I picked this camera up to replace my wife’s oldsonydsc-txsomething. That camera had served her well for over 5 years and thought I would try out another SonyCybershotthat was of similar size.enter the tx9.
The tx9 had several of the same features as her old camera but the MP had been bumped up from 3.2 to 12.2 on the tx9. The tx9 also incorporated "3D" pictures, HDvideo recording, and panoramic shots.
The panomaric shots look really good. They general turn out very well and are much faster to do than taking multiple shots and trying to stitch them together myself with some photo editing software.
The video recording looks fantastic. The image is clear and consistent, no distortion. Audio is alright when using the mic from the camera.
Unfortunately, still images is what the camera is primarily used for and this camera completely and utterly fails at it. Most pictures turn out heavily distorted, almost like the camera is using a fish eye lens, except not proportionally throughout the whole image. It’ really only toward the top and bottom of the image that it happens. Several shots of friends and family made them appear to be coneheads. Unacceptable. My wife’s previous DSC didn’t do this to images.
Transferring images to your computer can be done with Sony’s PMB(Picture Motion Browser) software. The software is alright, but nothing fancy. I don’t spend a whole lot of time using it. The camera hooks up to the computer via a USB dock that does not charge the battery while it’s docked. ? Why is that? My wife has taken so many pictures and used the camera that in some cases when I didn’t charge the battery before transferring pictures, the camera dies in the middle of the transfer! What device these days cannot charge via a USB connection? Answer: the Sony DSC-TX9.
I would think Sony could have released some firmware updates for this camera to resolve the horrible still image quality and failure to charge the camera while docked but there is suprisingly no support for this camera - at least not that i’ve found.
Although this review comes out over a year after this camera came out, I hope it helps someone avoid purchasing this poor excuse for a camera in the future. Furthermore, I hope someone is able to test out future DSC-TX. before purchasing to hopefully save yourself hundreds of dollars.