Monday
Feb262007
OK, maybe this is your new crash cam
Monday, February 26, 2007 at 9:25PM The Canon PowerShot TX1, announced pre-PMA in that weird way that they do. From the press release:
The versatile PowerShot TX1 digital camera helps users to shoot home movies that can look like the next Hollywood blockbuster while recording CD quality Stereo Sound, in 44 KHz. In fact, consumers can take full advantage of the 10x optical zoom lens and image stabilization while shooting movies, which is a rare feature in most digital cameras. In addition to recording widescreen 720p HD movies at a rate of 30 fps for stunning High Definition clarity, the TX1 digital camera shoots high-quality VGA (640 x 480 pixels) movies at 30 fps (in a traditional 4:3 aspect ratio) and has the option of shooting at 30 fps or 60 fps in the QVGA 320 x 240-pixel setting (also in 4:3 format).I love the 16:9 30p movies my Panasonic LX1 shoots, but I use them for previs and videomatics only. With this, maybe (big maybe) you could do a little more. I just wish I could somehow convince camera manufacturers to make a 24 (or even 25) p mode on these things!
Reader Comments (14)
OK, so 720p is great, but what codec? What datarate? How compressed is it? What's the price point?
MJpeg at 35Mbps for 499$. Compression remains to be seen.
Problem for Mac users is the .avi in the stats listed in the link. Quicktime is HORRIBLE with .avis. The sound doesn't come through, so you're stuck playing it off the device.
Once again, us Mac users get "SCREWED AT THE DRIVE THRU!"
It'd have to be something I see and play with. See if we can convert to a QT format.
.AVI is a "wrapper" format like .MOV, so saying all .AVIs lack sound on Macs can't be true.
A DiVX-based avi with an Ogg Vorbis or WMA soundtrack instead of native MPEG audio would probably have no sound in QT - and a lot of .AVIs mix and match codecs in non-standard ways. Quicktime won't handle them unless you have all the third-party codecs installed and working, which is not something I would expect most users to have.
I would think that Canon would use a non-standard AVI. The .AVIs that come from some of their previous still models that I've used were MJPEG with mono raw 8-bit audio.
In this case I'm sure they need to compress to keep the data-rate down so maybe it'll be moderately compressed audio, but it should be Mac-friendly. I'd get this fully confirmed before you assume that the AVI won't work for you.
We can probably get a little preview of the quality and compatibility of the AVIs from this prior example, a 1024x768, 15fps AVI from last year's Canon Powershot G7.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong7/page9.asp
Scroll down to Sample Movies.
Plays fine on my MBP, with sound. Looks pretty good but reminds me that the Achilles heel of these "movie modes" is always the lack of manual settings.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/digital-cameras/hybrid-camerascamcorders-compared-canon-tx1-vs-xacti-vs-lumix-240692.php
heres a good shootout review of the tx1 / xacti/lumix for comaprisons.
j
Why is 25 FPS so sought after?
Hi Nick,
Living in the states, I'd prefer 24, since that's the fps of movies here. But assuming that's too tall an order, I'd at least expect that the Euro versions of these cameras would shoot 25fps movies for compliance with PAL video. 25 is close enough to 24 to be useful to filmmakers—we used to shoot PAL DV before the advent of the DVX100 with its 24p mode.
My LX1 has a setting to output PAL video, but no option to shoot 25fps instead of 30, which makes me wonder what folks in PAL land are doing with their 30p movies. If anyone knows a way to hack these cameras to shoot 25p, please speak up!
hey dude, the link to the Orphanage Commercial page is broken. http://www.theorphanage.com/ocp/portfolio/director/1005
LOVE the DV Rebel book by the way!
You can delete this comment of course, just wanted to let you know about the broken link.
Cheers
Kroy
Hey Kroy,
Try the link without the www—not sure why:
http://theorphanage.com/ocp/portfolio/director/1005
Should work with the dubs too, I'll look into it.
Glad you're digging The Guide!
Thanks Stu. I'm a newbie trying to catch up by reading a lot, and your blog is very helpful.
From what I've understood, the reason 24/25p is sought after is that it gives a cinematic feel to it, and limits the video-feel. Right?
I agree with you that it's strange that this is still so rare on video cameras. very few high-end cams offer progressive scan at that. I wonder why that is.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/digital-cameras/canon-powershot-tx1-handson-720p-in-the-palm-of-your-hand-242537.php
heres a good hands on review. they also say they'll post some footage from it shortly.
j
http://curtisjoewalker.com/MVI_0001.AVI
heres a link to a 166mb .avi file of footage directly unedited off the flash card. apparently its data rate is maxed out at 4.48Mbps.
the sanyo HD2 is looking like a better crash cam potentially right now. although it is mpeg-4.