Animal Photography with the Canon SX60HS (1 Viewer)

CalvinFold · Mar 5, 2015

I wanted to start a thread dedicated to the SX60 so we can share settings and technique without the "some other camera is better, the SX60 sucks" vitriol. |8.|

We picked this camera for various reasons over the others, let's just leave it at that, shall we? If I had my own way, we'll never get into "but the SX50 is better" or "only DSLR cameras are worth it, superzooms are only for reference photography." Maybe you can help me achieve this goal?

I know I'm not the only SX60 user, based on the Gallery, though I seem to be the most prolific at the moment. Maybe it's my need to tweak, fiddle, and experiment to get the most out of the camera. Almost a given because despite some great capabilities for a camera like this, the stock settings from Canon are awful. ;-p

Let's share what we know to get better animal photos! Feel free to ask me questions, and post your own experiences!

CalvinFold · Mar 5, 2015

INTRODUCTION:
I come from a passion for amateur long-range animal photography before I even knew what "digiscoping" was. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area where some of the best places to see animals are also protected areas. So no ability to trek into the woods off-trail to get the best pictures, or get any closer. But there are protected spaces everywhere.

So I got into using long lenses, and my camera of choice for over a decade was the twist-body Nikon Coolpix (culminating in the 4500) using the CrystalVue Sharpshooter (8x12).

Then I found true "digiscoping" and used a Celetron C90 with the Coolpix 4500 (hey, I had a tight budget) and really spent more time diving into how to really squeeze every ounce of capability from the setup. And photographing out past 50m was such a joy!

I really like getting candid shots with no chance of bothering the animal by trying to sneak up on them, so I rarely try anything but staying where I am and using zoom to get the shot. Instead preferring to use long lenses.

I bought my SX60 late last year after asking alot of questions. I came really close to getting into the Micro Four-Thirds, but became convinced the expense of getting the gear to photograph out past 50m would either be expensive, or still leave me tethered to carrying a scope around. That's when someone here nudged me to look at superzooms (a category I never knew existed). And so, here I am.

And once again, I know I have a camera that isn't a DLSR or MFT, but I no longer have to carry a scope to get the far away moments. I am also slowly learning more about photography than point-and-shoot, and learning ways to make the SX60 do things the Canon defaults would make you think it can't.

CalvinFold · Mar 5, 2015

So I'll ask an opener, to see if anyone has come-up with better solutions:

In my case, I use Shutter Priority (Tv) (primarily to try and catch BiF and fast-moving birds), control the ISO myself, and let the camera worry about aperture. In the past, I used Tv and let the camera control ISO and aperture. No matter what, the camera clipped/blew-out the highlights. A real problem with white birds or birds shot against bright skies.

I have been using Center-Weighted Metering based on my experiences with the Coolpix 4500 and early tests using Matrix Metering on the SX60 making things worse.

So for me, I've found that no matter the shutter speed or ISO, I've had to consistently use -1/3 or -2/3 EV (exposure compensation).

Anyone else have this problem and have a more elegant solution?

kawwauser · Mar 12, 2015

i was out with my camera on monday intending on shooting at iso 100/200, while out in the field I realised I couldn't get my camera to these settings,i have my camera set to iso 400 max and have been annoyed by the camera picking 400 even in good lighting,while mucking about trying to get iso 100
I noticed that when I press menu the iso auto settings reads max 400 but when I press the function button it then reads that the iso is set to 400,now I know why it never went below 400,the 100 and 200 are blanked out,im defiantly going to have to find the manual,it didn't matter on monday as the weather was really dull and we had gale force winds,i found a sheltered spot but the only birds about were a group of mallards,a ray of light shone on a female sitting on a tree stump so I focussed on her, you can see her in the first pic

Marcobf · Mar 12, 2015

TC or not TC

It's interesting that the duck is almost the same size in shots 2 and 3, but in 2 you've used a focal length of 70mm (392mm) optical only, and in shot 3 it's 41mm (229mm) optical x1.63 TC (= 367mm) Aperture is 5.6 for both

On my monitor I can't really tell which is better. I think shot 2, but I would have expected more of a difference. The shutter speed is lower in pic 3 so more light and possibly more blur, which makes comparison harder

CalvinFold · Mar 12, 2015

If shooting JPEG, I've found the teleconverter introduces more artifacts and roughness to the image at 100%, but it's mitigated by reducing for the web due to the inherent blur of resizing. Myself, I avoid the teleconverter unless I really need the reach, since I don't like what it does to the image quality.

CalvinFold · Mar 12, 2015

kawwauser: What shooting mode are you using? Auto, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, or something else?

kawwauser · Mar 12, 2015

I'm shooting in tv mode

CalvinFold · Mar 12, 2015

kawwauser said:
I'm shooting in tv mode

Really odd, I also shoot in TV and have no issues at all choosing my own ISO.

So you're pushing the FUNC/SET button, going to ISO, then using the left-right (left=MF, right=flash) on the ring selector to select the ISO? (Or maybe it's the selection wheel, don't have my camera in front of me.) The Max ISO only applies when using Auto settings; if you manually select, you can use whatever ISO you want.

Also, make sure Safety Shift is off, or the camera will insist on second-guessing even manually-made settings...and it seems to insist on higher ISOs than really necessary.

kawwauser · Mar 12, 2015

I press the function button but only 400-1600 is highlighted the rest are darkened and not available ,I have switched off the safety shift and tried av mode and manual mode but they are the same

CalvinFold · Mar 12, 2015

kawwauser said:
I press the function button but only 400-1600 is highlighted the rest are darkened and not available ,I have switched off the safety shift and tried av mode and manual mode but they are the same

You've stumped me there, I have never seen that behavior before. :eek!:

You might try resetting the camera and starting over if you get really stuck (see image attached).

Wytche · Mar 12, 2015

CalvinFold said:
You've stumped me there, I have never seen that behavior before. :eek!:

You might try resetting the camera and starting over if you get really stuck (see image attached).

Hi CalvinFold and kawwauser

Just joined the forums and saw this post. You haven't got DR Correction switched on have you?

I think if set to 200% it limits ISO from 200 - 1600 and if set to 400% it limits from 400 - 1600.

Paul

kawwauser · Mar 12, 2015

welcome to the forum wytche you are spot on that's what the problem was,i can now look forward to shooting at iso 100/200 when the good light appears :t:

CalvinFold · Mar 12, 2015

kawwauser said:
welcome to the forum wytche you are spot on that's what the problem was,i can now look forward to shooting at iso 100/200 when the good light appears :t:

Ditto...welcome and thanks for the assist! :clap:

Wytche · Mar 13, 2015

Glad to be of assistance. I’ve been following the posts on here from you guys and other forum members for some time and you’ve all helped me progress from Auto and Program mode into the more adventurous zones of AV and TV with the SX60 so it’s good to contribute something back.

Quick intro, I’m very much an amateur photographer but a keen nature observer. Until about November last year I owned a Canon EOS 500D with a few lenses the largest of which was the Sigma 150-500.

As I’m no youngster anymore and prefer to be fairly mobile I decided to downscale to something more portable so I decided to trade in for a point and shoot option and eventually went for the SX60.

I’m enjoying my experience with the SX60. I’ve found that I’m taking more pictures than with my DSLR setup primarily due to its portability and flexibility and whilst I’m having to work harder to get results this process is also teaching me more more about photography techniques.

I’m primarily using AV mode and some TV mode (all hand held) with max ISO set to 400 and safety shift off so once I’ve found my way around the forums I’ll post an image or two and let you know what settings I'm currently playing with.

CalvinFold · Mar 13, 2015

Wytche said:
I’m primarily using AV mode and some TV mode (all hand held) with max ISO set to 400 and safety shift off so once I’ve found my way around the forums I’ll post an image or two and let you know what settings I'm currently playing with.

For reference, right now I'm using TV because, well, I'm addicted to capturing birds in flight and other "frozen motion" moments. Water drops during a splash, seeing feathers during flight, that sort of thing. So I prefer to get the fastest shutter speed I can manage. I can't seem to make 1/2000 work, photos are too contrasty without ISO settings with too much noise (JPEG). I'm currently seeing if I can make 1/1600 work more consistently.

Focusing, for now, on optimizing JPEG shooting settings, since I do alot of burst photography. Once I get that figured out, I'll have to see if I can push the capabilities even further using RAW (when I'm willing to sacrifice burst speed).

Which generally means higher ISOs for the poor little SX60 sensor. The SX60 seems blow-out highlights and keeps picking too high an ISO, so I've been (slowly) learning to control that myself, along with -1/3 to -2/3 EV at all times.

I did try shooting RAW for the first time recently. Slows down the burst speed something awful, and the learning curve to use ACR to do everything the camera does automatically with JPEGs has been steep (luminence noise removal, sharpening, etc.), I have to admit the resulting images are much nicer at much larger sizes. I should be posting some to my gallery soon.

I can't wait to get the perspective of someone who has some objective experience with a DSLR as a baseline.

QUESTION: I'm still using Center-Weighted metering, since I find it helps in flat and contrasty lighting with white birds. Does anyone here use Spot or Matrix/Evaluative instead? Matrix keeps bugging me because I can't predict the results in advance.

kawwauser · Mar 17, 2015

didn,t get shooting at iso 100 today the weather here is atrocious, only managed to snap a few pics in between spells of rain, I noticed with the dr correction switched to auto the camera still lets you pick lower iso settings,i decided to try this out ,i went for iso 250 on tv mode but forgot to switch off the safety shift resulting in very low shutter speeds,i got away with the first pic of the mallard mainly because it was stationary and the camera was resting on a hide window,tv mode 1/100 221.14mm,i missed out on a good opportunity to catch the wren later when the shutter speed dropped to 1/60,i didn't have time to change the settings,this is the smallest bird I have photographed with my sx 60 , first pic tv mode 1/60 117.92mm,second pic tv mode 1/60 97.73mm

CalvinFold · Mar 18, 2015

The sleeping female mallard is wonderful.

I just read-up on the Dynamic Range Correction feature. Interesting that it might solve the blown highlights problem without the need for manual adjustment of the exposure compensation.

Also annoying that we'd have to resort to a special feature just to do something so obvious. ;-p

Once I get dialed-into some more manual settings, I'l have to try the DRC to see what it does to my photos.

Robert L Jarvis · Mar 18, 2015

I have an SX60, got it last November, have to admit though not really used it for stills. Have kept with my 7D and 100-400 lens for that. Although for stills if I use the 60 it is set for TV and have had no problem with selecting ISO.
I also keep it set to just using the optical zoom and do not go near the TC side at all. I have tried it and trying to hold it still is some thing else plus I think it downgrades the image quality. Also keep the built in DNR set to low, if I could find a way it would be switched off. Add to that my setting is for Center Weighted at the moment.

I know you are querying why did I buy it. It was purchased for video. The results of video are brilliant, you should try that aspect for your self.

CalvinFold · Mar 19, 2015

You're not the first person who has mentioned the SX60 is "meh" for photos but the greatest little high-zoom video-taking camera. I've taken videos here and there with it, but it's really not my "thing." Besides, I'm always too busy taking stills, especially BiF. |8)| |

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I keep the DNR low as well, and agree I'd turn it off it I could. Comparing photos taking in JPEG+Large+Superfine to RAW it is obvious the JPEG compression and noise reduction is too aggressive or bad algorithms or something. The RAW files have alot of luminance noise, but Adobe Camera Raw can get rid of it and save JPEGs that still look far better at the same pixel-zoom level (pixel-peeping).

I sometimes wonder if camera designers (on the hardware side) even know about Photoshop, Adobe Camera RAW, Lightroom, etc. and pixel-peep the results from their cameras. |8.|

Animal Photography with the Canon SX60HS (1 Viewer)

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