Review Part II - Does a Software Update Transform the New French Pixii Camera?

In my original review, I praised the new Pixii A1571 model's industrial design and image quality, but had serious doubts about its speed, battery life, and quirky handling. Now, a newly-released software update targets some of the flaws. Does it transform the temperamental Pixii into a pussycat? Watch and find out!

SOME CORRECTIONS/UPDATES TO THINGS I SAID IN THE VIDEO:

-- 01:58 -- The default sensor mode is "fast," as it was before the update. The small performance improvement I measured was because of optimizations, not because there's a new sensor mode.

-- 03:21 -- There's no difference in bit depth, compression, etc. between the two modes, which is why I couldn't see any quality difference. "Fine" mode uses higher precision in calculations performed by the analog/digital converter, which Pixii SAS says could produce finer details in some cases. However, the higher precision also drops the sensor's scan rate, which might cause distortion in fast-moving objects. Pixii recommends fine mode only for landscape and studio photos, and fast mode for everything else.

-- Another notable change in the software update that I didn't discuss in the video (because I didn't notice it) is that ISO settings are now more closely spaced and include such traditional favorites as 200 and 400. This plus various behind-the-scenes improvements should lead to more consistent exposures.

All this info is from the release notes linked in the pinned comment below.

-- 06:54 -- DISCLOSURE: My statement that the Pixii camera was named in honor of 19th-century French engineer Hippolyte Pixii (the inventor of the electrical generator) is strictly conjecture on my part -- I didn't contact Pixii SAS and ask them if they really did that. But if they didn't, they SHOULD have! Just imagine the inconvenience of having to charge your camera by connecting it to a Leyden jar...