("Drivers and Downloads"), then select "Product / Software Manuals."
Ali
Arg, that messed up. Let me try again. Click here for the TX1 advanced manual.
Ali
Excellent blog... exactly what I've been looking for!
Quick questions:
1) Can you change zoom while shooting video?
2) I only have iMovie, no iMovie HD. Does iMovie work with TX1's motion jpeg format?
thanks!
Hi Herbert,
You definitely can zoom whilst shooting video, up to 10x zoom.
iMovie works just fine with the files from the TX1, so you should have no problem there. Just select the widescreen Hi-def option for the best results.
Cheers, Matt
Hi,
I have owned the camera for about a month now, and if it is used correctly gives fabulous video. I have experimented with many different programs using my apple duo core computer. My best results have been by downloading into image browser and editing the movie (simple editing) through the movie edit option under the edit menu.. Make sure and save the movie with the advanced option and use 30 fps and 1280/720 resolution with the stereo settings. I save the movie to the desktop. What you do next determines the final outcome.... I make dvd's or send the movie to apple tv. Either way I use Visual Hub (which can be purchased for about $23.00 on line) Bring up the program and import the movie into it from the desktop. If you are making a movie to show on your hi def tv use the itunes box and check apple tv and h.264 encoding and send to ITunes.
This will put the movie directly onto your apple tv. If you cut a dvd (like I do) bring up the dvd box in Visual Hub and check off author as DVD and Burn DVD when done. I get wonderful videos on my 60" 1080i hd tv and the dvd's look great! I tried other programs such as MPEG Streamclip and the results were not good.
When I first bought the camera the results with other programs were so bad I thought I would return it. After experimenting I can now say that I love it. I bought a 8gb Kingston sdhc card with a sdhc reader and it works great. I would be very interested in other peoples experiences.
Keep in mind that the editing program that comes with the camera is very limited, but it does what I need it to do. It will not make chapters on a dvd and will start the dvd as soon as it is inserted. But, it will divide the various clips in the movie and you can jump forward or back to those clips.
Stephen: Since you are on a Mac, have you tried iMovie HD? My very quick experience was that it seemed to work, but I didn't dive in enough to get a full impression.
iMovie HD seems to work well, although it does transcode the video into HDV format, which I found did degrade the quality at least a little bit. Shouldn't be anything to worry about really, especially when you consider all the effects and titles you can do in iMovie.
I purchased mine in HK last week for approx £220.
I find the ergonomics OK, the wide angle could be wider, I could forgo some of the telephoto happily for that but otherwise am very happy with it.
Can anyone tell me what the largest SDHC card is I can use in this? I see 8Gb cards are now available. I only got the basic manual in English, the rest were in Chinese so I'm downloading the English Advanced User manual to peruse now!
Cancel myt SDHC Card query, just found your compatibility table!
I bought Sony Vegas movie studio, but it can not see the AVI files. Is any fix possible?. Henry.
I have recently bought the TX1.
What is the easiest wat to get the video from my computer onto cd/dvd.
Do I need certain software as my Windows XP software will not do it.
Cheers, Ted.
Got the TX1 7 days ago.B4 that I couldn't decide between TX1 and Sanyo's CG65.The only reason I stopped for a while for the CG65 is only becoz it can take almost 4 times
video than TX1 (640x480 mode).Then I asked myself "will I take 1 hour non stop video or I got chance to take that long", the answer is obviously "NO".Somemore the price for CG65 in my city (Kualar Lumpur Malaysia)is RM1600(=US$400) and I paid RM1620(=US$436) for my TX1.So with HD available,10X zoom,sure better quality images,and in near future (I believe) the 16GB or even 32GB SDHC should be on the market with very very cheap price...then I can take more video with the big fat MJPEG.One thing alos very important the CG65 plastic shell makes it like a kiddy toy, compared to TX1 Metal look body,a very cheap feeling when u hold the CG65.And I am also not satisfied with the zoom button on CG65,v hard to press.
So far TX1 satisfied me well.Only thing left me to do is going to buy another thirty party NB-4L battery,the ori battery can only last for less than 1 hour for playing around.I checked on ebay there are plenty of NB-4L replacement battery for sale,reason able price for 1 piece is only around US$5,the ori battery is US$45.
P/S When I take video and also snap some shots, the video came out jam for 1 second for that moment.I am using Toshiba 4GB Class 4 SDHC.Anybody got this problem?Or Clss 6 can solve it? Thx
For some reason when I watch these videos they run in "slow motion." The audio is normal, but the video is moving slowly. The audio ends and the video keeps going until it reaches the end a few seconds later. I don't have this problem when watching videos from my digital camera. I have a new computer with a fast processor and video card, I'm watching in Windows Media Player 11. Anybody know why this is?
Hey there fellow TX1 users? As a digital camera novice, it's been a real challenge for me to interpret the users manual that came with the camera when I bought it. Can someone recommend an easier to read, more user-friendly instruction manual? Or is there such a thing? Many thanks.
Harry L.
Anybody, besides me, have a problem with getting a black blank spot in your video if you snap a still while recording video?
anyone know anything on whether a tx2 will be released? i really like the tx1 from what ive read and seen but ive had bad experiences with electronics being upgraded right after i buy them.
I would wait. Here in Canada a major electronics chain has the TX1 foe $350 on Boxing Week. Sure sign that a new model is coming (hopefully with h.264).
Thanks for the Blog info - could anyone tell me why I can't play the 720 HD video in anything but the Microsoft Media Player?
This camera is a little beauty! Stills are great - zoom is too - g_d be thanked for digic III! ;-)
Has anyone else tried recording video at a loud rock concert with the TX1. I did recently using manual audio lowered substantially but still got distorted audio. Anyone have any tips to pad the audio so it doesn't overmodulate? I kind of expected the audio to not be great in loud enverionments, but had hoped the manual audio levels would help.
can you use an external mic?
Nice blog! I just bought the TX1 and given the size and uses, the video looks great on my 50" Sony HD. Given that, here are the issues I can't resolve. I am a Windows XP user:
Playing the videos using the TX1 into the Sony look great. However, I would like to edit,save, and share them via some external device with others in HD format. I can use my Ulead 11Plus program to work the files without a hitch, but the output is - not- HD (of course)to a burned DVD. I am not interested in showing and sharing SD video after seeing HD video.
Has anyone come up with a device/method to store and view edited raw TX1 MJPEG footage IN HD without using the TX1 for playback? (Using Windows for the process?)
The only solution (and this is $$$)I can imagine would work would be a portable hard drive with USB/SDHC card reader with component or HDMI outputs. However, that would require additional software to manipulate the stored video files.
Perhaps I am making this much too tough, or there just is no easy solution to sharing HD videos from the TX1.
I would appreciate any help to fully make use of this ideal video camera. Sharing the HD video footage in HD is the goal.
Thanks, JG
You're on the right track with the multimedia disk drive. Yes you would need to get the video off the TX1 and into Windows, edit it, or at least convert it to another format such as Windows Media, or H.264. The TX1 MJPEG format is a little unwieldy so those other formats, whilst able to retain the HD quality, will have smaller file sizes.
Load the completed movie onto an external multimedia hard drive and plug that into an HDTV using HDMI for playback. Another option would be to get a video player like an Archos for portability.
You might encounter the odd TV that has an SD slot in it which may be able to play back the movie directly.
The ultimate solution, for your place anyway, would be to setup a home theatre PC using Windows Media edition. I have a similar setup using a Mac Mini and can playback the HD files on my TV moments after downloading them from the camera.
I just put in a Transcend SDHC
16 GB flash card, which I hope was the right choice. The only beef I have is how long it takes between snapshots. Any way to speed things up. You need a PhD to understand the owner's manual.
Thanks Matt Tavani...for your input. I did set up a Media computer and it is working great for storing and showing video. I need to look into the program you mention for Windows to make it more user friendly.
Couple of other questions please.
The TX1 can record up to 4GB maximum without a break. If I have an 8GB card in the camera and continue recording without stopping and restarting, does the camera actually exit the recording mode and must be restarted, or does it just continue and automatically create a new file? I want to use it at the race track and the track sessions are longer than 15 minutes so I can't stop to hit the record button. Also, how are the 16MB cards working in the camera? Anyone have any experience with them?
Thanks in advance,
John
Hi Matt,
Excellent blog. I made a decision to buy TX1. I cant find any U.K seller. Canon UK said no warranty in UK for this model.
Where did you get the camera from? Are there any warranty issues as mentioned by Canon?
I bought the TX1 off eBay from Hong Kong. There was no official UK coverage for the warranty so I also purchased an after market warranty from the seller which covers it internationally. I haven't needed to use it yet so I am not sure how good they are. Matt
This is a wonderful blog.You can easily get in depth detail about canon camera charger.
Hello, search to buy Canon TX1 : where to buy or seller ? I am filmaker in France Paris. Box TX1 new or used correct for movie HD. Message contact.marcou@yahoo.fr possible find TX1 in France ? cordialy, marc
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