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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Canon SX60HS in Action (1 Viewer)

mzettie, excellent work there! Thank you. That's a big WOW. The Kingfisher and the Hummingbird. The SX60 really is inferior.

I'm guessing you'll be returning the SX60? Do what I did and get a second SX50 as backup before supplies run out.

I sometimes have to travel for business I have never taken my SX50 along being worried it would get damaged in the suitcase. With a second now I plan to take one to Japan when I need to go there for a week in late February. I'll have a weekend to go out with it!

EDIT: In Japan I'll actually be spending a day at Canon's WW Headquarters. But with the printer people, not the camera people.
 
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mzettie said:
I finally got around to putting some more photos into the SX50/SX60 folder.....new ones start with the Carolina Wren (after the Little Blue Heron.) All are SOOC, unless otherwise specified in the "details," under the number of the photo.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127980272@N06/sets/72157648590733867/
Initially, I thought a slightly lower IQ from the SX60 wouldn't bother me, since I take photos mostly to id birds and for record-keeping. Once I realized the issue seems to be with image stabilization though, I changed my mind, since I do a lot of shooting at long distances and that's where this particular problem will have the most impact. Heck, who wants .
Click to expand...

The pictures do tell the story, but it is very puzzling.
The various user comments suggest the camera is very capable, but that its auto focus and stabilization systems don't play nicely with each other. Canon held off the SX60 launch for at least half a year. They must have recognized the design needed more work, but clearly launched a work in progress. The hope is that there will be some firmware fix that resolves the issues, which is not unreasonable, because Canon has done this for other cameras. Whether Canon will put a priority on this effort while the very profitable SX50 is still selling well remains to be seen.
 
Crazyfingers, I already returned it, but I did hold on to this one til the last minute. I've been thinking about getting another SX50, but a little part of me is still hoping Canon will fix the SX60, since there are things I really like about it. Guess that's not too likely though, since they held on to it for so long....

Etudiant, I find the whole thing perplexing too. The camera is certainly capable of taking good pictures, but it doesn't do so reliably. Why that is, is still a mystery, but in my opinion several things point toward lack of image stabilization, including;
1.The fact that the image moves around in the viewfinder so much, one has to use the frame assist lock just to stay sane. (not sure it actually improves results though, may just make you feel better about going ahead and taking the shot)
2.The camera has a hard time focusing on something that's far away, especially if the subject is small.
3.Pictures taken at maximum focal length at short distances are ok, but image quality deteriorates as one gets further away from the subject.
4. Higher shutter speeds seem to be associated with higher image quality, even with stationary subjects.

I did a little indoor handheld test that demonstrates that the SX60 is capable of meeting or exceeding the IQ of the SX50, at least at a distance of 15 feet; https://www.flickr.com/photos/127980272@N06/sets/72157648866591940/

One done at a distance of 25 feet though, tells a different story; https://www.flickr.com/photos/127980272@N06/sets/72157646944187254/
 
Well, I'm about to test the water...

Sending it in for repair at Lehmann's (UK) at the behest of my supplier
I'm going to mention the issues raised in this thread and keep you posted

I may have to pay some fees for postage and admin, but I think it's worth it to find out what's going on. I've only read about complaints and returns so far, so hopefully this may shed a little more light

Cheers

Marco
 
mzettie said:
2.The camera has a hard time focusing on something that's far away, especially if the subject is small.
Click to expand...
What is "far away" in this context? For me "far away" is over 100m, for example.

What do you consider a "small" subject? For example, in terms of the entire frame, is the subject 10% of the frame?

3.Pictures taken at maximum focal length at short distances are ok, but image quality deteriorates as one gets further away from the subject.
Click to expand...
Again, what is a "short distance"? For me, that's around 20-40m. 50-100m would be "average" distance to my subjects.

4. Higher shutter speeds seem to be associated with higher image quality, even with stationary subjects.
Click to expand...
What shutter speeds are we talking about?


By the way, not trying to be belligerent...let me explain:

I believe my criteria are much different than most, as I'm comparing to my digiscoping setup using a 12 year old prosumer camera. I have less aversion to using a monopod or tripod on longer-reach shots and have a much different threshold for "acceptable IQ" for long-distance shots at these sensor sizes.

Which is why I'd like to hear specific numbers, as I know what I can get with my current setup, and the SX60 only has to meet or exceed that threshold. Near as I can tell, it exceeds my current setup (especially if taking the digital zoom or digital teledapter into consideration), though perhaps not hand-held (which is a shame, but not a show-stopper).

Thanks for your help!
 
Marcobf said:
Sending it in for repair at Lehmann's (UK) at the behest of my supplier
I'm going to mention the issues raised in this thread and keep you posted

I may have to pay some fees for postage and admin, but I think it's worth it to find out what's going on. I've only read about complaints and returns so far, so hopefully this may shed a little more light

Cheers

Marco
Click to expand...

Hey Marco - be very interested at the outcome as I've held off sending mine back as yet.....
Re the bouncing uo and down when using the barrel button that seems to be bothering people - it will bounce if you move the camera whilst button is pressed but not if it's pressed when the subject is already 'locked'
 
birdboybowley said:
Hey Marco - be very interested at the outcome as I've held off sending mine back as yet.....
Re the bouncing uo and down when using the barrel button that seems to be bothering people - it will bounce if you move the camera whilst button is pressed but not if it's pressed when the subject is already 'locked'
Click to expand...
Birdboybowley, do you not have trouble keeping the focus square on a small subject at some distance....for example, shooting a songbird at 65x or better, at a distance of 50ft. or more? I found it impossible to keep it still enough for the camera to get a focus lock....usually just resorted to putting up with the "jumpies" for 4 or 5 seconds cause it would take me longer than that to get the camera to "see" what I wanted to shoot if I didn't.

Marco, hope Canon comes through for you, will be eager to hear about it.

Kevin, I don't think the distances I'm talking about are particularly long for your application, just long compared to what most people expect (or ask) a point and shoot camera to do, and I'm not sure any of my comparisons can help you decide if the SX60 will work for you. If I still had it, I'd try to take some tripod shots and walk off distances, but all I can do now is look back and try to give you some perspective on the photos I took.

The bunting I shot on 10/27 with both cameras at 100x (with telephoto settings) was approx. 70 yards away and light was good. Right before taking those, I caught a Palm Warbler at more than twice that distance, but it flew before I could get it with the SX60. I looked through the other photos I took that day, but couldn't find any taken at a comparable distance. I did find one similarly sized bird that I shot with the SX60 at 100x but can't tell you how far away I was (don't even remember taking it.) But perhaps the scale of the birds in the un-cropped images will give you an idea. I put them a folder;https://www.flickr.com/photos/127980272@N06/sets/72157648882482820/

I don't have time right now, but will try to find some others that might help answer your questions later on.
 
Mzettie,

Don't worry, just figured if you knew, great. I'm committed to buying the SX60 at this point, waiting on the hope of sales over the Holidays (especially Black Friday / Cyber Monday). Based on some of the long shots from Neil and some of the digital teleconverter shots, I'm not super worried about disliking it.

I can understand others not liking the SX60 for other reasons...different criteria. I even agree with many of their complaints vs. the SX50 or the H400. I also have the luxury of "liking the SX60 well enough" and hoping for a firmware upgrade that just "makes it better."

For me it was always about the reach, reach, and more reach. I got sidetracked in other arguments here until I realized the "drawbacks" of the SX60 didn't really apply to my primary goal and methods.
 
mzettie said:
Birdboybowley, do you not have trouble keeping the focus square on a small subject at some distance....for example, shooting a songbird at 65x or better, at a distance of 50ft. or more? I found it impossible to keep it still enough for the camera to get a focus lock....usually just resorted to putting up with the "jumpies" for 4 or 5 seconds cause it would take me longer than that to get the camera to "see" what I wanted to shoot if I didn't.
Click to expand...

No not at all - I assume you have IS Mode set on Continuous? As with it only on 'Shoot Only' or 'Off' then there's no hope of getting a steady image.
 
birdboybowley said:
No not at all - I assume you have IS Mode set on Continuous? As with it only on 'Shoot Only' or 'Off' then there's no hope of getting a steady image.
Click to expand...
Hmm, sure seems to be a lot of variability in these cameras. And yes, I stuck with Continuous IS after finding what you did, that Shoot Only was worthless.
Interestingly, I can't get my SX50 to misbehave in any IS mode. I can use the lock button without any bouncing or delay in Continuous and Shoot Only, and even with IS turned Off, where it stops the exaggerated movement instantly, allowing me to take a decent photo.

I can't understand why the SX60's IS is so different from the SX50's. I understand that a new sensor, more pixels and wider range of focus could affect IQ, but what does that have to do with image stabilization? Can't be just the increased zoom length, cause the Nikon P600 actually goes longer (1440mm vs 1365mm) and it does fine stabilizing shots...without having to press an extra button. What was Canon thinking.....?
 
CalvinFold said:
Mzettie,

Don't worry, just figured if you knew, great. I'm committed to buying the SX60 at this point, waiting on the hope of sales over the Holidays (especially Black Friday / Cyber Monday). Based on some of the long shots from Neil and some of the digital teleconverter shots, I'm not super worried about disliking it.

I can understand others not liking the SX60 for other reasons...different criteria. I even agree with many of their complaints vs. the SX50 or the H400. I also have the luxury of "liking the SX60 well enough" and hoping for a firmware upgrade that just "makes it better."

For me it was always about the reach, reach, and more reach. I got sidetracked in other arguments here until I realized the "drawbacks" of the SX60 didn't really apply to my primary goal and methods.
Click to expand...

As the sx50 seems to have better image quality you would appear to be better off using the sx50 and cropping to get the reach. As someone who wants to get back into using a bridge camera, instead of my SLR all the time, I am rather at a loss to think why anyone would choose the sx60 over the 50. I would love the sx60 to be the camera we hoped for. I'd especially like a good view finder but it does appear to be - putting it politely - a deeply flawed camera and I think. for me, it will has to be buy the sx50 and hope the sx70 is an improvement.
 
I had one last go today before it's sent off. I found I got much better results backed off to about 206mm, but when zoomed right in it all went to pot again. So as things stand my SX60 is only usable as lower FL than the SX50 [roll eyes] I can't actually compare the quality of the results, not having an SX50

Ho hum, I'll let you know what they say
 
Last edited:
Marcobf said:
Sending it in for repair at Lehmann's (UK) at the behest of my supplier
I'm going to mention the issues raised in this thread and keep you posted

I may have to pay some fees for postage and admin, but I think it's worth it to find out what's going on. I've only read about complaints and returns so far, so hopefully this may shed a little more light
Click to expand...
I and many others will be curious to see what Canon says...be sure to post back!
 
I had been planning to get an SX60 and the chance came while I was away on holiday. I sold my SX40 in Aistralia for a £100. As I had a stopover in Singapore booked, it seemed a good opportunity to look into the the SX60.
Had a good look at one one in Cathay Photo and decided to buy. In £ terms it was after the GST refund £278 so taking off the money from the 40 sale a net outlay of £178 seemed to be a good deal. I was surprised to find that in the pruchase was included a nice carrying case and with the camera an 8gb class 10 sandisk card. Although I have barely used it and yet to examine the results on my PC, I am impressed with EVF and the clarity of the LCD screen. As with the 40 my real use will be video which is the main reason iwanted the extra optical reach rarely ventured into digital zoom. However will report idc.

PS A 7dmk11 body would be about £1250.
 
Bird_Huszar said:
Thank you everyone for your posts..I bought my SX60 just a couple of days ago and I find the camera to be awesome. The IQ is perhaps not vastly superior to the SX50 (which I also own) but I think the new burst feature is going to be great. I love the fact that it doesn't have to process and be useless for 10 seconds (like with the SX50) after firing off a burst of images. It's going to be great for warblers in the spring. Or any fleeting little birds.

I'm more of a record shot kinda guy anyway, so I don't care too much about image quality. The new burst feature is definitely in my record-shot wheelhouse.

This seems like a stupid question (and I did ask the same Q in another thread)...but how do you enable the digital Teleconverter?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
Bird Huszar, have you had a chance to shoot any birds with your SX60 yet? I was thinking about this post as I returned mine, hoping you'd have more success than I did and would report here.
The SX60 really does have a fast "continuous shoot" mode. It would be great if paired with a good initial focus lock, but my copy had problems with this so I quit using it......annoying to end up with multiple out-of-focus shots. I had a little more success using "continuous w/ AF".....slows things down, but probably wasn't any slower than my SX50 is in "continuous, no AF," which is how I usually shoot.

Guessing most of your little birds have departed for warmer climes, but if you've been able to test the waters with some cold-hardy feathered friends, we'd all love to hear about it.
 
Be it 'Continous Mode' on the 60 or 'High Burst HQ' or whatever on the 50, both cameras can give equally shite pictures - esp with BiFs....my mate's success rate with his 50 is about 10%!! I actually find BiFs alot easier with the 60 than my old 40 but in no way comparable to a DSLR...these cameras just aren't made for that
 
birdboybowley said:
Be it 'Continous Mode' on the 60 or 'High Burst HQ' or whatever on the 50, both cameras can give equally shite pictures - esp with BiFs....my mate's success rate with his 50 is about 10%!! I actually find BiFs alot easier with the 60 than my old 40 but in no way comparable to a DSLR...these cameras just aren't made for that
Click to expand...
Ten percent is high! How's he do it? I'd like to say I never even try to get BIFs, but of course I do.....don't expect them to be good, though.
I use continuous shoot on the SX50 just because sometimes it helps me get lucky, ie, the bird moves slightly which brings it into focus, or I catch a better angle on it. Once in awhile, one will take off while I'm shooting and I'll actually catch a BIF instead of a BUTT.
 
The only BiFs I attempt to photograph are the soarers like gulls and hawks and large birds that fly in a straight line like cormorants and or geese. Though a pile of sandpipers in large numbers just moving down the beach are not that hard.
 
Using it for 24 hours...

...first thing to notice is that it has a lot going on. When you press the button the camera keep going a bit foward and backward with the focus, while trying to stabilize the image and there a ton of other things going on like noise reductions, red lines around the borders of the object to tell you were is the focus, along with exposure and white balance rechecks... everything in 1 sec. Not possible.
I then set most of the thing off (servo af, continuous af, mf peaking,zoom and focus memory, noise reductions, auto detections and etc).

You just can´t let the camera keep goingfoward and back with that focus.
Just press half the button let it focus and stick with it (no servo or continuous focus) or press half again. When it focus properly... better even to change it to manual.

Things started to get a bit better.
Buttons are a bit clumbersome... and the manual focus kind of suck.

Now it is night. Anyway... the best pics went after I turned everything off and let it worry just with the IS.
 

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