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Canon SX60HS in Action (3 Viewers)

I don't do a lot of "bush bird"photography so I headed to the local park today to test out the sx60 on some challenging birds. The bushes had just been watered and the silvereyes were thrashing around in the damp leaves.
The camera was set to jpeg and 2x Teleconverter Mode and Continuous burst with Auto iso.
This is not a full zoom example but about half zoom in 2x mode , so around 800 mm.
As you can see from the first photo there is some finger vibration but it's not there in the second photo which is straight from the camera and the third photo is the adjusted version.
I didn't notice a long lag using the Frame Assist - it was about 1 second and the AF was about 1 second. The AF did miss sometime and then you would have a burst of frames that were all out of focus.
Neil.

I got a photo or a few of that bird while in Tokyo last spring.
 
Doing comparisons is always time consuming and difficult to get everything exactly the same. In looking at the exif the sx50 was set to Continuous and the sx60 was set to Single shooting. If no Self-timer was used then this could result in some finger vibration on each frame at low shutter speeds.
Was the test done on a tripod with the IS switched off and using the Self-timer?
Neil.
Good catch Neil, but I found a much more egregious error in my test....somehow the SX60 was set to "raw." I changed that to jpeg and the shooting mode to continuous, took some more shots and added them to the flickr folder; https://www.flickr.com/photos/127980272@N06/sets/72157648607273629

Re your tripod question; no, I didn't use a tripod, for the simple reason that I don't use a tripod in the field, so it wouldn't be a valid test of the camera's capabilities for my application. One of the problems I have with "official" reviews, is that the conditions under which the cameras are tested don't match up at all to those I encounter while actually birding. Early reports said the SX60's IS was comparable to the SX50's...... how the heck could they know that when they took great pains to remove all camera shake to make the test "fair?" Recently, Imaging Resource included a "tripod vs handheld" comparison in their review, and it was very interesting to those of us who do a lot of bush birding.
 
PS...As to the validity of my test, I did have my back to a wall, and a bookcase on one side that I leaned on. So, to the extent that handheld tests can be accurate, I believe mine was. However, potential buyers would be wise to conduct their own comparisons.
 
Good catch Neil, but I found a much more egregious error in my test....somehow the SX60 was set to "raw." I changed that to jpeg and the shooting mode to continuous, took some more shots and added them to the flickr folder; https://www.flickr.com/photos/127980272@N06/sets/72157648607273629

Re your tripod question; no, I didn't use a tripod, for the simple reason that I don't use a tripod in the field, so it wouldn't be a valid test of the camera's capabilities for my application. One of the problems I have with "official" reviews, is that the conditions under which the cameras are tested don't match up at all to those I encounter while actually birding. Early reports said the SX60's IS was comparable to the SX50's...... how the heck could they know that when they took great pains to remove all camera shake to make the test "fair?" Recently, Imaging Resource included a "tripod vs handheld" comparison in their review, and it was very interesting to those of us who do a lot of bush birding.

Fair point on the tripod.
One of the things I noticed trying to follow fast birds in the bushes ( Silvereyes and Tailorbirds) was the difficulty of keeping them in focus. I had a lot of out-of-focus images and few "keepers". This is true of the SX40 and SX50 as well though.
Neil.
 
Early reports said the SX60's IS was comparable to the SX50's...... how the heck could they know that when they took great pains to remove all camera shake to make the test "fair?"
By the same token, the only way to be "fair" in handheld testing would be to do dozens of captures spread over a number of testers using a number of techniques (away-from-body, arms tucked, face-bracing, etc.) and doing some sort of statistical analysis to avoid the accusation of cherry-picking the best images for each camera from such a test.

Seems a bit of a no-win from that standpoint, unless the reviewer has decent resources for such involved testing. I suspect most of these reviewers don't have the time or resources, which is a shame.

We'd also should add to this list the fairness of testing image quality at different optical zoom levels (focal lengths). And then there is the whole problem of making apples-to-apples comparisons when different sensor megapixel capabilities are involved (which I've yet to see camera reviewers do in a way that makes sense or is fair).
 
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@Crazyfingers - 'The SX60 Best Settings For...' will be no doubt be left to some Magic Lantern/For Dummies guide

@Neil, I far prefer your second SOOC shot to the 'adjusted version' (3rd pic) Seems much more vibrant to me
 
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.
 
Hi BH
Switch camera on and go into Menu.
The tele is accessed by the - confusingly - Digital Zoom box, second one down. Scroll thru and you get the choices of Off, Standard, 1.6 and 2.0

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So you do consider it a bit superior? Because the general opinion seems to be that it's inferior. There does seem to be widely differing reports on this camera.

Alternatively given that the lens is really pushing the edges of what's possible, Canon could be having QC issues and variable output?
 
Bird_Huszar - additional questions:-

As well as the IQ issue, how do you find the Image Stabilisation on handheld shots at max optical zoom cf the SX50 (efficiency and speed of IS).

And how good/quick is the Autofocus at max zoom, cf the SX50?

Thanks.
 
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.

The Digital Teleconverter doesn't work with Raw so this needs to be switched off to set the Teleconverter otherwise it's "greyed out".
It's best to keep all the questions and answers for one camera in one thread so that it's easy to follow.
My personal preference is not to post in threads if people don't have the camera because then the discussion is just theoretical.
Neil.
 
i took my sx 60 on a hike today when I started out the weather was very overcast,(whooper/buzzard pic)nearer the end of my hike the sun came out but I did find it hard to keep the camera steady after a long walk even pressing the bottom button,all bird pics taken with the 1.6 converter on,the buzzard/stonechat and little grebe were a considerable distance away
 

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i took my sx 60 on a hike today when I started out the weather was very overcast,(whooper/buzzard pic)nearer the end of my hike the sun came out but I did find it hard to keep the camera steady after a long walk even pressing the bottom button,all bird pics taken with the 1.6 converter on,the buzzard/stonechat and little grebe were a considerable distance away
Depending on the density/distribution of the histogram, wouldn't be tough to "fix" the overcast shots to brighten them up. Look nice to me.
 
Further examination of kawwauser's and birdboybowley's photos shows the images a bit soft, but not unpleasant, and still decent detail. Not sure if that's a function of the camera (optics or autofocus ability), the JPEG (vs. RAW), the digital teleconverter, or reducing the image for the forum.

Still, nothing that seems outright "bad" vs. the kind of reach (focal length) available. For my uses (mostly online viewing), and perhaps with a little post-processing help from Photoshop, seems like a heck of an improvement over low-budget digiscoping.
 
SX 50 woes

I've been toying with getting a second SX50 before they are out of stock. My current one is getting a slightly sticky zoom switch and i don't think that the SX60 is an upgrade.

I concur, I have owned the SX50 for 13 months and about ten days ago, It died during a flying bird sequence using the sports mode, which is what I use for flying birds most of the time by the way. The last four frames were black and there was no image through the lens from that point on. I had the extended warranty from Best Buy so after a long discussion which I won't detail, they chose to get me another one rather than repair mine. It took them a while to find one at another store since they did not have one in stock. I think they are going to get hard to find. I have looked through the SX60 viewfinder and it is a VAST improvement on the 50. I just picked up the new one this morning so if it works as good as the first, I might have to get another SX50 as well.
 
No disrespect to any of the posters on here but I'm not seeing anything yet that would make me change my SX40 to an SX60. May go down the line of an SX50.
John
 

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