Canon SX30 or Fuji HS10? (1 Viewer)

[Secret Twitcher]

Apologies if this has already been dealt with but as a newby to photography I would really appreciate a little simplification and advice. I have decided to buy myself a camera and having been very impressed with a friends HS10 I thought my mind was made up. However, since then I have done some reading and viewed images taken by both cameras and am swaying towards the SX30.

I wondered if anyone would able to summarise the positives and negatives of each to help me decide. What does one do that the other doesn't and is the SX30 worth the extra £140?

Subjective, I know but any thoughts would be most welcome.

Cheers

 

[welove2travel]

Shop around and I believe the prices are actually pretty similar for both cameras. I think the canon has a slightly longer reach on the lens. There have been some complaints about getting good images with the canon, but others have posted really nice shots so I am thinking it is more a question of the operator than the camera... either that or some people are purchasing defective cameras from shady sources. Unfortunately, I've used neither so my opinion is based on meta-analysis of the available reviews.

My guess is either will please the birder who wants an occasional photo and neither will please the wildlife photographer who occasionally birds.

 

[etudiant]

Afaik, some of the most impressive bird shots shown that were done with the SX30 (seen in the DPReview Forum) reflect the extensive use of post processing by an expert. As a novice, that is a not in my skill set.
That suggests the Fuji with its RAW output might be better suited for the serious amateur, one who is anxious to get the best possible picture but who does not have the full expertise of a pro.

 

[welove2travel]

etudiant, I am new to photography. I thought the advantage of raw was that you could do more post processing to fix shots?

 

[etudiant]

Hi welove2travel,

Your point about RAW being the best format for post processing is exactly right.
The SX30 does not give a RAW output afaik, but uses a JPEG format.
The DP Review expert uses a variety of specialized tools to get his superb results here:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=37488011
and also many more here:
http://search.dpreview.com/index.php?page=0&q=sx30&scope=Forums&forumid=1010&sort=Date

In some of the discussion, he gives more detail on how he does it to get his quality images. It seems a rather more specialized and involved process than the usual RAW tweaks. However, I'm no expert, so perhaps it is much easier than my perception has it.

 

[kenn3d]

Hi welove2travel,

Your point about RAW being the best format for post processing is exactly right.
The SX30 does not give a RAW output afaik, but uses a JPEG format.
The DP Review expert uses a variety of specialized tools to get his superb results here:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=37488011
and also many more here:
http://search.dpreview.com/index.php?page=0&q=sx30&scope=Forums&forumid=1010&sort=Date

In some of the discussion, he gives more detail on how he does it to get his quality images. It seems a rather more specialized and involved process than the usual RAW tweaks. However, I'm no expert, so perhaps it is much easier than my perception has it.

Hi etudiant and all,

With the beta release of CHDK, it is now possible to shoot RAW with the SX30. But I would just like to say that our post-processing of the jpeg output from the camera is really not too involved or specialized.

We shoot in Manual mode (hand-held), and set sharpening to -2, contrast to -1, and saturation to neutral. This minimizes in-camera processing and allows us much better control of sharpening, contrast, and color correction in post, much like shooting in RAW. I use an old version of Photoshop to apply NR (Neat Image plugin) to the background only, and USM to the in-focus foreground only. Simple level and WB adjustments are also applied as required. The entire process takes about 5-10 minutes per image, but we feel it's well worth doing. Many DSLR users who specialize in bird photography use this same process.

The SX30 certainly has it's pros and cons, but it is a great little camera for birding on a budget. It's not fast, but its image stabilization is excellent, its reach is unsurpassed, and its focus is sharp. We have not seen birding images from any other superzoom which would make us want to switch to another camera.

Hope this is helpful, and good shooting to you all.

Kenn

SX30 Slideshow:
http://kenn3d.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=15050225&AlbumKey=a88Zy

 

[Steve Babbs]

I had to make the this choice recently and went for the Fuji for these reasons:
- ability to take RAW pictures
- the reviews, especially as higher ISO, gave the edge to the Fuji - although there are very few head to heads
- I much prefer the manual zoom

I will say that the ability to take RAW pictures turned out to be a bit irrelevant as the camera takes, a horribly slow, 2.5 seconds to write this to the card. Not really practical for wildlife photography. It's a 'liveable with' second or so with a full size JPEG.

 

[etudiant]

Hi etudiant and all,

With the beta release of CHDK, it is now possible to shoot RAW with the SX30. But I would just like to say that our post-processing of the jpeg output from the camera is really not too involved or specialized.

We shoot in Manual mode (hand-held), and set sharpening to -2, contrast to -1, and saturation to neutral. This minimizes in-camera processing and allows us much better control of sharpening, contrast, and color correction in post, much like shooting in RAW. I use an old version of Photoshop to apply NR (Neat Image plugin) to the background only, and USM to the in-focus foreground only. Simple level and WB adjustments are also applied as required. The entire process takes about 5-10 minutes per image, but we feel it's well worth doing. Many DSLR users who specialize in bird photography use this same process.

The SX30 certainly has it's pros and cons, but it is a great little camera for birding on a budget. It's not fast, but its image stabilization is excellent, its reach is unsurpassed, and its focus is sharp. We have not seen birding images from any other superzoom which would make us want to switch to another camera.

Hope this is helpful, and good shooting to you all.

Kenn

SX30 Slideshow:
http://kenn3d.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=15050225&AlbumKey=a88Zy

Hi Ken,

Your photos are wonderful.!
Thank you for posting them. It gives us amateurs a sense of what a pro can do with the SX30.

Can you please expand on the CHDK option? It seems to be a substantial enhancement for the SX30,
but not so well documented.