• 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.

Canon SX60HS in Action (3 Viewers)

After waiting now for a long time to upgrade from the SX50 to something better I decided to give the SX60 a try for Xmas. It arrived yesterday evening and today was rain. (It seems I always get the new camera on rainy days)

So I'll be trying it out once the sun comes out and comparing with the SX50.

If I'm satisfied I'll wrap it up and put it under the tree for me. If not I'll send it back to Amazon.

I really hope to be satisfied because frankly, i don't need a new TV or GPS or Tablet. I don't know what else to get myself for Xmas.
 
After waiting now for a long time to upgrade from the SX50 to something better I decided to give the SX60 a try for Xmas. It arrived yesterday evening and today was rain. (It seems I always get the new camera on rainy days)

So I'll be trying it out once the sun comes out and comparing with the SX50.

If I'm satisfied I'll wrap it up and put it under the tree for me. If not I'll send it back to Amazon.

I really hope to be satisfied because frankly, i don't need a new TV or GPS or Tablet. I don't know what else to get myself for Xmas.

You should note that the Canon SX 70 rumor is cropping up again.
http://thenewcamera.com/canon-sx70-hs-coming-next-month-at-ces-show/

I've been waiting for this as well, but admit that it may again be a false alarm.
 
I've only just started to test the SX60 vs the SX50.

It's not a no-brainer to decide how to best do a fair comparison between the two in terms of the amount of zoom to use. These initial photos the SX60 I used maximum optical zoom and the 1.6x teleconverter. On the SX50 I used maximum optical and the 2x teleconverter. The SX50 got closer to the test subject than the SX60. I took several photos on each camera and have tried to choose the best from both.

Attached are the SX60 (File number 26) and then the SX50 (file number 7580)

While close, to my eye the SX50 has the edge.

It was also very clear that the SX50 had far better IS then the SX60. I was able to hold the 50 right on the subject while I struggled a lot more to keep the SX60 centered where I wanted it.

I have a lot more trying out to do but these are my first impressions.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0026.JPG
    IMG_0026.JPG
    259.9 KB · Views: 126
  • IMG_7580.JPG
    IMG_7580.JPG
    271.9 KB · Views: 129
Why not use the 2x converter on the SX60? Mine outdid my mate's 50 every time....so much so he bought a 60 too. Never had any trouble keeping the 60 still on a subject...even at max zoom - the button on the barrel is a great way for additional stabilization but don't move the camera away fron your subject with it pressed in otherwise it'll have a spack. Dunno how people could ever see straight again after looking through the 50's evf.....;)
 
Why not use the 2x converter on the SX60? Mine outdid my mate's 50 every time....so much so he bought a 60 too. Never had any trouble keeping the 60 still on a subject...even at max zoom - the button on the barrel is a great way for additional stabilization but don't move the camera away from your subject with it pressed in otherwise it'll have a spack. Dunno how people could ever see straight again after looking through the 50's evf.....;)

For my first test I was trying to get photos from each camera of roughly equal field of view for something a reasonable distance away. My first test above, I think, actually gave a theoretical advantage to the SX60 because it would not use as much "digital zoom" as the SX50 did.

But, you anticipated my next post. I was going ask for suggestions on various ways of making this a fair test. There are probably several different test setups that I should use.
 
Here is my second and probably last comparison of the day, at least outside shots. Cloudy day and it will be getting dark soon.

In this comparison both cameras were at maximum optical and 2x teleconverter. I cropped the SX50 photo down to roughly the same field of view as the SX60 and then resized both to post.

Still having a hard time keeping the SX60 centered on the target compared with the SX50. I believe that I have both using the same Image Stabilization settings but need to check that.

So I believe that because I cropped and saved the JPG an extra time, theoretically, the SX50 is also disadvantaged in this test.

The SX60 chose a higher ISO (640) than the SX50 did (400) at the same shutter speed of 1/160. So the SX60 photo is brighter.

The SX60 photo appears to have more noise and less detail. But the different ISOs could account for that.

Looking forward to a sunny day tomorrow so that the light issue is less of a factor.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0031.JPG
    IMG_0031.JPG
    287.4 KB · Views: 142
  • IMG_7581a.JPG
    IMG_7581a.JPG
    251.7 KB · Views: 136
Yeah, with the SX60 it will always choose too high an ISO...used to limit mine to 100 or 200 on a dull day!
Given up now and gone full DSLR ;)
 
The current (Nov 2016) issue of the ABA Birders Guide to Gear has an excellent article by Ted Floyd on the transformation brought about by the SX50 and its peers.
The thrust of the report was that these high performance cameras allow a different form of birding, where the photograph is the aim rather than the sighting itself. Sharing these pictures makes birding much easier to include in the social networks that now abound. He is on to something, imho.
 
The current (Nov 2016) issue of the ABA Birders Guide to Gear has an excellent article by Ted Floyd on the transformation brought about by the SX50 and its peers.
The thrust of the report was that these high performance cameras allow a different form of birding, where the photograph is the aim rather than the sighting itself. Sharing these pictures makes birding much easier to include in the social networks that now abound. He is on to something, imho.

Googled it. Nice article.
 
Here is my second and probably last comparison of the day, at least outside shots. Cloudy day and it will be getting dark soon.

In this comparison both cameras were at maximum optical and 2x teleconverter. I cropped the SX50 photo down to roughly the same field of view as the SX60 and then resized both to post.

Many thanks for your efforts. I am still looking for alternatives to the SX50 and might buy an SX60 or a Nikon P900, if the price is right. In April I bought a Nikon V2 (mainly for birds in flight), but the SX50 is hard to beat for long distances and macro. What I learned from the V2 is that photographing in RAW and using a good editing software can make a huge difference. That's why I'd be very interested to learn more about the SX60's ability to shoot RAW.

Here is a quick test that I was able to do myself. I've visited the dpreview website to get test files in raw format from the two cameras, the SX50 and the SX60.

I downloaded two files, the SX60 shooting a test chart at 247mm and the SX50 at 215mm (= maximum focal length). Then I treated the files with DxO Optics Pro 10 (Prime noise reduction) and standard settings that I prefer. Each file received the same treatment, and was cropped to show the photo. Exported to dng files, opened in Photoshop Elements, used camera raw only to add some clearity (+20). Saved as jpg.

The first photo is the SX50, the second the SX60. The result of the SX50 looks good to me.
The SX50 doesn't allow to use the TC with RAW. Is the SX60 different in this respect?

The raw file of the SX50 has a size of 13 MB, the SX60 is larger: 19 MB. So the SX60 has more pixels on the test chart, as should be expected.
 

Attachments

  • SX50hVFATB_X2_50X_at 215mm.jpg
    SX50hVFATB_X2_50X_at 215mm.jpg
    742.6 KB · Views: 129
  • SX60hVFATB_X2.7_at 247mm.jpg
    SX60hVFATB_X2.7_at 247mm.jpg
    750.9 KB · Views: 112
Last edited:
Many thanks for your efforts. I am still looking for alternatives to the SX50 and might buy an SX60 or a Nikon P900, if the price is right. In April I bought a Nikon V2 (mainly for birds in flight), but the SX50 is hard to beat for long distances and macro. What I learned from the V2 is that photographing in RAW and using a good editing software can make a huge difference. That's why I'd be very interested to learn more about the SX60's ability to shoot RAW.

Here is a quick test that I was able to do myself. I've visited the dpreview website to get test files in raw format from the two cameras, the SX50 and the SX60.

I downloaded two files, the SX60 shooting a test chart at 247mm and the SX50 at 215mm (= maximum focal length). Then I treated the files with DxO Optics Pro 10 (Prime noise reduction) and standard settings that I prefer. Each file received the same treatment, and was cropped to show the photo. Exported to dng files, opened in Photoshop Elements, used camera raw only to add some clearity (+20). Saved as jpg.

The first photo is the SX50, the second the SX60. The result of the SX50 looks good to me.
The SX50 doesn't allow to use the TC with RAW. Is the SX60 different in this respect?

The raw file of the SX50 has a size of 13 MB, the SX60 is larger: 19 MB. So the SX60 has more pixels on the test chart, as should be expected.

I sprang for the Nikon P900 a while back. I was very dissatisfied with the image quality when compared next to the SX50. I did a lot of my own comparison testing, some of which I posted in the P900 topic. I sent the first P900 back because I had a hard time believing that it could not even match the quality of the SX50 but the second one performed just as poorly.

Besides that, the P900 was huge in comparison and in addition, I didn't like the usability. For example there is no pause between moving from maximum optical zoom and digital zoom. The only option was to turn digital zoom on or off. Furthermore, P900's version of the Canon "Frame Assist" was terrible. While it snapped back a reasonable amount when only in optical zoom, once in digital zoom, even if only using a tiny bit of digital zoom, it would only snap back to the point of maximum optical zoom. So it was useless in the digital range and with no pause between moving from optical and digital zoom, I found the feature to be next to useless.

The P900 also lacks a Canon type teleconverter that works across the entire zoom range. I've found the teleconverter very handy especially in low light to allow a closer zoom while backing off on optical zoom to allow more light in.

So I canned the P900.

Back when the SX60 came out I read all about it. I recall running into the links that you've provided. At the time I decided to pass.

But now I'm giving it a try. We'll see. Today is sunny.

On your question about TC with Raw on the SX60, I'm sorry but I have no idea. I have never done any RAW and and I don't know what TC stands for. I do very little image editing and what I do is typically limited to contrast and brightness in JPG only.

The two photos that you attached are pretty revealing! It's pretty obvious that the SX50 beat the SX60 on that one.

Anyway, the sun is getting higher. I'll soon be going out to take some more test shots. My only real interest is how they do side by side at maximum. To me at least, any real camera can take a decent enough landscape or family photo.
 
Last edited:
On your question about TC with Raw on the SX60, I'm sorry but I have no idea. I have never done any RAW and and I don't know what TC stands for. I do very little image editing and what I do is typically limited to contrast and brightness in JPG only.

The two photos that you attached are pretty revealing! It's pretty obvious that the SX50 beat the SX60 on that one.

Good luck with your test shots, I am looking forward to it.
TC = teleconverter. According to the manual:
Digital zoom, date stamps, and red-eye reduction are set to [Off] in [RAW] and [JPEG + RAW] modes. Additionally, noise reduction level, i-Contrast and My Colors cannot be configured.
I guess this answers my question, the 1.6 and 2.0 teleconverters are clearly a kind of digital zoom and can't be used if the camera is set to RAW.

The dpreview chart-shot of the SX50 raw isn't bad. At 1200mm perhaps just as good as my Nikon V2 at 810mm focal length, plus cropping.

Thanks to etudiant for hinting at a good article, and to pshute for the link. It is impressive what a superzoom can do. Other cameras have advantages in certain areas, as an universal tool Canon's superzooms remain a joy to use.
 
A couple more comparison shots. Same methodology as the second yesterday.

Both were at their maximum optical + the teleconverter at 2x. I cropped the SX50 photo down to about the same field of view as the SX60 and then resized both to post.

I took the SX50 shots entirely hand-held. For the SX60 I had a very hard time keeping the image steady and ultimately rested my elbow on the hood of the car to take the SX60 shots.

The first two on the left are the SX60. The two on the right are the SX50.

With sunshine I'm seeing less of a difference. The two of the leaves seem nearly identical. The SX60 might have slightly beaten the SX50 but recall I had to rest my arm for the SX60. The SX50 I also had to crop first. Looking really zoomed in there are more artifacts around the edges of the leaves and twigs on the SX60 than the SX50.

The two of the humming bird feeder seem pretty much identical to me except that the SX60 is a bit brighter. The sun was behind a cloud and the brightness may have changed between the two shots.

I'd call this test a tie. But the SX60 files are twice as large as the SX50 files. Would I want to use twice the hard drive space for photos that are pretty much the same?

I have a month to decide whether to keep the SX60 or return to Amazon. I will do some more testing but my tentative conclusion is that the SX60 is not actually superior to the SX50 in terms of image quality. It can match the quality in good light but may not in bad light.

But the fact that I can't keep the SX60 steady hand held while I can easily do that with the SX50 is a big issue. I don't think that the small difference in physical size is the cause. I think that the IS on the SX60 is just not as good.

Is the SX60 worth spending over $500? So far it's not looking good.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0043.JPG
    IMG_0043.JPG
    277.4 KB · Views: 109
  • IMG_0045.JPG
    IMG_0045.JPG
    182.3 KB · Views: 107
  • IMG_7592_cr.jpg
    IMG_7592_cr.jpg
    242.3 KB · Views: 107
  • IMG_7597_cr.jpg
    IMG_7597_cr.jpg
    180.6 KB · Views: 99
Here is a different comparison. In the winter when I fill the bird feeder I frequently stand in the driveway and take pictures at the birds at the feeder. (I have not filled the feeder yet)

Here are five attempts to take a picture of the feeder handheld with the SX60.

And honestly I tried my very best. It was a struggle just to get these in the frame...
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0046.JPG
    IMG_0046.JPG
    179.4 KB · Views: 86
  • IMG_0047.JPG
    IMG_0047.JPG
    161.1 KB · Views: 84
  • IMG_0048.JPG
    IMG_0048.JPG
    169.6 KB · Views: 69
  • IMG_0049.JPG
    IMG_0049.JPG
    176.4 KB · Views: 78
  • IMG_0050.JPG
    IMG_0050.JPG
    184 KB · Views: 74
Last edited:
Here are the 4 photos I took with the SX50 handheld. I just shot them off effortlessly.

No picking and choosing. I took 5 photos with the SX60 and 4 photos with the SX50.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_7600.JPG
    IMG_7600.JPG
    160.2 KB · Views: 88
  • IMG_7601.JPG
    IMG_7601.JPG
    158.5 KB · Views: 86
  • IMG_7602.JPG
    IMG_7602.JPG
    151.1 KB · Views: 76
  • IMG_7603.JPG
    IMG_7603.JPG
    158.5 KB · Views: 80
Last edited:
What settings have you got for the 60? Can't understand why you're having such problems??

Same settings as the SX50 as the main options are pretty much identical.

If you mean IS, under "IS Settings" both cameras are Mode = Continuous and Dynamic are set at 1. But I think dynamic is for movie only.

I'm using C2 which was set starting in P, as was the SX50. All the key things like Flexizone, AF point, metering are the same for both cameras.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top