Pixiq

Now that the manufacturers seem to have settled on 16 as nice round number for compact camera megapixelage, the battle-lines are being redrawn around camera size. So bring on Sony’s 12.2mm deep (that’s excluding the lens cover, by the way) Cyber-shot TX55. As of today, it holds the title of world’s thinnest compact camera. And seeing what’s been happening with the mirror-less cameras, I’m giving it, ooh, about a week, before someone else claims an even smaller camera.

If you want its full dimensions, they come in at 92.9mm x 54.4mm x 13.2mm including lens cover. It weighs about 94g. And it comes only in black. (Henry Ford would be pleased.)

Seeing as full HD video is now standard on a camera and having more scene modes than you actually know when to use them is par for the course (the TX55 has 36, including twilight and portrait with anti-blink function, by the way), not to mention that touch-screens are becoming de rigueur, what does this one have to make it stand out, aside from its diminutive proportions?

There's the touch-screen. Can't really miss it, can you?

Well, if 3D is your thing – and we’re all aware that it definitely isn’t mine – it can take 3D still images and 3D sweep panoramas that you can then enjoy on your 3D TV (presumably also made by Sony).

It accepts common-or-garden MicroSD or SDHC memory cards, as well as Memory Stick Micro.

Naturally you get your in-camera picture effects toys, with a range of seven to tickle your fancy: HDR painting, rich-tone monochrome, miniature, toy camera, partial colour, pop colour and soft high-key.

Sony reckons that the TX55 can achieve dSLR-like quality pictures with its new ‘superior auto’ function, too. Apparently it’s able to recognise a heap of different shooting situations and adjusts the exposure and other settings to produce more professional-looking images with low noise and high dynamic range. Hmm.

Super-slim sideways-shot

So that you can employ all of its 10× zoom capability without loss of any of the 16 megapixels of resolution, Sony has introduced Clear Image Zoom. You get 5× optical zoom and then ‘by pixel super resolution’ processing kicks in to give you up to 10× zoom.

But the real question is – or at least my question is – how good will image quality be, especially at full zoom, given the dinkiness of the camera? We’ve already seen in reviews of other mini-snappers that blur is a serious issue when they’re so tiny. Sony has introduced additional optical image stabilisation to help with handshake, as well as Optical SteadyShot Active Mode to help when you’re shooting HD video; will it be sufficient?

We’ll find out in September this year, when it makes it into the shops.