To my eye the footage looks a bit too grainy for my taste, but then what did I expect at that maximum bit rate of 4.48Mbps? Heck, HDV runs at 25Mbps and even it doesn't look perfect. A strange phenomenon we noticed was that the audio is out of sync when playing the file on Windows Media Player but plays back perfectly on a Mac using QuickTime. – Charlie White

Download AVI file here

It's almost too tiny, and with its foldout viewscreen giving you a 16:9 look at whatever it is you're shooting, it's hard to tell what's going on. Even so, it's a substantial-feeling camera, and gives the impression of a precision piece of engineering. We shot some 720p footage with this little sucker, and will attempt to manipulate and edit it later on our Vegas adventure.

But for now, our feelings about this diminutive bauble are overwhelmingly positive, and were highly impressed with the Canon PowerShot TX-1 after a lengthy session of shooting with it and generally getting a feel for its capabilities. – Charlie White

They check the Panasonic LX2 off the list early, because the $386 camera can only shoot 15 frames per second, resulting in jerky video which seemed like an afterthought to the camera's still photography capabilities. They decry the low-light performance of the $600 Xacti HD1A, and applaud the 84-minute recording time on a 4GB flash drive of the $700 Xacti HD2, preferring it over the $500 Canon TX1 with its 13-minute shot limit.

Our take?

Evaluating spec lists is one thing and perfectly valid as far as that goes, but it's hard to assess the quality of these cameras compared to Canon's PowerShot TX1 without actually seeing any of their video. We can't wait to assess the vid-quality of that latest Canon hybrid, and will get a close-up hands-on and eyes-on demo at next week's PMA convention in Las Vegas.

That said, we're thinking there aren't a whole lot of situations where you'd need a shot that's longer than 13 minutes (recording a speech or a press conference, perhaps?). Recording 26 minutes of 720p on an 8GB flash card? We'll take it, even if it takes two separate shots to do it. Will its lightly-compressed motion jpeg video quality top the Xacti's highly compressed MPEG4? We'll see.

At the same time, that Sanyo Xacti HD2 is no slouch, either, and its low-light performance has been substantially improved over that of its predecessor. Expect to see its price dropping to match that of the Canon entry, with both of them fighting it out in the next few months along with more entries from other manufacturers to come. – Charlie White

The New Frontier: High Definition Video Comes to Digital Cameras. We Pick The Best Buy [Digital Camera HQ]

The camera has component outputs for playing that 720p footage on an HDTV, and its MovieSnap feature also lets you grab frames from the HDTV footage for use as stills. It looks like Canon didn't skimp on the still-camera capabilities, either, helping you hold its retractable 10x optical zoom lens steady with optical image stabilization that shifts the lens to compensate for unwanted camera movement.

Take the jump for pricing on the TX1, as well as more high-rez pictures:

Canon's $499.99 price for the TX1 is apparently aimed to undercut the $699 Sanyo Xacti HD2 flash-based HD camcorder, while both have the same megapixel count and 10x zoom lenses. Canon says the TX1 will ship next month. – Charlie White

Press Release [Canon USA, Inc.]