Compared to... Panasonic DMC-TZ3

The TX1 is something of an oddity and has little in the way of direct competition in the DSC market (similar models from Sanyo and Panasonic are marketed much more as solid state camcorders that happen to be able to shoot stills). For this review we'll look at the studio comparison shots alongside the Panasonic TZ3 - the nearest we can find to a direct competitor. It too is a very compact camera with a 10x stabilized zoom and point 'n' shoot simplicity. We've included studio comparisons at each camera's lowest and highest ISO setting, plus ISO 400 and ISO 800.

Studio scene comparison (TX1 @ ISO 80, TZ3 @ ISO 100)

  • Canon PowerShot TX1 : Program AE mode, ISO 80, Default Image Parameters,
    Manual white balance, +0.33 EV compensation
  • Panasonic DMC-TZ3: Program AE mode, ISO 100, Default Image Parameters,
    Manual white balance, +0.33 EV compensation
  • Lighting: Daylight simulation, >98% CRI
Canon PowerShot TX1
Panasonic DMC-TZ3
ISO 80, 1/60 sec, F4.5
ISO 100, 1/80 sec, F4.4
2,801 KB JPEG
3,396 KB JPEG

Squeezing a 10x zoom into such a small space means that you can't expect miracles, yet Canon has done a surprisingly good job here. Yes there's distortion (much more so than the Panasonic), and yes there's a little fringing and a touch of jagginess to fine diagonals, but the overall quality is considerably better than we expected. Detail and sharpness is excellent, and noise is a non-issue. Aside from slightly cool reds color is also very good.