Back in August we reported on the new Sony TX1 digital camera and its innovative add-on, the party shot base.

We’ve now had a week to run both devices through their paces so read on to see what we thought.

Specifications

The Sony TX1 is a compact 10.2 megapixel camera with a large screen and no optical viewfinder. The headline specifications are:

• 10.2 Megapixel “Exmoor R” CMOS sensor
• 4x optical zoom
• 3” touchscreen
• 10fps maximum shooting speed (burst for 10 shots)
• Optical image stabilisation
• “Sweep panorama” mode
• 720p HD Movie mode

Apart from the expected battery charger and USB cable Sony also include a wrist lanyard, TV connection cable and CD with PDF manual in the box.

In use

The lens of the TX1 is covered by a sliding door – opening this turns the camera on and gets it ready to shoot. The whole camera has a solid, well built feel about it and the smooth sliding action on the lens cover reinforces that.

All camera operations are controlled via menus presented on the 3” touchscreen. There are a variety of manual options possible, for example you can set the ISO and shooting parameters or tap the screen to select a focus point. In practice though the most useful setting is the “Intelligent Picture” mode which is what I left it on for the majority of the review.

This fully automatic mode is very impressive. The TX1 analyses the scene in front of it and selects one of its built in shooting programs, which it displays on the screen so you can see what’s going on. Wave it around outdoors and “Landscape” is chosen, move to a dimly lit building and you see “Twilight” mode selected. All very painless.

Optical image stabilisation works as advertised and you can choose whether to have it active all the time, or only as a photograph is taken. Having it active all the time means you get a steadier image on screen as you frame a shot but it does impact battery life. I’d leave it on because it does make a dramatic difference when zoomed in – if it worries you, you can always carry a spare battery.

The “Sweep Panorama” mode also seems to work well – you just press the shutter and turn around in a circle until the camera stops taking shots. A couple of seconds later you have a seamless panorama in your photo collection. It certainly beats spending hours stitching photos together with Hugin!

The photo on the right attempts to give a sense of scale by showing the camera against an Apple remote. It also shows the battery/memory stick door and tripod socket – an unexpected bonus and handy if you have a GorillaPod or other small travel tripod.

Picture Quality

Subjectively, picture quality is very good from what I could tell and the camera does better than most at low light/high ISO settings. Unfortunately mother nature conspired to make it difficult for me to get out and take any photos during my testing period so the gallery is a little bare – I did get a representative sample of the panorama mode though. I can’t spot the join!

Party-shot base

Available as an optional extra, the Party Shot base is a robotic moving platform that enables the camera to spin and tilt, taking photographs automatically.

When plugged into the base the camera enters a fully automatic mode using its built in smile and face detection features to scan the room looking for pictures of happy, grinning people. When it finds one it takes a photo.

You can control the degree of freedom that the base has to rotate (90, 180 or 360 degrees) so you can put it in a corner and not have it take photos of the wall. You can also choose how often it takes photos and one of 3 different criteria to determine how “smiling” people should be before they’re included. Its all fully automatic so you can just turn it on and walk away.

That’s the idea anyway. In practice I found a few hiccups – firstly, it seemed to have problems recognising people wearing glasses. Given that 4 out of the 6 people in my sample group had glasses on it meant that the camera seemed to single out 2 people obsessively and keep them in the frame! Not always admittedly, but it certainly seemed to have a preference for the naked face.

Secondly the position of the party shot in the middle of a table made for some unflattering photos – the camera is effectively looking up peoples’ noses!

To be fair the party-shot has a tripod screw thread in its base so you do have a lot of freedom in where you position it – a table top tripod would probably have made things look a lot different.

I’d say it works as advertised if you have a need for that sort of thing (I can imagine it being a fun addition to the table cameras at weddings) but in practice it would be hard to find a use for it in everyday life. 

Conclusion

I liked the TX1 – the small size and good automatic mode means it’s easy to just drop it in your pocket and take out for quick photos without thinking about settings. At an RRP of £299, Sony aren’t giving it away though and you’re undoubtedly paying a premium for the technology.

That said, the TX1 does its job well so if you want a stylish, pocket friendly digital camera with a good range of features you should put it on the shortlist.