A couple Questions about the Canon Powershot TX1

1. How is the macro on this camera
2. does the wind reduction on the audio really help?
3. Isn't there a time-lapse mode where you can record video at like 2 FPS?
4. How long is the battery life? should I get anothr battery if I'm gonna be out with it all day?
5. What memory card do you recommend? I have a SanDisk Ultra II 4.0 GB memory card (SDHC), is that good enough?

1. The focal length is 10 or 6.5 - 65 mm. The macro will be nominal. Macro: 3.9 in.-1.6 ft./10-50cm (WIDE), Super Macro: 0-3.9 in./10cm (WIDE). There is a super macro preset as well.
2. I doubt that this feature will perform as well as you hope. These cameras have video as a marketing feature and as such, the mics are fairly omnidirectional and low end. So even though the wind reduction will help, the quality of the audio makes it rather a pheric advantage.
3. Time lapse is not mentioned as a feature in the specs.
4. Canon specs out the battery life as Still Image: approx. 160 shots (NB-4L/LCD on)*, Playback Time Approx. 240 min. (NB-4L)*. Since those are Canon's specs, I'd cut that by at least a third.
5. You card should work just fine. 4 gigs is a lot of memory, even for video since most of your clips will be 10 secs or less. allow me to make an pitch for using several cards, rather than one large one. Reason being, insurance. Any memory card can fail or become corrupted. And when you're on vacation the last thing you want is to lose the opportunity to take pictures until you can recover that media card with a software utility. If your card goes bad, swapping another one for it at that moment is of advantage so you can keep taking pics. Then, later when you're in front of your PC, you can use a utility like "F-Recovery" to get back your pictures and recover your card.

No need to lose the moment because you relied on one card one when several can solve that problem. At the very least, you want to get more than one of whatever size you settle on.

Well, actually, I'm going to take videos that are around 3 minutes long (on-ride videos at Disney resorts, so it needs some good audio recorders in order to record the on-board soundtrack, but I mite just hold the cam next to the speakers), and it seems that I probably won't use HD very much because my comp. is very slow and you can only take 13 min. of it. I also want to take really nice still shots, and was wondering if maybe I should get the Lumix TZ4 instead?

Well, frankly, I think you'll be disappointed with the audio quality of any digital point and shoot. I think you're better off at this point with a camcorder that takes quality digital stills and saves them to a flash memory card. These days they get up to 5-6MP.

Well, my budget is under $300, and i seriously doubt a camcorder under $300 will have 5 MP or 6 MP, I also want to be able to take special manual shots, so I want a camera/camcorder, and I think the TX1 will be fine for me, but I'm wondering if the TX4 will be better?

Canon TX4? No such animal yet. But for the TX1, you're over budget with it's price.

if it's worth it, i will get the TX1 even if it's just a little over budget, I've seen it for $350 from trustworthy places. It's not much more of an investment if it's truly what my needs ask for.

Worth it? Well, according to user feedback, it ranks pretty solidly:

* 12th of 65 in 7 Megapixel
* 18th of 64 in Canon
* 9th of 59 in $350 - $600
* 10th of 80 in Point and Shoot
* 2nd of 18 in Advanced

So are you saying that it would be a good buy?

I think you can do better. It's a solid camera with decent marks, but then again, the cameras above it are all lower in optical zoom save one - the Olympus SP560UZ. which I own and enjoy.

I don't want anything too big if that's what it is, and i want something that's at least 5x Opt. Zoom, doesn't have to be HD video, but equal in video, audio, and picture qualities.

Well, I've been recently testing the Kodak Z1085IS. It has a 5x zoom, shoots in both HD and SD video and even widescreen (HD only). The 10mp chip isn't half bad. And when I compared shots with my Olympus SP560UZ at 8MP with the 7.1 Widescreen setting on the 1085IS, I found the 7.1MP sharper in the same conditions. Go figure. The main thing however, is that it has no viewfinder, which I can't stand. Very hard to see in bright, ambient light.