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Gadgets Canon Announces Five New Consumer Cameras
Brandon Hill (Blog) - February 22, 2007 8:57 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 23 comment(s) - last by alifbaa.. on Feb 22 at 11:40 PM

PowerShot A570 IS

PowerShot SD750 Digital Elph

PowerShot TX1
Canon expands its consumer camera portfolio

While Canon's new professional-level 10.1 megapixel 1D Mark III D-SLR may be hogging much of the spotlight this morning, the company also has five new consumer models on tap.

First up are the new PowerShot A570 IS and the PowerShot A560. Both cameras feature 7.1MP image sensors, DIGIC III image processor, 4x optical zoom, 2.5" 115k pixel LCD display and Canon's new Face Detection AF/AE/FE technology. The A570 IS ups the ante by including Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The A570 IS and A560 will both be available in March at a price of $279.99 and $229.99 respectively.

Next up is Canon's PowerShot SD1000 Digital Elph and PowerShot SD750 Digital Elph. The cameras both include a 7.1MP image sensor, DIGIC III image processor and 3x optical zoom. The SD750 offers up a 3" LCD display, weighs less than five ounces and measures 3.5" x 2.25" x 0.75". The 4.5 ounce SD1000 includes a 2.5" screen and is smaller than a deck of playing cards. The SD750 and SD1000 will both be available in late March at a suggest retail price of $349.99 and $299.99 respectively.

Lastly, Canon showed off its new PowerShot TX1 which doubles as a digital camera and an HD video recorder. The 3.5" x 2.4" x 1.1" TX1 features a 7.1MP image sensor backed with Canon's DIGIC III processor and 10x optical zoom with image stabilization. It also incorporates a 1.8" Vari-Angle LCD display into its 7.8 ounce stainless steel body. The added bonus is that the TX1 can capture 30 FPS high definition 720p video.

"We developed the PowerShot TX1 digital camera for people who appreciate its vast technological advances in both still and movie digital imaging and developed one, very compact, very powerful, very easy to use camera that provides high-resolution still images and HD movie capabilities as well," said Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager of the Consumer Imaging Group for Canon U.S.A.. "The PowerShot TX1 digital camera is the fulfillment of Canon's innovative thinking and vision that mixes the best of photography and video features like never before."

The PowerShot TX1 will be available in March for a suggested retail price of $499.

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Bummed about the Elphs
By retrospooty on 2/22/2007 10:30:17 AM , Rating: 3
Since the SD 700IS came out, there have been 4 newer ones (SD800IS, SD900, SD750 and SD1000) and none of them have much, if any improvements.
SD750 lost zoom from 4x to 3x and lost image stabilization (at least it gaines a larger LCD)
SD800IS list a bit of Zoom (ok, only from 4x to 3.8x but still, it should be equal or better not lower)

SD900 lost zoom from 4x to 3x and lost image stabilization it gaines a few megapix, but 10 meg over 7 is largely useless.
SD1000 same as SD900, but only 7 megapix. I cant even understand this one at all. Its just an SD 600 with one more megapixel.




RE: Bummed about the Elphs
By randomlinh on 2/22/2007 12:06:56 PM , Rating: 2
I think you've confused the lines... the SD800IS is the successor to the 700IS, the SD750, is the successor to the SD630.

Actually, the problem is the insane naming scheme canon has going on.. heh


RE: Bummed about the Elphs
By retrospooty on 2/22/2007 2:52:51 PM , Rating: 3
I am very familiar with the lines. I know the 800IS is the succesor to the 700IS... My point remaint the same. They are putting out newer camera's with lesser features, and not making any real improvements lately.

dont get me wrong, I love Canon's camera's. I was just hoping for some new and interesting EPLH products with better features.


RE: Bummed about the Elphs
By ninethirty on 2/22/2007 4:52:11 PM , Rating: 2
The 800is improved over the 700is by having a wide-angle lens and the DIGIC III processor, instead of the 700's DIGIC II.
As a consequence of having a 28mm lens instead of 32mm, the zoom ratio is a bit lower. There are also some questions over how much the DIGIC III really helps; the last review I saw found more compression artifacts for the 800is. The wider lens caused a bit more edge softness too, so you could argue that the 800is was really a lateral move from the 700is.
Pity that there are no new IS Elphs announced; I'd like to see a successor to the 800is.


RE: Bummed about the Elphs
By retrospooty on 2/22/2007 6:01:06 PM , Rating: 3
"I'd like to see a successor to the 800is."

Agreed.


RE: Bummed about the Elphs
By Larso on 2/22/2007 4:33:09 PM , Rating: 2
Why all that focus on zoom abilities? I'd trade a 2x zoom over a 4x zoom any day, if the 2x had better edge to edge sharpness and general performance in its smaller range. I rarely use the 3x zoom at all with my current IXUS.


RE: Bummed about the Elphs
By arswihart on 2/22/07, Rating: 0
TX1 looks nice!
By BPB on 2/22/2007 9:07:38 AM , Rating: 2
If that TX1 gets good reviews I'm all over it. Seems like a steal for the money though, there's gotta be a catch. Maybe it's video length is short?




RE: TX1 looks nice!
By RogueSpear on 2/22/2007 11:33:00 AM , Rating: 2
There's no mention of the storage medium but my guess would be it uses SD. If it's compatible with the SDHC standard you could plop in a 4GB (or higher) card. But with 30fps 720p I'm still not sure how much that would give you. They don't mention the compression format either.

But yea I would agree with you, that thing looks pretty sweet for the price.


RE: TX1 looks nice!
By acejj26 on 2/22/2007 11:35:02 AM , Rating: 2
At 720P, it can only hold 13 minutes of footage on a 4 GB card. :(

Also, I find it weird that the camera captures video in 720P, yet the camera has component video out that puts out a 1080i signal.


RE: TX1 looks nice!
By alifbaa on 2/22/2007 1:21:28 PM , Rating: 2
1080i has the same bandwidth requirements as 720p. I have no idea, but I'd be willing to bet the camera has the ability to produce 1080i or 720p, and it just wasn't mentioned here. Which format is better is a matter of considerable debate and is most likely a matter of personal choice. What is best is clearly 1080p, which is difficult to produce over component output (e.g. xbox360). This is why the HDMI 1.3 spec laid out a mini HDMI connection, so that cameras will eventually be able to give 1080p functionality. I saw a few future 1080p consumer cameras in action when I was in Tokyo in September at Sony's Headquarters. I'm not a big Sony fan, but under those controlled conditions they were producing fantastic pictures. The models were projected to retail at $1500-$2500 if am remembering and doing the currency conversion math correctly.


RE: TX1 looks nice!
By Milliamp on 2/22/2007 6:24:33 PM , Rating: 2
I have heard that 720p can be natively converted to 1080i and vice versa (no lossy conversion or number filling needed).

Can anyone confirm this?


RE: TX1 looks nice!
By alifbaa on 2/22/2007 10:57:04 PM , Rating: 2
I don't think that would be possible. 720P is a 720x1024 image once every 1/29.97th of a second. 1080i is 540x1920 once every 1/60th of a second with each image interlacing to produce one perceived 1080x1920 frame every 1/30th of a second. I don't know how you could change from one to the other without some sort of processing that would introduce at least a little noise.

Getting back to what I said earlier, I'm not sure you would want to if you could. Many people would tell you that 1080i does not appear as sharp as 720p. Others will tell you 720p does not look as good on large screens as 1080i. I honestly don't think it matters one way or the other. They both look good to me. 1080p is what looks sharp and gives great detail on a large screen. It ends the debate completely.

Come to think of it, companies like Farroudja make money by licensing an algorithm to do that processing in a better way than most. I'm going to go ahead and say that absolutely lossless conversion from one format to the other is not possible.

That's not to say you can't do it and come very close to a lossless conversion. It's also not to say you would or wouldn't want to convert it if you could.

Hope that helps.


RE: TX1 looks nice!
By alifbaa on 2/22/2007 11:40:09 PM , Rating: 2
correction. 720P is 720x1280 not 720x1024.


By chucky2 on 2/22/2007 6:20:18 PM , Rating: 2
...instead of boosting MP counts to basically useless levels...

The first P&S that can rival prosumer D-SLR's like a D70/D70s and that has a wide angle plus decent zoom, will be a wildly popular seller.

Until then, all these releases are just smoke and mirrors...

Chuck




By KorruptioN on 2/22/2007 10:37:45 PM , Rating: 2
Fuji F30.


By alifbaa on 2/22/2007 11:08:40 PM , Rating: 4
You won't ever get the quality of an SLR out of a point and shoot camera. The reason for this is two-fold.

First, the lenses on point and shoot cameras are so much smaller than SLR lenses that it is physically impossible to get the kind of refinement and detail out of the lens compared to what you can get out of the bigger piece of
glass the SLRs will always have. Even if technology improves to somehow overcome the laws of physics, those improvements will be given to the SLRs just the same as P+S, which will only make the SLR's picture better still.

The second reason is that P+S cameras have much smaller sensors than D-SLRs. Even on D-SLRs, many art photographers and art reproducers still use film because very few D-SLRs have full frame sensors. There are color accuracy reasons too, but ignoring that, the smaller sensors make imperfections in the optics all the more noticeable.

Applied to P+S, you have a sensor about 25% the size of an SLR, and a lens 25% the size of the SLR, you will always get lower quality. You simply cannot fix that without increasing your camera size. You can make improvements, but it will never, ever be as good.


Links swapped
By peldor on 2/22/2007 9:10:39 AM , Rating: 2
You've got the links for the A series and the SD series swapped.




Canon naming out of control?
By abakshi on 2/22/2007 3:33:09 PM , Rating: 2
I love the Digital Elph series and own several myself, but honestly, what's up with the naming system?

Why is the SD1000 called that? It has a 7.1 MP CCD and is down on several features versus all the other high-end Elphs. The point seems to be the compact design, but why call it the SD1000 (thereby implying that it's top-of-the-line model)?

Also, why do they have such a mixed bag of features? Why isn't IS standard on all the upper-level Elphs, along with higher-res CCDs (like the SD900's 10.0 MP) and 4.0x optical zoom? I just don't see the sense in having some with IS, some with higher-res, and some with better optical zoom.




SD1000 is Sexy!
By ISAslot on 2/22/2007 6:52:50 PM , Rating: 2
Wow! I've been waiting for this tiny box shaped simplistic design! Yum!




Vista ready yes....but..
By suryad on 2/22/07, Rating: -1
RE: Vista ready yes....but..
By arswihart on 2/22/2007 8:05:07 PM , Rating: 1
sigh...excuse me while i go kill myself


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