Snowboard Camera Review: Sony Cybershot TX1

Intended Purpose: The Sony Cybershot is a compact digital camera that fits in the pocket easily and offers a variety of features beneficial to snowboarding.  I bought the cybershot to replace my Casio Exilim camera which broke at Mt Hood this summer so since then the cybershot has been my main camera.  It has a touchscreen and does the sweep panorama which makes awesome pictures come together easily.  According to Sony the features are, “3” touch screen, “Exmor R” sensor, Sweep Panorama Mode, 10fps at full 10.2MP, Anti-Motion Blur / Handheld Twilight, HD movie mode (720p), Optical SteadyShot™, 9 Scene Detection iAuto mode, 4x optical zoom”

Size: The cybershot is the perfect size for fitting in your pockets or snowboard pants.  It’s dimensions are W x H x D: 93.8mm x 58.2mm x 16.5mm (3 3/4″ x 2 3/8″ x 21/32″) and weighs only 119g (4.2oz).  It’s lightweight and easy to carry around if you take it out to the bars.  I like the size so that I can hold it in my palm snowboarding, get some shots and then put it away quickly.

Ease of Use: For the most part I charge the camera every couple days and this summer when I used it at Hood it only required every couple days despite using it everyday.  I like that I pull down the cover and that helps protect it easily on the mountain versus my old casio where the lens came out and it it was put back in my pocket with the lens like that, it would break it.  This works better than I thought for the mountain.  I can easily change between the settings using the touchscreen but it also requires taking off the gloves to get it to change quicker.

Durability: Other than one dent on the side and a bunch of scratches, it’s held up great for wear and tear on the slopes and dirty summer snowboarding. I’ve dropped it a couple times on the ground and in the snow but nothing major has gone wrong with it.  I haven’t noticed any issues in major cold conditions but will be testing that more this winter.

Features: This is what Sony says, “Sporting an ultra-thin body, a 3” touch screen and phenomenal imaging technology, the Cyber-shot® DCS-TX1 digital camera delivers high-quality photos (and 720p HD video) in high-fashion style. A Carl Zeiss® Vario-Tessar® lens and our new “Exmor R” CMOS Sensor works in combination with the BIONZ™ image processor for super-fast processing to make it easy to get the best shot. You can now shoot 10 frames per second at an incredible 10.2 megapixels per shot— perfect for those hard-to-get moments. You can even shoot beautiful landscape shots with ease and capture clear photos when you’re in dark environments. Not sure which mode to use in challenging lighting conditions? Let the Intelligent Auto (iAuto) Mode choose the setting for you.”

The reason I bought the camera was because of the megapixels so I get good quality in quick moments and the frames per second.  I wanted a camera that could shoot sequence and capture the moment on the mountain.  I also enjoy using the video camera and the panoramic sweep is so rad, makes life a lot easier than stitching together images and just using one shot to get the whole panoramic view.  I usually let the mode choose the shot for me but am still playing with it on the mountain.

Thoughts: I bought this camera in a rush this summer but I soon found out I made a great choice.  It was a little bit more than I wanted for price but all the features it came with explained why it was a solid choice.  Since then it’s been my main camera so much that I have even stopped bringing my canon rebel with multiple lenses places because I know this little tiny camera will get most of the action when I need it.  Every day on the slopes it’s fit into my pocket and been there to capture the moments.

One of the hard things about picking out a camera is knowing what will work on the slopes.  So far I’ve been completely happy with how it handles in the mountains.  There are times when I think the color doesn’t capture what I see but that could also be me not using a setting right so working on that.  So far for ease it’s made my blogging and snowboarding time easier not having to deal with issues from a camera.  I’m also enjoying the touchscreen more than I thought, flipping through pictures and quickly changing settings from the main screen is easy and the screen is durable so far.  Of course we’ll see how long this camera lasts me but I’m really happy with it so far.

Sony Cybershot

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Pictures the Sony Cybershot has taken

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Video I’ve taken with it

Kelly Clark Bag Jump at Windells Camp from Shayboarder on Vimeo.

Review Disclosure: I bought this from Best Buy.