• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

The new SX30 IS (1 Viewer)

M

macshark

Electron Chaser
Canon finally introduces a P&S digicam that gives you comparable reach to a 500mm lens on a 1.6x crop DSLR: SX30 IS.

Expectations in terms of image quality for a 35x zoom camera with a tiny 14MP sensor cannot be that high, but if there was a metric for image quality per pound (or per gram?), this could be a pretty interesting camera...
 
The specification reads great but there is no escaping it has a small sensor. Like you say Steve it will be interesting to see what the reviewers think of it.
 
It is strange that Canon chose not to use the excellent 1/2.3" 10MP CMOS sensor that is used on SD4000 IS and SD4500 IS for SX30 IS. I am hoping for a SX3 IS variant with that sensor...
 
Steve Babbs said:
I think it got its UK launch today. Anyone seen any reviews yet?
Click to expand...
no, but I can't wait! the YouTube videos demonstrating the zoom range are pretty awesome - and it being available to collect tomorrow from Jessops for as little as £379 makes it a tempting proposition - if and of course it's a VERY big if - the quality is there!
 
John Fleet said:
no, but I can't wait! the YouTube videos demonstrating the zoom range are pretty awesome - and it being available to collect tomorrow from Jessops for as little as £379 makes it a tempting proposition - if and of course it's a VERY big if - the quality is there!
Click to expand...

If the qualities not there the Panasonic FZ45 is in London Camera exchange at Exeter at £329
 
John Fleet said:
no, but I can't wait! the YouTube videos demonstrating the zoom range are pretty awesome - and it being available to collect tomorrow from Jessops for as little as £379 makes it a tempting proposition - if and of course it's a VERY big if - the quality is there!
Click to expand...

I'll wait until after Christmas, when hopefully the price will come down a bit. But, if the reviews are good, hopefully this'll be for the times I can't be bothered to lug the SLR around. Or when I'm travelling light. As it has a flash hot shoe does that mean the, Canon dedicated, Sigma flash I have for my EOS500D will work on it?
 
baught one yesterday-took it back today-worst evf ive ever seen-disposable camera has better-no chance of picking any birds in flight up,and pretty awfull images even at iso 100.Sorry but the cheapest slr with a 200mm lens would get better pictures than this at 840,ive never seen pictures has bad from any bridge ive had.
was going to use it has a lightweight alternative to my d90 and sigma 150- 500 but this was not it
 
JON_T said:
baught one yesterday-took it back today-worst evf ive ever seen-disposable camera has better-no chance of picking any birds in flight up,and pretty awfull images even at iso 100.Sorry but the cheapest slr with a 200mm lens would get better pictures than this at 840,ive never seen pictures has bad from any bridge ive had.
was going to use it has a lightweight alternative to my d90 and sigma 150- 500 but this was not it
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure that's fair... If you're talking about the previous model the SX20IS then yes, I agree the EVF is terrible - it's awfully pixelated and was enough to put me off the camera entirely. But I just had a look through the new SX30IS today and in my view (no pun intended) the EVF is fine.

As for the IQ, michael23's link above was interesting and shows some pretty decent shots. If you want to see video quality have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EKMg1gnjnk

I've been looking to replace my Panasonic FZ38 + TCON17 which I liked very much, but sadly got stolen on my return to the UK earlier this summer. Together they had a zoom ability equivalent to 826mm on a 35mm camera. I haven't been convinced by the image quality of the FZ100, although I am considering whether to go for the FZ45 + TCON17 which gets up to 1020 mm. The Canon gets up to 840 mm without the hassle of carrying around the extra lens.

For a portable, affordable and versatile camera which allows me to take wide angle photos of the interior of a safari lodge one minute and a distance shot of an African Fish Eagle the next, I must say I'm quite tempted by the Canon SX30is ...
 
user reviews starting to come in: this one is at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm9IV9Gslgw

11 mins of video - looks very tempting!

"I normally like the panasonic range of cameras, however this one tempted me to try the competitor' offering. Not entirely perfect, but the initial images look superior to my FZ100. This model has a lot of gimmicky features but the modes you really nead are well implemented. the super zoom to 35x is superb. You can judge for yourself but the full 840mm equivalent 35mm focal length is still pin sharp edge to edge. The record button is fine when you use the camera at arms length and using the lcd screen but is hopelessly in the wrong place when you want to use the evf. its to close to the viewfinder and you can't get your finger in to operate the button without disturbing the shot. EVF is small, perhaps a little better than the FZ38/100. The zoom assist is a great addition as it allows you to frame up on the subject at wide angle and then the zoom extends to the setting you had before you pressed the zoom assist button. ISO down to 80 means great quality stills. Compared to the FZ100 at 100 iso the grain pattern is better in the sx30. No external mike input is a let down and you don't get a lens hood and filters need a special adaptor - really bad marketing meaning you have to buy addition attachments which all aother manufacturers supply. Well enough bitching, the raw results are, in my opinion, outstanding, The still image jpegs are processed well, still would have liked to see a raw option as well buy canon target audience must just be happy snappers - pity as this camera ticks most of the boxes for the enthusiast. As reported the wide angle does suffer from purple/cyan fringes (chromatic aberration) but you have to really enlarge the image to be objectionable."
 
John Fleet said:
user reviews starting to come in: this one is at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm9IV9Gslgw

11 mins of video - looks very tempting!

"I normally like the panasonic range of cameras, however this one tempted me to try the competitor' offering. Not entirely perfect, but the initial images look superior to my FZ100. This model has a lot of gimmicky features but the modes you really nead are well implemented. the super zoom to 35x is superb. You can judge for yourself but the full 840mm equivalent 35mm focal length is still pin sharp edge to edge. The record button is fine when you use the camera at arms length and using the lcd screen but is hopelessly in the wrong place when you want to use the evf. its to close to the viewfinder and you can't get your finger in to operate the button without disturbing the shot. EVF is small, perhaps a little better than the FZ38/100. The zoom assist is a great addition as it allows you to frame up on the subject at wide angle and then the zoom extends to the setting you had before you pressed the zoom assist button. ISO down to 80 means great quality stills. Compared to the FZ100 at 100 iso the grain pattern is better in the sx30. No external mike input is a let down and you don't get a lens hood and filters need a special adaptor - really bad marketing meaning you have to buy addition attachments which all aother manufacturers supply. Well enough bitching, the raw results are, in my opinion, outstanding, The still image jpegs are processed well, still would have liked to see a raw option as well buy canon target audience must just be happy snappers - pity as this camera ticks most of the boxes for the enthusiast. As reported the wide angle does suffer from purple/cyan fringes (chromatic aberration) but you have to really enlarge the image to be objectionable."
Click to expand...

I have just recently bought the Panasonic FZ100 and although it doesn't have the fabulous zoom range of the new Canon, the Canon lacks a serious burst mode. I think I saw 2 frames per sec at its highest. Its down there with the FZ40. Both use a CCD sensor. If your after some good bird shots a high rapid fire rate is way up there on my priorities. If it had an equivalent burst rate it would be a real winner. I can more than match the Canon's range with my 2x teleconverter, but the Canon will always be stuck at 2 frames per second.
 
Tony_79 said:
Way too many pixels on tiny sensors... So IQ of this camera cannot be too good
Click to expand...
People said that about the Canon 7D/550D/60D and about the new Nikon D7000 - and they've been proven plain wrong about that.

More pixels does not inherently mean a drop in IQ. It's the size (surface area) of the sensor that matters, not how many pixels it has. But technology improvements from one generation to the next pretty much guarantee that the SX30 will have better IQ than the SX20, even with more mps.
 
The video looks excellent, and many of the shots don't look too bad, I was not impressed though with the moorhen shot but that might simply be down to the photographer not being a birder.

I am not sure that there is enough to tempt me away from my FZ28 and 1.45 TC though, as regards small sensor and high MP rates, it is a lost argument, like it or not high MP rates are a selling point, and used within their limits high MP sensors do give good results as many people on this forum will demonstrate.
 
Keith Reeder said:
People said that about the Canon 7D/550D/60D and about the new Nikon D7000 - and they've been proven plain wrong about that.

More pixels does not inherently mean a drop in IQ. It's the size (surface area) of the sensor that matters, not how many pixels it has. But technology improvements from one generation to the next pretty much guarantee that the SX30 will have better IQ than the SX20, even with more mps.
Click to expand...

Something that is constantly ignored in the Large v small sensor argument is the fact that large sensor cameras are almost always DSLRS with high quality lenses that usually cost as much or more than the camera body itself. These superzooms actually have cheap lenses that try to do the same as a range of lense on a DSLR. I have often thought that a small sensor DSLR camera with a range of quality interchangeable lenses might well come much closer to matching the quality of pictures taken on large sensor DSLRs than any of these superzooms.
 
scodgerott said:
I have just recently bought the Panasonic FZ100 and although it doesn't have the fabulous zoom range of the new Canon, the Canon lacks a serious burst mode. I think I saw 2 frames per sec at its highest. Its down there with the FZ40. Both use a CCD sensor. If your after some good bird shots a high rapid fire rate is way up there on my priorities. If it had an equivalent burst rate it would be a real winner. I can more than match the Canon's range with my 2x teleconverter, but the Canon will always be stuck at 2 frames per second.
Click to expand...
You're right - that is a shame. But I'd rather have a few reasonably good quality photos than several poor ones...
 
speckled wood said:
I have often thought that a small sensor DSLR camera with a range of quality interchangeable lenses might well come much closer to matching the quality of pictures taken on large sensor DSLRs than any of these superzooms.
Click to expand...
That's sort of the direction that the Four Thirds system takes, I guess - although a Four Thirds sensor isn't very small, like a superzoom sensor, it's still an attempt to get maximum bang for the buck from a smaller sensor.

But then you get into the downsides of small sensors too, the main ones being reduced DR and increased noise.

You do get benefits as well, thanks to the increased "crop factor" (if you subscribe to that argument) that small sensors provide.

And the cameras themselves are splendidly compact.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 13 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

A
Using Canon R6 in full frame versus cropped mode?
Replies
3
Views
5K
Aliks
A
Oregon John
What I think would be the perfect birding (rather than bird photography) camera
Replies
10
Views
2K
robinlanark
R
J
Help pls Which phone/ compact camera?
Replies
0
Views
721
Jhanlon
J
J
Which camera or phone for digiscoping?
Replies
1
Views
2K
Luca1970
L
T
Camera choice for birding around 3000 Euros with lens?
Replies
3
Views
1K
Tsvetan
T

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top