Animal Photography with the Canon SX60HS (1 Viewer)

Taken over 10000 now.....camera still working just fine this week.
Problem is that I bought it thru DigitalRev in HK so the waranty with the camera is only valid with them, not Canon Europe....which is a bit sh*t really as a Canon camera is a Canon camera wherever you are in the world....so the company should honour their product anywhere.
So, just hoping it was a glitch.....
Anyhoo, nice Peregrine K - how far away was it?

the peregrine was quite a distance away,i had to zoom in to check it was actually a bird,below is a vid starting with a distant view plus some frame grabs,in the first one you can see the rock with a shadow underneath it ,the peregrine is perched on that

https://vimeo.com/138697210

Interesting!

I just found the Birdforum. I am new to photography and recently purchased a SX60. I was delighted to find this topic. I mostly use the Auto settings and have been dabbling with other settings while I learn. A lot of info in this thread.

hi gail and welcome to bf,once you start using the other settings (tv/av)mode you will find you wont use auto again,below are some recent shots,the 3 bird pics were all taken at full zoom,tv mode ,247mm ,1.5 converter switched on and in windy conditions

Can anyone tell me whether this model or the SX50 can be used for digiscoping? If do, how do the results compare with the camera at high zoom?

Never had any luck at all with these cameras James

Sorry for hijacking somewhat. It's still on the subject of the SX60, which I have just purchased.


I'm interested if anyone has any custom C1/C2 presets for bird photography they wouldn't mind sharing?

I'm guessing Tv is the way to go for that, with relatively high shutter speed.

Just popping in for a moment, been a while since I've been out taking photos with the SX60.

My pride-n-joy for the last outing was this Golden-Crowned Sparrow photo.

Uploaded three photos to my gallery today, more to come soon. Winter is busier for my animal photography hobby as we get dozens of species of overwintering birds added to the local population.

Cracking shot Kevin.

Rich

Hi, new to birding with sx60 (actually new to birding ever). Finally after days of fog got chance today to photograph some birds.

I used Tv mode, and cam is handheld (didn't have time to dig up tripod)

Not totally satisfied, but I think I know what the issues are (handheld cam, bird in deep shadow, too high allowed ISO settings), so when I have chance I'll have to play with settings and steady my hands (or dig up tripod).

Sparrow

Any suggestions are more then welcome.

This should help anyone with a Canon SX60

Jasenka said:

Hi, new to birding with sx60 (actually new to birding ever). Finally after days of fog got chance today to photograph some birds.

I used Tv mode, and cam is handheld (didn't have time to dig up tripod)

Not totally satisfied, but I think I know what the issues are (handheld cam, bird in deep shadow, too high allowed ISO settings), so when I have chance I'll have to play with settings and steady my hands (or dig up tripod).

Sparrow

Any suggestions are more then welcome.

Click to expand...

I think this link could help anyone who has purchased a Canon SX60 explains everything really!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZisUiKaNe4

Just bought 3 weeks ago the SX60 to replace my old SX40 who died after many years of loyal services. I was truly hesitant to purchase it when reading the not so great reviews from the 'SX50 gang'. Nevertheless, it is a major step-up from my previous canon and I find it perfect for bird ID, would it be in flight or stationary. Very fast switch on time, fast focus, rapid fire shots, better LCD (that was easy), and the extra stabilization button is a major plus. Under good light conditions, images are very sharp until 20m or so (I don't use tripod) and with a steady hand long reaches are good enough. I'm happy!

gulls shot at 20-30m, fieldfare 40m

As a Christmas present to myself, I've invested in a Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash, and a Flash X-Tender (Better Beamer) FX-5.

Anyone use either of these with the SX60?

I checked carefully, the SX60 supports the 430EX II, and for long ranges the Better Beamer seemed mandatory. I got it because of the truly awful lighting conditions I'm stuck with quite a bit of the time and to hopefully give the camera better chance (more light) on long range shots.

Not a cheap flash, but flashes are a good investment. And no such thing as "cheap flash" for long-range photography.

Don't worry, I don't plan to be stunning every bird I see, just an item in the toolkit.

scheinpflug nice pics,kevin I don't have the canon flash but I did buy the nissin speedlite for my canon 550d,it was the usual case for me,buy it use it for a couple of days then stick it in the cupboard, ill look it out and see if its compatible, below are 2 pics from last week,the pipit landed very close to me ,the kestrel was a record shot which was heavily cropped,i was interested to see what prey it was eating,not the most successful hunter by the looks of it

Kawwauser, I can relate to the "buy a gizmo, then not use it much." But in this case, I too often get stuck taking photos that are challenging for a bridge camera or a digiscoping setup--awkward/difficult lighting conditions. I'm already shooting at long distances, which just exacerbates the problem.

So in this case, I expect to get good use of the flash. Been reading-up on the "how," specifically when used with a Better Beamer...another skillset to develop, to be sure. Was hoping someone here had tried this with an SX60, SX50, a bridge camera of any sort, or even a more typical DSLR setup to be able to give advice.

Hi I've had my sx60 for a while now and am very pleased with it. However, I feel looking at how crisp your shots are that I'm missing a trick. I use the auto mode and sometimes custom for ISO. But what would you recommend as the general go to set up for bird photography with the sx60?

Hello all

I bought my SX60 about 6-8 weeks ago and have been using it on auto, in the absence of much time to practise, or to look up settings.

However, I found this thread and have used settings recommended on another thread (! I thought this thread was supposed to be for that ), and messed about today given the local Hoopoe was sitting stationary for long periods. The light was poor and the distance about 50 feet.

Tried with the digital 1.6 and 2x zoom, and without. Also did a bit of video and used the software to do a grab. Also tried manual, aperture priority and shutter priority.

To be honest, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between the settings in this situation. Obviously manual and shutter priority enabled me to get faster shutter speeds, but that meant lightening them in PS at home, because the aperture was at 6+. ISO I kept at 250-400.

All photo's were taken using a tripod, which is good enough for my big scope so is nice and steady.

Below are a pic taken as a still originally, and a video grab.

There is only minor sharpening on the first one, and no editing on the second.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with this - it is certianly very versatile, and is lighter than my scope/digiscoping set-up, and also better than carrying scope and DSLR.

Whilst the pics aren't DSLR quality, they are plenty good enough for this amateur, who likes to actually watch the birds as well as photograph them.

Ghostly Vision said:

Tried with the digital 1.6 and 2x zoom, and without. Also did a bit of video and used the software to do a grab. Also tried manual, aperture priority and shutter priority.

Click to expand...

I'd avoid the digital zoom entirely, and unless desperate, avoid even the digital teleconverter. Except for video, which seems to handle the artificial magnification quite well.

Ghostly Vision said:

To be honest, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between the settings in this situation. Obviously manual and shutter priority enabled me to get faster shutter speeds, but that meant lightening them in PS at home, because the aperture was at 6+. ISO I kept at 250-400.

Click to expand...

I've found any small sensor camera is going to require photographing with ETTL or ETTR techniques to maximize the data captured (and won't always look good straight from the camera), which requires post-processing in a program like Photoshop to bring the photo back where the histogram belongs.

This is just the nature of the dynamic range of small-sensor cameras. In most cases this means using ETTL to avoid blowing out highlights. I've been squeezing consumer and prosumer cameras for every ounce of usefulness this way for a while.

If it is any consolation, it would seem post-processing is very common even for professional DSLR photographers. Everyone in the end wants to maximize the potential of the photos from their camera, it's just a matter of what level of perfection you're looking for, the limits of the camera you have, and the time you want to spend.

With this in mind, I spend a fair amount of time on it. An average of 8 hours of sorting, post-processing (Photoshop with Topaz Labs plugins), sizing, and posting for every 1200 or so photos a typical 2 hour bird photo outing yields. That's 1200 photos that narrows to about 40-50 I like which translates to maybe 12 I want to post (not including various poses, so maybe 18-25 actually "nice" photos).

Typically I use ETTL techniques, then use Photoshop's Camera RAW to readjust the histogram (Whites, Blacks, Highlights, Shadows, and Clarity). Any additional adjustments (I've been slowly learning to use Topaz Labs plugins: Adjust, Clarity, DeNoise, and Detail) plus sizing and sharpening (Smart Sharpen) happen in Photoshop.

I've gotten a good rhythm down, since the same settings and techniques to adjust the photo apply to just about every photo off the camera. So you get a groove and speed after a while when you learn your camera's peculiarities and after you learn a safe set of settings on the camera itself.

Enjoy!

From experience, I'd say this is pushing it for distance and (relative) sharpness and clarity, but I think does show what's possible with patience, practice, and a fair bit of luck. These are two photos of a Turkey Vulture moving at a faster-than-soaring speed while cruising the marsh at low altitude and making quick turns.

They were taken at 100m (110 yards) and like all my photos were taken as high-res JPEG, low compression, low NR, handheld, no framing assist, no digital zoom, no digital teleconverter, from a continuous burst while tracking the bird in the EVF.

Post-processed via Adobe Camera RAW (Blacks, Whites, Highlights, Shadows, and Clarity). In Photoshop, rotated (because I shot them at a weird angle because of an obstruction), cropped to remove unwanted elements and because of rotation, scaled to fit forum requirements (1024x900), and Smart Sharpened. Except for rotating the photo, pretty typical post-processing for my forum posts.

• Turkey Vulture 1
• Turkey Vulture 2

Rotating the image made the camera noise more obvious, but I personally don't think this is too bad for a "lowly bridge camera."

Recently spent a weekend in sunny but very cold Sweden, where this Hawk Owl showed extremely well.

Conditions were perfect in terms of light, distance from the bird, and the fact that it kept still.

The SX60 produced some really great results, but with the 1.6 teleconverter turned on, it gives some grain to the images. This has taught me that I will turn off the telconverter in future, as you say, Calvin. I'd rather stick with digital zoom only and work with the results from there.