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Canon SX50 Specs (1 Viewer)

Atricapilla said:
Hi Guys,
It has been sometime since reading this ongoing amazing thread on the SX50.
I am getting a lot of raptors flying over our field recently.
One culprit eating a Collared dove attached.
I have been seeing some great flight shots on the thread over time.
Can anyone give me the best settings for BIF with the Sx50.
CrazyFingers Hermit ibis ???
Click to expand...
Phantastic photo, congrats! I just wished we had so attractive birds here.

Birds in flight: I assume you use crazyfinger's standard settings. For mid-sized birds in flight you often have only 3-4 seconds to prepare - not much time. I'd recommend to use the "frame assist" button - pressing it is just a second and takes you from 215mm to a focal length where it is easier to keep the bird in focus.

You might also look at my setting "C1" on page 85 (posts 2107 and 2109). There I give an example how to get an ID shot of a swallow: you start with C1 (focal length 172mm), press the frame assist --> 42mm. That won't result in a "good" photo of the swallow, but good enough for ID. At least you'll have a fighting chance to get small birds in flight with the SX50.

Finally, you can always try the "high speed burst" / sports mode of ten shots within 1 second. For example, on page 85 check out the crow/buzzard (#2117). This burst mode offers 1/1000 second, sufficient in many situations. It remains one of the best options for BIF shooting with the SX50. - Good luck.

PS. I forgot to say: for a dark bird flying in bright sky you'd better dial in exposure compensation of -1.00.
 
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HermitIbis said:
Phantastic photo, congrats! I just wished we had so attractive birds here.

Birds in flight: I assume you use crazyfinger's standard settings. For mid-sized birds in flight you often have only 3-4 seconds to prepare - not much time. I'd recommend to use the "frame assist" button - pressing it is just a second and takes you from 215mm to a focal length where it is easier to keep the bird in focus.

You might also look at my setting "C1" on page 85 (posts 2107 and 2109). There I give an example how to get an ID shot of a swallow: you start with C1 (focal length 172mm), press the frame assist --> 42mm. That won't result in a "good" photo of the swallow, but good enough for ID. At least you'll have a fighting chance to get small birds in flight with the SX50.

Finally, you can always try the "high speed burst" / sports mode of ten shots within 1 second. For example, on page 85 check out the crow/buzzard (#2117). This burst mode offers 1/1000 second, sufficient in many situations. It remains one of the best options for BIF shooting with the SX50. - Good luck.

PS. I forgot to say: for a dark bird flying in bright sky you'd better dial in exposure compensation of -1.00.
Click to expand...

Thanks H.I,
I will check out all the references you mentioned,really appreciate your info.
There was a Black kite and a Black-winged kite over the field this afternoon which prompted me to find the best help with BIF.
Just hope the Booted eagle is still around as well.
 
Good luck with your raptors, Atricapilla!

miketaylor said:
[...] However, the camera really struggled with the range of brightness in the forest - low light on the subject but bright light coming through the gaps in the foliage. When trying to photograph gorillas the images were very washed out, i.e. over-exposed with a lot of glare (or flare?). I'm using the CrazyFingers settings (based on Av mode) mentioned much earlier in this topic, and tried increasing the ISO limit from 400 to 1600, and also manually set the ISO to 3200. The increased ISO enabled me to get faster shutter speeds (which were often around 1/10 second at ISO 400), but not with the exposure. As well as the custom settings mentioned above, I also tried Auto and Program Mode, but was still getting poor results much of the time. [...]

Thanks,
Mike
Click to expand...

These circumstances sound challenging. Sorry, I can't help. Perhaps someone else has an idea what went wrong, if you show one of the photos?
 
HermitIbis said:
These circumstances sound challenging. Sorry, I can't help. Perhaps someone else has an idea what went wrong, if you show one of the photos?
Click to expand...

Thanks, HermetIbis.

I've attached a couple of photos of chimps taken close together, though not the same subject.

The first one was 1/100s, f5.6 at ISO 3200, and is exposed ok. The second one was 1/13s, f5.6 at ISO 3200, and is overexposed by a factor of 7 compared to the first. Because the resulting shutter speed is so low there is also camera shake.

What puzzles me is why the camera's exposure reading varies so widely in these conditions.

Mike
 

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RafaelMatias said:
Just out of interest, were both photos taken at max 50x optical zoom?
Click to expand...

Hi Rafael,

I've tried to work out the zoom level from the shooting info, and I believe the first one was around 25x and second was around 14x. I did find the exposure was often better when zoomed in (presumably because the brightness range was less).

Mike
 
I have had my SX50 for more than four years and it has given me outstanding service in some difficult conditions from the heat of the Galapagos to the cold mountains of Ecuador, allowing me to get pictures that are perfect for personal use whilst appreciating that I am never going to grace the pages of National Geographic. Lately it has been showing its age with focussing becoming tricky even with something out in the open - it has always been a challenge with the proverbial bird in the bush - and increasing noise on high zoom shots. Like many others I get technically better shots with a Canon SLR and lenses but who wants to lug them around with a telescope, tripod and bin's to boot? I am a birder who likes photographs, not the other way around.

Anyone else had similar problems?

I say all this not as a criticism, the camera is brilliant, but it has been well used and I really have no idea what to replace it with so I'd like to make it last a bit longer, at least until the Nikon P900 replacement appears and is proven in the field
 
I have three SX50's. The oldest one sometimes has issues with the smooth inand out of optical zoom. It's most noticeable in colder weather. While I don't have issues with it's ability to focus, I'd say that the focus/shutter button sometimes seems sticky.

None of those are a surprise. I have no idea how many times I have half presses the focus button or moved the zoom. A few 100 thousand times at least.

I have sort of lost track of which of my 3 is the newest. I wonder if somewhere in the memory it will tell me how many total photos they have each taken.

I did put a special mark on the bottom of each of the three but I no longer remember which mark meant what...

I don't really know what I'll do when I have to replace the last one. I tried out both the SX60 and the Nikon P900 and didn't like either of them.
 
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Foxy said:
I have had my SX50 for more than four years and it has given me outstanding service in some difficult conditions from the heat of the Galapagos to the cold mountains of Ecuador, allowing me to get pictures that are perfect for personal use whilst appreciating that I am never going to grace the pages of National Geographic. Lately it has been showing its age with focussing becoming tricky even with something out in the open - it has always been a challenge with the proverbial bird in the bush - and increasing noise on high zoom shots. Like many others I get technically better shots with a Canon SLR and lenses but who wants to lug them around with a telescope, tripod and bin's to boot? I am a birder who likes photographs, not the other way around.

Anyone else had similar problems?

I say all this not as a criticism, the camera is brilliant, but it has been well used and I really have no idea what to replace it with so I'd like to make it last a bit longer, at least until the Nikon P900 replacement appears and is proven in the field
Click to expand...

The new Sony RX10 IV appears to be getting very good reviews.
Downsides are much higher price and 'only' 600mm zoom, although that can be extended to 1200mm at some sacrifice of quality.
 
etudiant said:
The new Sony RX10 IV appears to be getting very good reviews.
Downsides are much higher price and 'only' 600mm zoom, although that can be extended to 1200mm at some sacrifice of quality.
Click to expand...

Another posdible downside is the fact there is no in camera cropping.Some may not be bothered but it put me off buying one.Also its quite a bulky and weighty camera.......you might as well get a decent cropped sensor dslr with a telephoto lens for a bit extra money.
You will also get that bit extra quality in your images.
 
miketaylor said:
Thanks, HermetIbis.

I've attached a couple of photos of chimps taken close together, though not the same subject.

The first one was 1/100s, f5.6 at ISO 3200, and is exposed ok. The second one was 1/13s, f5.6 at ISO 3200, and is overexposed by a factor of 7 compared to the first. Because the resulting shutter speed is so low there is also camera shake.

What puzzles me is why the camera's exposure reading varies so widely in these conditions.

Mike
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,
In looking at your exif data, I see you were in spot metering mode. I think you may have metered off a very dark area of the scene and thus the image came out over exposed. I pretty much leave my camera in center weighted mode most of the time and if it looks like a difficult situation, I will bracket my exposures. I also noticed you were shooting in auto mode. I would suggest, especially in low light situations, shooting in Tv mode with auto ISO. Unless I'm really concerned with depth of field and I have plenty of light my camera is usually in Tv (shutter speed priority) mode. If the light is low, the first thing the camera does is open the aperture all the way and then adjusts ISO. If you are controlling shutter speed you can guard against too slow a speed.
Hope this may help you.

Dwight
 
dwightr8 said:
Hi Mike,
In looking at your exif data, I see you were in spot metering mode. I think you may have metered off a very dark area of the scene and thus the image came out over exposed. I pretty much leave my camera in center weighted mode most of the time and if it looks like a difficult situation, I will bracket my exposures. I also noticed you were shooting in auto mode. I would suggest, especially in low light situations, shooting in Tv mode with auto ISO. Unless I'm really concerned with depth of field and I have plenty of light my camera is usually in Tv (shutter speed priority) mode. If the light is low, the first thing the camera does is open the aperture all the way and then adjusts ISO. If you are controlling shutter speed you can guard against too slow a speed.
Hope this may help you.

Dwight
Click to expand...

Hi Dwight,

Thanks for the advice. I checked the properties of the original shots and you are correct that they were using Spot metering, and this is probably the cause of the problem (though both shots were actually in Av mode). I tried various modes, including Auto and Program (with exposure bracketing), both of which used Evaluative metering, and overall I got better results, but still highly variable. I also tried setting ISO to 3200, as the highest ISO for auto ISO is 1600.

My default settings are based on the famous "Crazyfingers" settings based on Av mode (at http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=240202&page=68), which uses AF Frame to focus on the box in the centre of the screen and AE Point to use that focus box for the exposure. This normally works well, but clearly in this case the dynamic range of brightness was too high in some cases.

Now I've had time to think about it, I think I should have tried using M (manual) mode and judged the exposure by eye - but I didn't think of that in the heat of the moment, as I hadn't used that mode before!

Mike
 
miketaylor said:
Hi Dwight,

Thanks for the advice. I checked the properties of the original shots and you are correct that they were using Spot metering, and this is probably the cause of the problem (though both shots were actually in Av mode). I tried various modes, including Auto and Program (with exposure bracketing), both of which used Evaluative metering, and overall I got better results, but still highly variable. I also tried setting ISO to 3200, as the highest ISO for auto ISO is 1600.

My default settings are based on the famous "Crazyfingers" settings based on Av mode (at http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=240202&page=68), which uses AF Frame to focus on the box in the centre of the screen and AE Point to use that focus box for the exposure. This normally works well, but clearly in this case the dynamic range of brightness was too high in some cases.

Now I've had time to think about it, I think I should have tried using M (manual) mode and judged the exposure by eye - but I didn't think of that in the heat of the moment, as I hadn't used that mode before!

Mike
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

I still sense some confusion here. I think the problem is we are dealing with two separate problems. The first is the overexposure and the second the out focus fuzziness. The first can be solved by using center weighted average exposure (and maybe bracketing) and the second by using Tv mode and making sure the shutter speed isn't too slow. I really don't know why so many people recommend Av mode when clearly the problem is too slow a shutter speed and. in limited light, there is really very little you can do about depth of field which is really what Av is about.

Hope this helps and I haven't confused the issue more.
 
dwightr8 said:
Hi Mike,

I still sense some confusion here. I think the problem is we are dealing with two separate problems. The first is the overexposure and the second the out focus fuzziness. The first can be solved by using center weighted average exposure (and maybe bracketing) and the second by using Tv mode and making sure the shutter speed isn't too slow. I really don't know why so many people recommend Av mode when clearly the problem is too slow a shutter speed and. in limited light, there is really very little you can do about depth of field which is really what Av is about.

Hope this helps and I haven't confused the issue more.
Click to expand...

Hi Dwight,

I understand perfectly the point about shutter speed, and I agree with you about Av vs Tv mode. I used to use an Olympus OM1 film SLR, which had fully manual exposure and focus, so I fully understand the concepts of aperture and shutter speed, but in these dates of automatic cameras one tends to let the camera do the thinking.

Having said all that, the camera was using maximum aperture, and the reason the shutter speed was so slow was that the metering was incorrect by a factor of 7 or 8. So it seems to be the metering mode that was the problem.

Mike
 
Canon SX50 - Advice please on Image Stability for stills

A birding friend is going to Australia and has purchased a used SX50 to take some wildlife shots mainly birds.
I have a 7D2 but have no experience of the SX50.

Having looked at his manual I can see that there is an IS icon shown in the screen when shooting in auto but not when shooting in TV or AV.
I can't see any confirmation that it is on in these modes. Have I set it wrong or is it on all the time and I am just setting the particular IS mode eg continuous?

He is not the slightest bit technical but as he will probably take bird photos from distance without use of a tripod, what is the best option for him to use. I have looked at Crazyfingers setting and will use these if considered the best option.
I want to try and set him up on C1 and C2 for birds in flight and static birds respectfully and maybe use Auto for generic for holiday snaps.

Thanks in anticipation

Karl
 
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Parryman1 said:
Having looked at his manual I can see that there is an IS icon shown in the screen when shooting in auto but not when shooting in TV or AV.
Click to expand...
Hmm... having my SX50 in auto, I don't see any specific symbol for the image stabilization. There is a shake warning (a hand), to alarm the user to hold the camera as steady as possible.

I can confirm that my own settings (basically crazyfingers' based on TV or AV) don't produce any symbol for IS in my EVF either. Probably Canon more or less takes it as granted that the SX50 is typically used with the IS on. - Looking in the menu, I've just made sure that I have IS ON - continuous, and level 1.

With the SX50 I have rarely turned the IS off, only in the few cases when I used a tripod.
 
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