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

Canon SX60HS in Action (2 Viewers)

You just can´t let the camera keep goingfoward and back with that focus.
Just press half the button let it focus and stick with it (no servo or continuous focus) or press half again. When it focus properly...

SX50 is the same. That continuous focus just gets in the way. First it's focused and then it's not. Turn it off.

Best is just to half-press the shutter. If not focused do it again. I usually take as many as I can anyway until the critter leaves. Not just focus but also want all the head directions.
 
Really?? If I took 500 pics on either my 40 or 60 and I only got 50 usable ones then I'd be pretty disappointed!!
But as Crazyf says, these aren't pics of passerines (well other than crows and thrushes) ;)
If I only considered 10 percent of ALL the photos I take to be good I suppose I'd be disappointed, although I have to say, I've never analyzed my "success" rate in mathematical terms. I take a lot of photos and don't expect many of them to be good, especially since I often shoot in less than good light conditions. If I concentrated on just how many are crummy, I'd probably get depressed and quit. I wonder what most professional photographers' keeper rate is.....?
Anyway, where BIFs are concerned, I'd say a 10% keepers rate with a superzoom is very good...congrats to your friend.
 
SX50 is the same. That continuous focus just gets in the way. First it's focused and then it's not. Turn it off.

Best is just to half-press the shutter. If not focused do it again. I usually take as many as I can anyway until the critter leaves. Not just focus but also want all the head directions.
Crazyfingers, we may all be referring to different modes here....gets kind of confusing when so many functions share terms. I too detest "continuous autofocus." Just gets in the way of focusing, if you ask me, and servo seems about the same.
I like "continuous shoot" though (the one accessed in the "functions menu," not the "menu, menu." But I use the one that has no auto-focus between shots, just keeps shooting as long as you have the shutter depressed all the way.
 
If I only considered 10 percent of ALL the photos I take to be good I suppose I'd be disappointed, although I have to say, I've never analyzed my "success" rate in mathematical terms. I take a lot of photos and don't expect many of them to be good, especially since I often shoot in less than good light conditions. If I concentrated on just how many are crummy, I'd probably get depressed and quit. I wonder what most professional photographers' keeper rate is.....?
Anyway, where BIFs are concerned, I'd say a 10% keepers rate with a superzoom is very good...congrats to your friend.

On a busy day out I'll easily snap over 400 photos. I will often take a shot if i think it might be a different than usual duck and take 10 of them or sometimes 20 before I move along. Unlike the days of film, I'll snap a shot at anything I see.

I actually depend on being able to delete the days photos down to less than 10% being keepers.
 
Crazyfingers, we may all be referring to different modes here....gets kind of confusing when so many functions share terms. I too detest "continuous autofocus." Just gets in the way of focusing, if you ask me, and servo seems about the same.
I like "continuous shoot" though (the one accessed in the "functions menu," not the "menu, menu." But I use the one that has no auto-focus between shots, just keeps shooting as long as you have the shutter depressed all the way.

Ya, I'm not talking about continuous shoot. Just continuous focus. I don't often use continuous shoot mainly because I forget that i can.... oops on me. I should try that more.
 
Ya, I'm not talking about continuous shoot. Just continuous focus. I don't often use continuous shoot mainly because I forget that i can.... oops on me. I should try that more.

I'm the worst when it comes to memory, and changing settings. If I play around with TV, AV, etc. to get a particular shot, I tend to forget and leave those settings in place, which screws up shots I take later on, sometimes when it's a bird I really want. That's why I mostly shoot in Program, and let the camera do the metering. I find the SX50 does a good job in that respect, freeing me to find and focus on the birds, not the camera. The end results may not make it into any calendars, but I get a useful record, and sometimes a record shot.
 
Using it for 24 hours...

...first thing to notice is that it has a lot going on. When you press the button the camera keep going a bit foward and backward with the focus, while trying to stabilize the image and there a ton of other things going on like noise reductions, red lines around the borders of the object to tell you were is the focus, along with exposure and white balance rechecks... everything in 1 sec. Not possible.
I then set most of the thing off (servo af, continuous af, mf peaking,zoom and focus memory, noise reductions, auto detections and etc).

You just can´t let the camera keep goingfoward and back with that focus.
Just press half the button let it focus and stick with it (no servo or continuous focus) or press half again. When it focus properly... better even to change it to manual.

Things started to get a bit better.
Buttons are a bit clumbersome... and the manual focus kind of suck.

Now it is night. Anyway... the best pics went after I turned everything off and let it worry just with the IS.

I also found that turning off the "continuous AF, "servo" and other supposedly helpful functions was......well, helpful. Hope the image stabilization on your camera is adequate and you can get it to perform well for you. Thanks for the early report.
 
Be it 'Continous Mode' on the 60 or 'High Burst HQ' or whatever on the 50, both cameras can give equally shite pictures - esp with BiFs....my mate's success rate with his 50 is about 10%!! I actually find BiFs alot easier with the 60 than my old 40 but in no way comparable to a DSLR...these cameras just aren't made for that
It's all relative...with my current digiscoping setup, I'm having a good day if I get 0.5% (1/2%) to a reasonable quality for my gallery here, and maybe 5% suitable for myself personally ("ooh, I saw one of those"...I suppose y'all call them "reference shots"). I enjoy the challenge...which means accepting that some outings will yield zero good photos.

As for BiF? All but impossible. I've made improvements to my digiscoping setup that has made it a little easier to make the attempt, but I don't bother to try unless I'm bored or can shoot along a know bird path/route. Pelicans are easier to shoot BiF since large numbers of them follow the exact same path along the coast, for example.

I had some hope the SX60 would give me a chance to give BiF another chance, but if it doesn't work out, I'm no worse off. I'll just ask my GF nicely to borrow the D700 (70-300mm lens). ;-p
 
It's all relative...with my current digiscoping setup, I'm having a good day if I get 0.5% (1/2%) to a reasonable quality for my gallery here, and maybe 5% suitable for myself personally ("ooh, I saw one of those"...I suppose y'all call them "reference shots"). I enjoy the challenge...which means accepting that some outings will yield zero good photos.

That's a good point. I could take photos of house sparrows and cardinals until my battery gave out and most of them being acceptable quality. But why? It's boring. And I'd just delete most of them anyway.

It's the hard to get ones that are fun and challenging. That will obviously push the success ratio down.
 
An interesting side-question: I see alot of you comparing the SX60 to the older SX50.

Has anyone tried the Panasonic DMC-FZ70 with the DMX-LT55 1.7x teleconverter (for a whopping 2040mm)?

I just happened to run into this combination blindly and got curious how THAT combination compared to the SX60 or even the SX50?

I understand you need a tripod with the teleconverter, but how is the image quality compared to the SX50 or SX60?
 
I'm the worst when it comes to memory, and changing settings. If I play around with TV, AV, etc. to get a particular shot, I tend to forget and leave those settings in place, which screws up shots I take later on, sometimes when it's a bird I really want. That's why I mostly shoot in Program, and let the camera do the metering. I find the SX50 does a good job in that respect, freeing me to find and focus on the birds, not the camera. The end results may not make it into any calendars, but I get a useful record, and sometimes a record shot.

I reexperimented with HQ burst today and now remember why i drifted away from it and it has less to do with the camera than my own system for organizing files.

Whenever i download a significant number of new photos the first thing I do is to run a batch renamer on the files that names the files by date and time. Year month day hour minute second. Example 2014 11 18 12 32 10.jpg. with the HQ burst I get many photos taken the same second and so a lot of renaming errors. I can have the renamer add a last integer to avoid that but it sort of messes with my sense of file names.

But i should try to use HQ BURST extremely sparingly...

I think that HQ burst also doesn't work with the teleconverter on.
 
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I reexperimented with HQ burst today and now remember why i drifted away from it and it has less to do with the camera than my own system for organizing files.

Whenever i download a significant number of new photos the first thing I do is to run a batch renamer on the files that names the files by date and time. Year month day hour minute second. Example 2014 11 18 12 32 10.jpg. with the HQ burst I get many photos taken the same second and so a lot of renaming errors. I can have the renamer add a last integer to avoid that but it sort of messes with my sense of file names.

But i should try to use HQ BURST extremely sparingly...

I think that HQ burst also doesn't work with the teleconverter on.

I wasn't referring to "burst mode," just continuous shoot. It's not real fast, maybe a shot a second, which is fine with me. I can take just one shot or several in a row, by keeping the shutter depressed.
I know a lot of people like the burst mode in the SX50 and were upset that it was omitted from the SX60. The SX60's "continuous shoot, no AF" is probably just as fast, though. Problem is, the autofocus struggles so much, you just end up with multiple out-of-focus shots that you have to delete. The "continuous focus w/ AF" seems to work a little better, but slows things down.... to about the speed of the SX50 in "continuous focus, no AF."
Sheesh, I'm glad that's over with!

Oh yeah, and it works w/ telephoto settings.
 
I reexperimented with HQ burst today and now remember why i drifted away from it and it has less to do with the camera than my own system for organizing files.

Whenever i download a significant number of new photos the first thing I do is to run a batch renamer on the files that names the files by date and time. Year month day hour minute second. Example 2014 11 18 12 32 10.jpg. with the HQ burst I get many photos taken the same second and so a lot of renaming errors. I can have the renamer add a last integer to avoid that but it sort of messes with my sense of file names.

But i should try to use HQ BURST extremely sparingly...

I think that HQ burst also doesn't work with the teleconverter on.

Crazyfingers, what's the difference between HQ Burst and Sports Mode? I experimented with the latter today, and was pleasantly surprised at the results I got with some diving Brown Pelicans
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127980272@N06/sets/72157649414055595/
Have never really tried to get BIFs, been content to get id's on distant birds, but it's kinda fun. Lots to delete, though.

PS... Gull was taken the "old-fashioned way."
 
Crazyfingers, what's the difference between HQ Burst and Sports Mode? I experimented with the latter today, and was pleasantly surprised at the results I got with some diving Brown Pelicans
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127980272@N06/sets/72157649414055595/
Have never really tried to get BIFs, been content to get id's on distant birds, but it's kinda fun. Lots to delete, though.

PS... Gull was taken the "old-fashioned way."

I have not used sports mode much at all. I probably should. Your pelicans are excellent. I think that sports mode re-focuses on each shot and uses a higher ISO to get a short shutter speed.

HQ burst, which I am much more familiar with, does NOT refocus on each shot. It uses the initial focus and then lets loose with the 10 or so shots all at once. It will get you a higher quality shot on something that's mainly staying still. It's not very useful for an object that's changing its distance from you as probably all but the first will be out of focus. But can be useful if, for example, the bird is sitting still and just twisting it's head about in and out of the shadow of the sun.
 
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That is what I paid in Singapore. Having played a little with the camera, no doubt improvement on the 40 and prehaps a little on the 50. But how anyone expects to take stills at 50x through to 65x handheld is beyond me. No way could I keep that steady so perhaps the problem some have mentioned ited into IS is this factor. For me surely at high zooms need to be on a tripod??

For it is the video side I am after with the extra reach. Downloaded the manual and am still reading!!
 
That is what I paid in Singapore. Having played a little with the camera, no doubt improvement on the 40 and prehaps a little on the 50. But how anyone expects to take stills at 50x through to 65x handheld is beyond me. No way could I keep that steady so perhaps the problem some have mentioned ited into IS is this factor. For me surely at high zooms need to be on a tripod??

For it is the video side I am after with the extra reach. Downloaded the manual and am still reading!!

Bob, this has been discussed here before, but just in case you missed it; the "frame assist lock" feature can help with handheld shots at long focal lengths. It's the lower button on the left side of the barrel.
 

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