Powerful pocket cam

Amazing engineering feat by Canon for squeezing a 28-336mm equiv. f/3.4-5.6 lens into a 155g pocketable mini cam. Beautiful red finish, nice quality battery door/micro-SD door, and metal tripod mount. Made in Japan. The lens is surprisingly low in barrel or pincushion distortion, and sharp enough for what I've seen so far (I've had this camera for just a few weeks now, so still discovering all of its capabilities and quirks).

Startup is a little on the slow side, but I disagree with other online reviews that this model feels sluggish. I find even in low light shooting indoors, the only constraints I have are my subject moving when I'm trying to use a slow shutter speed, not a camera/autofocus issue. In daily use, I never notice a lag, and flash recycle is also noticeably fast.

Holding this model is comfortable, despite being quite square. The back lower right corner is beveled for comfort while holding. Optical image stabilizer does a fantastic job of subduing hand-shake especially while composing at full optical zoom. This does get finger prints a bit easily, but I keep a microfiber cloth with in my little Lowepro compact camera case and it helps keep it looking clean.

Image quality so far has been wonderful - contrasty and saturated, not overly so, with lots of user-customization. I like the portrait rendering, flash/available light. I do notice some "faults" like vignetting at some focal lengths, luminance noise, and soft extreme corners, but I find that to never detract, and give the images an honesty to them. I'd rather noise than detail being overpowered by noise reduction.

Other pluses of this camera are high quality videos with stereo sound, optical zoom during recording (though it does produce noise, I love being able to track my subject via zoom during filming and edit later), and MANY user-customizable options to get the exact look you want.

Overall, this is still very new to me (I normally shoot with a Panasonic Lumix TS1 for my compact needs, or a Canon SX 40 HS for birding), I think this may pass the test for exactly what I'm looking for to take with me on my trip to Japan. Very compact, (micro) SD is compatible with my SD to iPhone connecter for quick downloading, zoom range is flexible enough for arms-length selfies with friends or zooming in on surprisingly far subjects, minimal distortion, and really nice color and contrast.

Cons for me really are just the battery could last longer, though I really don't think it's quite as bad as other reviewers make it out to be - I've taken multiple video sessions/photos out on a hike and still had juice left. I keep a spare in my camera case. Also, I get that micro-SD is finicky to handle, but once you get the hang of it, it's fine, plus if that's what enables this camera to be so compact, so be it. I'm not crazy about the Playback button being on top of the camera. The button arrangement overall does take some getting used to, coming from a typical Canon SX40 HS button arrangement, but most importantly, exposure comp, flash settings, and basic user customizable settings are still quickly accessible and the rest I'm getting used to. Overall a SOLID choice for a daily driver digital compact

Program - Positive Film mode, Cloudy White Balance

Program - Positive Film mode, Cloudy White Balance

Program - Positive Film mode, Cloudy White Balance

Auto Mode

jjon, thanks for the comprehensive review. The Alpha 520 HS certainly seems to pack a lot of punch in a small size.

My own Go-To pocket camera for many years was another diminutive Canon. Released five years before the 520, the TX1is only the size of a pack of cards, and is used in a pistol grip fashion. With a very robust metal body, into which the lens would completely retreat, behind a solid metal shield. From other peoples' experience, I understand it could withstand a drop onto concrete with only a scratch to show - though using the wrist strap alleviated that!

Its main disadvantages were a small (1.8"), low resolution (115,000 pixels) LCD screen: diminutive controls which some apparently fat-fingered impatient reviewers appeared unwilling to learn to use; and poor performance in dim light. But the screen did swivel, so could be held overhead to shoot over a crowd, or at ankle height without the need to lay on the ground, or around corners, or any crevices in machinery, etc. I could get my arm into, to get a shot of whatever was otherwise out of sight.

Despite the DPR's review statement that its macro focus range was 10cm, it would focus right down to the front of the lens - though that was of little use except for closeups of computer screens.

The zoom range, 39-390mm could also be increased, by x 1.9 (apparently by means of an internal lens shift ?) to a maximum of 741mm, with minimal deterioration, though with such a light weight, it was hard to use handheld at that range.

Stockholm's Stadhuset (Town Hall) tower, with the golden triple crown emblem is about 2.4 km distant. The Riddarholmskyrkan (Knight's Islet Church) unusual filigree spire is about 1.6 km away

Stockholm's Stadhuset (Town Hall) tower, with the golden triple crown emblem.

Close up shots could get very close...!

Notodontid (?) moth caterpillars (about 2 cm. long) on Eucalyptus leucoxylon spp

USA 5 cent coin

Computer screen with lens surround touching the screen

And because it was easy to select individual video frames, that proved a simple way to take acceptable shots of moving subjects.

A frame from a VGA video shot handheld

Cairo traffic. Bumper to bumper with jaywalkers, cars, trucks, busses, donkey carts, camels, tucktucks, cats, and horns. A frame from a VGA video shot handheld through a taxi window

Grandchildren's sport

And having such a small, versatile, with me all the time allowed me to snap pictures of almost anything that took my fancy - so long as the light was good.

When I snapped this, I didn't see the small Green Huntsman spider at the top right, nor the fly at the upper left.

jjon_andrew wrote: Wow! Beautiful work, thank you so much for sharing That is such a unique design! I could see the distinct advantage shooting in a variety of scenarios!

That's a pretty impressive zoom range too. Now I'm going to have to hunt for a TX1!

Thanks Dijon. They seem to have been a limited production, and not marketed in Europe , where they would be levied customs duties as a video recorder. Also, one of mine died some years ago, and the remaining one frequently misbehaves.

My iPhone is a better camera than the TX1, though screen glare and limited zoom range mean I take a small Casio ZR800 when I travel - for its better anti glare capabilities and long zoom reach, as well as a reasonable backup in case of phone failure.

The TX1's swivel screen does, however excel for serreptitious sideways shots!

Somebody else came up with these shots of the TX1's Zoom range (in good light).

39 mm widest zoom

390 mm Full optical zoom

741 mm (full optical with x 1.9 converter set )

1560mm (full optical+4x digital zoom)