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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

SX40 Super Zoom (1 Viewer)

Regards memory card, if doing video I have purchased from 7day shop a Duracell 64gb SDXC card which is supposed to be very fast. Not tried it yet due to weather. But does come in smaller sizes. The 64 cost £40, worth thinking about?
 
Firstly thanks to Tim for the great explanation. I actually realised the question regarding blue sky over grey was really dumb a short while after sending. Sorry for wasting your time....

Tim, I have just tried manual and it is much better!!. I could not metering of the sky/highlights and Ev+3 because the Camera was maxing out at 1/1600 sec at my chosen aperture for some reason (something to do with the mode and aperture I guess). Anyway I metered off a roof opposite which I know to be around 18% grey and it was so much better. The Camera seems to give very varying metering in normal mode so for the likes of birds manual is the way to go for me.

In all honesty, I was having real difficulty getting my head around Tim's post until I tried manual for myself with the SX40. I didn't realise that it actually shows you what to expect in the viewfinder as you make each adjustment so now I totally get it (unlike the P500 which is why I avoided manual mode in the first place)! Nice shots BTW..


Can anyone recommend a good third party battery or do you stick with Canon ones for spares?

I went for one of these from Ex-Pro;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ex-Pro®-War...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1340470791&sr=1-1

It seems to work okay and the reviews seemed favourable.

Andy.
 
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Firstly thanks to Tim for the great explanation. I actually realised the question regarding blue sky over grey was really dumb a short while after sending. Sorry for wasting your time....

In all honesty, I was having real difficulty getting my head around Tim's post until I tried manual for myself with the SX40. I didn't realise that it actually shows you what to expect in the viewfinder as you make each adjustment so now I totally get it (unlike the P500 which is why I avoided manual mode in the first place)! Nice shots BTW..
Andy,the way I have always set manual for birds is to go into Av mode and choose the aperture and ISO you want. Then meter off something around 18% grey in tone that is in the ambient light (medium coloured grass, roof tiles or even a concrete path - if unsure take along a 18%grey card one day and you will soon be able to tell what is around the right tone) and note the shutter speed you get. Now go into 'M' mode and dial-in the same aperture and shutter speed. That's it you are all ready to go.
NOTE: Do not take any notice of the metering indicator in the viewfinder once you are in manual.

This works well for any bird that is in the ambient light but remember if the light changes you will need to re-meter.

For very light toned birds you may have to tweak the manual exposure slightly by increasing the shutter speed and for very dark toned birds you decrease the shutter speed. This always works for me.
 
To be honest, Roy, IMO you've got an unecessary step in there. You say you first set aperture and ISO in Av mode and then take the shutter speed reading and transfer that setting into a manual exposure - all this while metering from a neutral toned target. In other words you effectively have your EC set to zero for this first step, but this way you have a mode switch to deal with and a figure to remember and then set correctly.

You could cut to the chase by remaining in manual mode, setting aperture and ISO as before and then simply twiddling shutter speed until the needle is centred. The result will be identical but rather than switching modes and having to remember a figure and input it correctly you just twiddle the one dial until the meter is in the right place.

This is how I would approach my metering to a target of +3 for a bright sky. I'd be in manual mode from the off, aim at the sky and twiddle my shutter speed (or whichever control I was happy to vary) until the meter pointed to +3 instead of zero or some other value. It's faster and less prone to error - IMO. :)

p.s. by sticking in manual mode and paying attention to the meter you can pan around the scene and see how bright various areas of the scene are, relative to other parts, and thus you can see whereabouts different features (and their tones) sit within the dynamic range of the camera. Of course, once you are happy with the exposure you have set then you should ignore what the meter does as you reframe your shot. But the meter needle in manual mode is actually useful, far more so than the "meter" in Av mode, which tells you nothing except what value of EC you have dialed in.
 
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To be honest, Roy, IMO you've got an unecessary step in there. You say you first set aperture and ISO in Av mode and then take the shutter speed reading and transfer that setting into a manual exposure - all this while metering from a neutral toned target. In other words you effectively have your EC set to zero for this first step, but this way you have a mode switch to deal with and a figure to remember and then set correctly.

You could cut to the chase by remaining in manual mode, setting aperture and ISO as before and then simply twiddling shutter speed until the needle is centred. The result will be identical but rather than switching modes and having to remember a figure and input it correctly you just twiddle the one dial until the meter is in the right place.

This is how I would approach my metering to a target of +3 for a bright sky. I'd be in manual mode from the off, aim at the sky and twiddle my shutter speed (or whichever control I was happy to vary) until the meter pointed to +3 instead of zero or some other value. It's faster and less prone to error - IMO. :)

p.s. by sticking in manual mode and paying attention to the meter you can pan around the scene and see how bright various areas of the scene are, relative to other parts, and thus you can see whereabouts different features (and their tones) sit within the dynamic range of the camera. Of course, once you are happy with the exposure you have set then you should ignore what the meter does as you reframe your shot. But the meter needle in manual mode is actually useful, far more so than the "meter" in Av mode, which tells you nothing except what value of EC you have dialed in.
Tim, I realise you can do it all in manual but I always find it easier to explaining the method to someone else by tell them to meter is Av mode first to get the reading (I do use it all in manual to re-metering when the light changes myself). Telling them to do it all in manual gets very messy explaining it IMO. (telling them to metre in manual, set the setting and then ignore the meter is very confusing for some folks).

The trouble with panning around the scene and taking +3 like you say is that the SX40 is limited to +/- 2 stops on the meter so your method would not work! also the shutter speed stops at 1/1600 sec so if you metre off of highlights all you get is a few red error messages indicating you are out of range.

EDIT: I disagree with "meter in Av mode, which tells you nothing except what value of EC you have dialed in" What it tells me is the precise shutter speed I should be dialling in at the given aperture and ISO - each to their own I guess but my method has not let me down over the years.
 
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To be honest, Roy, IMO you've got an unecessary step in there. You say you first set aperture and ISO in Av mode and then take the shutter speed reading and transfer that setting into a manual exposure - all this while metering from a neutral toned target. In other words you effectively have your EC set to zero for this first step, but this way you have a mode switch to deal with and a figure to remember and then set correctly.

You could cut to the chase by remaining in manual mode, setting aperture and ISO as before and then simply twiddling shutter speed until the needle is centred. The result will be identical but rather than switching modes and having to remember a figure and input it correctly you just twiddle the one dial until the meter is in the right place.

This is how I would approach my metering to a target of +3 for a bright sky. I'd be in manual mode from the off, aim at the sky and twiddle my shutter speed (or whichever control I was happy to vary) until the meter pointed to +3 instead of zero or some other value. It's faster and less prone to error - IMO. :)

p.s. by sticking in manual mode and paying attention to the meter you can pan around the scene and see how bright various areas of the scene are, relative to other parts, and thus you can see whereabouts different features (and their tones) sit within the dynamic range of the camera. Of course, once you are happy with the exposure you have set then you should ignore what the meter does as you reframe your shot. But the meter needle in manual mode is actually useful, far more so than the "meter" in Av mode, which tells you nothing except what value of EC you have dialed in.

Please put me straight here if I'm talking out of my backside but at full zoom you are restricted to an aperture window of 5.8 - 8.0 so it comes down to shutter speed and ISO selection. I'm assuming that Roy's shots required a dialled-in ISO of 400 in order to select a faster shutter speed to reduce blurring??

Andy.
 
Please put me straight here if I'm talking out of my backside but at full zoom you are restricted to an aperture window of 5.8 - 8.0 so it comes down to shutter speed and ISO selection. I'm assuming that Roy's shots required a dialled-in ISO of 400 in order to select a faster shutter speed to reduce blurring??

Andy.
Yep, you are right Andy. I have worked out on the SX40 that an aperture of f5.8 and ISO 400 is going to be the right place to start for birds most times (you may be able to go to ISO 200 in really good light) - all you need to do is to find the shutter speed in the ambient light metering off something around 18% grey. If the light is poor you may get an unusable shutter speed (for hand holding) in which case you will have to up the ISO to 800. If light is still to bad at ISO 800 to give a decent shutter speed then I would personally be heading home ;). This is a very simple method but it works for me.
 
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Roy, I have the same problem with my 5D2 and its +/- 2 stop meter. But as much of an irritant as it is, I just get the meter to +2 and then add another stop to that. The real pain is when the light changes and I have to re-meter, and then I have to artificially drop the exposure so that I can get a true meter reading, and then bump it back up again. No such constraints with my 1D3 and 7D, which both feature a +/- 3 stop meter.

As for the 1/1600 shutter speed limit, having enough light to need to go over that would be a fine luxury. Using the Sunny 16 rule as a baseline, even in full sunshine, and constrained to f/5.6 as the fastest aperture, You'd need to go to 200 ISO in order for 1/1600 to be correct, so if you can't exceed 1/1600 then just drop the ISO. Quite honestly, if you're at 400 ISO and above, for example, and struggling to get below 1/1600 it sounds like you're not setting yourself up for optimum results. Shutter speed is not the only variable you can tweak. :)
 
Roy, I have the same problem with my 5D2 and its +/- 2 stop meter. But as much of an irritant as it is, I just get the meter to +2 and then add another stop to that. The real pain is when the light changes and I have to re-meter, and then I have to artificially drop the exposure so that I can get a true meter reading, and then bump it back up again. No such constraints with my 1D3 and 7D, which both feature a +/- 3 stop meter.

As for the 1/1600 shutter speed limit, having enough light to need to go over that would be a fine luxury. Using the Sunny 16 rule as a baseline, even in full sunshine, and constrained to f/5.6 as the fastest aperture, You'd need to go to 200 ISO in order for 1/1600 to be correct, so if you can't exceed 1/1600 then just drop the ISO. Quite honestly, if you're at 400 ISO and above, for example, and struggling to get below 1/1600 it sounds like you're not setting yourself up for optimum results. Shutter speed is not the only variable you can tweak. :)
I obviously did not explain it right as you are completely misunderstanding me Tim (my english is cr#P lol)- you will see from my sample shots that I was at 1/320 or 1/400 sec at max zoom and ISO 400 which is fine for handholding the SX40 at 840mm. Of course if I was getting around 1/1600 sec I would drop the ISO on this 5.8 crop sensor to limit the noise.
I do not think you realise the limitations of the SX40 - it is quite unlike a DSLR. In manual and full zoom you can only use f5.8 to f8 aperture, a max shutter speed of 1/1600 sec and coupled with the +/-2 meter I find it a darn site easier to get my initial shutter speed by metering in Av mode and just transfer it to Manual - takes about 30 seconds I guess which is fine by me. By the time you start dropping the exposure and bumping it back up again I would have finished!
 
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Well heres a few shots I rattled off in poor light today for folks to view, just resized for the web. The Heron and pheasant are now in my gallery processed.
 

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Well heres a few shots I rattled off in poor light today for folks to view, just resized for the web. The Heron and pheasant are now in my gallery processed.
Nice shots Paul, I assume you hand held, if so you did well with them bird shots at full zoom and 1/100 sec, it shows just how good the IS system is (4 1/2 stops on 1/100 sec would give 1/2400 sec equivalent I guess so 840mm should be hand holdable but my old hands would need something faster I think LOL).
 
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