I stopped by a local dealer here the other day and saw a few trial clips and stills from the SX1 IS and have to agree with the poster above that the camera is unusable indoor under normal, moderate lighting. The video was very noisy showing big blobs of chroma and luma noises even in the highlight areas. The contrast and saturation were also poor. I bet Canon will never give any sensitivity stats on this cam because they will either be a lie or a very bad number! Not sure if the stabilizer is adequate at the tele positions as all the video was shot at the relatively wide positions.

Worse, the CAs in the high contrast scenes of both the video and stills were absolutely horrible at BOTH ends of the 20x zoom range with those present in the stills were particularly more obvious when viewed on a 20" LCD monitor at about 1650x1238 or less than actual size.

Can't comment on how the camera will do under bright, outdoor daylight. I suspect the noise issue would probably go away but the CAs could be worse.

Wacharapong

Thank you so much! I think this may explain why Canon withheld it from the huge USA market with its many review sources.

I was at CES yesterday and Canon had nothing to say about the SX1 IS.

Look at these reviews
PC World - Canon PowerShot SX1 IS - Reviews - Hardware - Digital Cameras - Advanced Compact Digital Cameras
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Canon's PowerShot SX1 IS is one of the best non-SLR units on the market. It is almost flawless in every regard, packs in every conceivable feature and even offers something new: 1080p video recording. If you are after an advanced camera, you need not look anywhere else.
>>>

Canon PowerShot SX1 IS Review - Digital Cameras

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The SX1 IS is really the ultimate bridge between a digital still and digital video camera. If you can bear to part with the cash, you won't be disappointed with the superb HD-video and image quality.
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Hmm. Unless Canon paid them to say this, it seems to be good. I wish someone could compare the Ex-F1 and SX1-IS side by side now..

SX1 Bit-Rate is about 43 Mbps
 

I just noticed that in an early post on this thread, I said something about the SX1 using only a 17 Mbps HD video encoding rate. That was clearly wrong, as it is about 2.5 times higher than that.

I've seen quite a few examples from it on Vimeo. As usual, the majority of them were haphazardly shot and tell you little about the camera's HD video potential. But, there are a few that look very good. I don't see this camera as being as bad in indoor light as some people have suggested. The slow lens, which would handicap both video and stills of fast-moving subjects, is its main drawback, in my thinking. It also tends to overexposure video on auto and the high bit-rate and editing difficulties with the format are deal-busters for me also. Maybe this is the Beta model and the one they'll release later in North America, will have all these problems resolved (wishful thinking).

Yes, but it's a complete different codec.

Also -- cnet and PCworld are not exactly experts at reviewing anything. I would give anything either says seriously. Wait for a review by Steves or other professionally run sites.

canon just announced the sx1 for the US market , if that makes any difference to the price of rice .

Noise Tests
 

Canon PowerShot SX1 IS review: High ISO Noise results, SX1 IS vs SX10 IS, SX1 IS vs 450D / XSi | Cameralabs
Compares with the XSi.
Even more important to have a full frame sensor like the 5D Mark II.

The 1080p30 can be edited natively by iMovie 09. The video looks VERY good.

Here's the Canon USA SX1 IS Webpage
 

Looking on Vimeo not seeing a lot of noise in the night shots (though not sure what rez it was shot at) and the fast-action 1080p (pan of a train going by) looks ok. No shutter roll. The sky is blownout though.

Can someone who owns this camera comment on the level of manual control while shooting video?

Can you set exposure and aperture manually while shooting video?

Contrary to what others were saying, this camera looks like it has a deep DOF, which makes sense given the sensor is 1/2.3".

Canon SX1 at PMA
 

Cute, but when shooting video you have NO control -- other than WB -- over image.

I could find no AR/AF lock button, and Canon rep claimed there isn't one. Which means exposure fluctuations. I think I remember AF can be switched to MF. I came to PMA think this was an interesting choice, but the video was way over saturated. I'd seen this on a sample of its video. And, very high contrast. I assume it can al be adjusted, but I'm surprised the default is so poor.

The frame-rate is 30.0fps not 29.97fps.

DP Review has posted their hands-on evaluation:

Canon PowerShot SX 1 IS Review: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review

They cover the HD movie mode here:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canonsx1is/page10.asp

You can lock and adjust the exposure during video shooting.

SX1 HD Video on Vimeo
 

Here's a link to a short SX1 HD video I edited into Xvid at 11 Mbps and posted on Vimeo. There's several other SX1 videos I've posted there, including some in the full, original 42.5 Mbps CoDec. I'm generally pleased with its video. It requires constant exposure adjustments and is definitely not a point-and-shoot. Its mikes pick up good audio and only a small amount of wind noise. It outperforms the Sony HX1 by a big margin, in every way except low-light video, where the HX1 comes close to the Sony VX2100, in getting usable footage at sunset. Well, actually, the HX1 is a lot simpler and easier to operate.
Running Water with SX1 on Vimeo

Returned My SX1 to the Dealer
 

After two weeks of testing, I returned my SX1. I also returned my Sony HX1, after a similar testing period. I finally realized, that my Sony HC9 HDV camcorder shoots better looking video and still photos, than either of them. The HC9 is also a lot easier to use and it is much more predictable and dependable, in response to the settings you make. The pixels of the HC9 are about twice the size as those on either of those two cameras and it has only a small and occasional amount of rolling-shutter artifacts with video.

These two HD-shooting photo cameras are probably the most versatile in their video functions, among all the others that do this. It seems that if digital cameras are going to be used for serious HD video, that many improvements need to be made in them and more manual controls added. The problem of having too many pixels on small image sensors, adds to the deficiencies of the video feature on this class of ultrazoom cameras.

I also like the HC9 camcorder's ability to change the shutter speed, which is essential for proper capture of the wings of flying birds (1/60th sec.) and other subjects that rapidly move back and forth. The slower shutter reproduces the wings in a similar way your eyes would see them, nicely blurred. A fast shutter causes strobing, as they appear to be in several positions at once.