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

Animal Photography with the Canon SX60HS (1 Viewer)

4 from today,the kingfisher was a record shot,there was a couple of photographers with dslrs present who said they were too far away to photograph,i was surprised how the pics came out ,the second kingfisher pic was with the 2x converter switched on
 

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a mixture from monday
 

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2 landscapes,this is the tay rail bridge looking towards dundee
 

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Hi all

I am considering getting an sx60 but there are 2 things which are bugging me.

How does this camera fare with flight shots and can it only take 300 pictures?

Thanks in advance,
 
I am considering getting an sx60 but there are 2 things which are bugging me.

How does this camera fare with flight shots and can it only take 300 pictures?
Check my gallery, fair number of BiF. Granted, these aren't DSLRs, but if you wanted that level you wouldn't be asking about a superzoom bridge camera. What does help is get the fastest memory card the camera will support, it helps with sustained bursts. BiF are easiest with "spray and pray": track the bird and push-n-hold the shutter button while following.

Not sure what you mean by "it can take only 300 pictures." I don't know of any modern digital camera that is limited like that; you're limited only by the size of the memory card. I routinely take 1200+ photos on a single card (JPEG, max quality, lowest compression).

If you mean batteries, then you might be getting close. I would say the weather greatly affects this. Warm weather I can get 900 photos or so on my Vivitar batteries (slightly more capacity than the stock battery), but when it's cold that can drop to 300 photos. My record low was barely 200 shots because of cold weather (about 45°F). I always carry at least one spare battery on all my cameras for this reason (right now I carry one on the camera and two spares).

By comparison, my GF's D700 can go alot more photos per charge, but her built-in battery is quite heavy and isn't using excessive energy running an EVF. But hers go alot faster when it's cold too. And her RX100 pocket cam is only good for about 200 shots on a good day before the battery dies (tiny battery and power-hungry electronics).
 
Check my gallery, fair number of BiF. Granted, these aren't DSLRs, but if you wanted that level you wouldn't be asking about a superzoom bridge camera. What does help is get the fastest memory card the camera will support, it helps with sustained bursts. BiF are easiest with "spray and pray": track the bird and push-n-hold the shutter button while following.

Not sure what you mean by "it can take only 300 pictures." I don't know of any modern digital camera that is limited like that; you're limited only by the size of the memory card. I routinely take 1200+ photos on a single card (JPEG, max quality, lowest compression).

If you mean batteries, then you might be getting close. I would say the weather greatly affects this. Warm weather I can get 900 photos or so on my Vivitar batteries (slightly more capacity than the stock battery), but when it's cold that can drop to 300 photos. My record low was barely 200 shots because of cold weather (about 45°F). I always carry at least one spare battery on all my cameras for this reason (right now I carry one on the camera and two spares).

By comparison, my GF's D700 can go alot more photos per charge, but her built-in battery is quite heavy and isn't using excessive energy running an EVF. But hers go alot faster when it's cold too. And her RX100 pocket cam is only good for about 200 shots on a good day before the battery dies (tiny battery and power-hungry electronics).

Thanks!

I now feel more confident that this camera is the right choice for me compared with a DSLR of a similar price. With an extra battery I reckon i'll be sorted.
 
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So Christmas is coming up. I have been using my old SX50 for a long time. Could an SX60 user who was also once a SX50 user comment on how the SX60 is doing at the maximum zoom range with respect to the SX50? Was it worth the upgrade? Would it be worth the upgrade?
 
Ighalo,

On the subject of battery life, I did find a camera with really low battery life: The Sony RX100 Mk. IV, and even worse, the Mk V. Lucky if you can squeeze-off 200 shots on the battery (goodness forbid if you turn-on the high-def, high-framerate video). But OMG the photos are to drool for!
 
very distant waxwing shot, full 247mm with the 1,5 converter switched on and cropped,i had the camera resting on the car window which helped, landscape on auto again
 

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So Christmas is coming up. I have been using my old SX50 for a long time. Could an SX60 user who was also once a SX50 user comment on how the SX60 is doing at the maximum zoom range with respect to the SX50? Was it worth the upgrade? Would it be worth the upgrade?

Well no one had anything to say I guess. So I ordered an SX60 for myself for Xmas just because...

Perhaps I'll reboot the topic as I compare the SX60 to the 50 and decide whether to keep it...:)
 
Well no one had anything to say I guess. So I ordered an SX60 for myself for Xmas just because...

Perhaps I'll reboot the topic as I compare the SX60 to the 50 and decide whether to keep it...:)

I for one look forward to your comparison Crazyfingers. I was holding out to see what Canon replaced the SX60 with, but there doesn't seem to be any rumours of them replacing the SX60, in the near future anyway.
 
I seriously considered getting an SX50 over the SX60, I came really close, mostly due to perceived slightly better image quality on the SX50. In the end, two things swayed me to the SX60:

  1. I was using this camera to replace a digiscoping setup, so range meant almost everything. I figured any IQ differences were moot when I mostly view on-screen and post on the web and the fact that I use Photoshop and have a number of Topaz Labs filters to squeeze details and quality from photos in marginal cases. I've never been sorry on this score when I can shoot fairly effectively out to about 100m, fairly well to 200m, and have some cases of getting okay (ID quality) photos out to 300m. My record was this past weekend: a good ID photo out at 440m; clear enough for details for an ID, just not portfolio-worthy.
  2. As bad as the EVF is on the SX60 is (compared to a camera like the Sony RX100 III, IV, and IV), the SX60 still has more EVF resolution than the SX50. On an EVF, resolution is king for tracking moving objects and focus feedback clarity. Some say a bridge camera isn't the greatest for BiF, and I agree a DSLR is far and away better, but may as well hedge my bets if I'm going to always be trying for it on a superzoom bridge camera.

I will agree that if you own an SX50 then the SX60 hardly seems compelling for an upgrade given the (relatively) steep price. But if you're comparing the two and owning neither, I'd still take a serious look at the SX60.
 
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