Canon SX50 Specs (2 Viewers)

crazyfingers · Apr 7, 2013

Mike Beer said:
Ok thank you for putting me right.

Mike

I've noticed that the SX50 has such reach that a photo that might otherwise come out OK suffers from stuff like air turbulence! Astronomers call it "seeing". The bending of light where warm and cold air distort the light.

Here are two photos of the same thing taken on different days from roughly the same location at maximum zoom. The photo taken on a day with good "seeing" is sharp and clear. The one that I actually took this morning suffers from the ripples in the air from warm and cold bending and distorting the light.

The third photo is from where I took both photos, one exact, the other about the same place.

Mike Beer · Apr 7, 2013

crazyfingers said:
I've noticed that the SX50 has such reach that a photo that might otherwise come out OK suffers from stuff like air turbulence! Astronomers call it "seeing". The bending of light where warm and cold air distort the light.

Here are two photos of the same thing taken on different days from roughly the same location at maximum zoom. The photo taken on a day with good "seeing" is sharp and clear. The one that I actually took this morning suffers from the ripples in the air from warm and cold bending and distorting the light.

The third photo is from where I took both photos, one exact, the other about the same place.

Thanks for explaining, this is just about what I see when I look at the photos on my Mac looks like ripples in he air. So on a clear day (When I took the photos there was a lot of heavy cloud) the camera may well have coped with the distance. Such a pity it would have been a great set of pictures.

Mike.

Roy C · Apr 7, 2013

Just a Collar dove on a TV Ariel (amazing what one will snap with a new toy :-O). These birds have great eyes! I had to lift the under part as it was in shadow so it looks fairly crude - probably better if I left it in shadow!. One thing I have noticed with the Camera is that the default blues are way over saturated so I have toned it down significantly - I must go in and change the blue in My colours.
This is a 4.7mp crop so about 40% of the full frame
1/500 sec - f6.5 - ISO 160 - 1200mm handheld - shot from around 50 feet.

Tim Taylor · Apr 7, 2013

Here's one of my more successful bird shots from my China trip. At times I was kicking myself for not taking my 'proper camera kit' but I know I wouldn't have wanted to lug it about with the family all the time.

O.Reville1989 · Apr 7, 2013

crazyfingers said:
I've noticed that the SX50 has such reach that a photo that might otherwise come out OK suffers from stuff like air turbulence! Astronomers call it "seeing". The bending of light where warm and cold air distort the light.

Here are two photos of the same thing taken on different days from roughly the same location at maximum zoom. The photo taken on a day with good "seeing" is sharp and clear. The one that I actually took this morning suffers from the ripples in the air from warm and cold bending and distorting the light.

The third photo is from where I took both photos, one exact, the other about the same place.

Interesting comparison, and that is some mighty zoom range!
My 400mm Canon lens ran and hid as I opened the 3rd photo. Very impressive.

crazyfingers · Apr 7, 2013

Tried out the spot metering today and it looks like in the sunshine it doesn't produce good results. Probably best in the shade. I do need a good versatile setting so I think I'll change Spot to Center Weight and see how that does. Evaluative takes in the whole scene and is what it was on before.

Roy C · Apr 8, 2013

Tim Taylor said:
Here's one of my more successful bird shots from my China trip. At times I was kicking myself for not taking my 'proper camera kit' but I know I wouldn't have wanted to lug it about with the family all the time.

Nice one Tim :t: certainly a lot prettier Dove than my humble Collared dove lol. Hope you had a great time.

These little cams can be frustrating at times, especially when it comes to the grab shot where the DSLR would have rattled off a dozen in-focus shots in the time it takes to wake-up the EVF, find the bird and obtain focus with the 'superzoom'. I console myself with the fact that most times I would not even have the DSLR set-up with me so any shot is better than none - I even take the SX50 along when I walk to the supermarket for my morning paper :-O

Roy C · Apr 8, 2013

crazyfingers said:
Tried out the spot metering today and it looks like in the sunshine it doesn't produce good results. Probably best in the shade. I do need a good versatile setting so I think I'll change Spot to Center Weight and see how that does. Evaluative takes in the whole scene and is what it was on before.

Hi 'crazyfingers', I have always found that spot metering should be used very carefully as you can get some strange results (exactly the same with a DSLR). If you do not cover the whole bird with the spot then metering can be unpredictable, even if you do spot off the entire bird you need to be careful that it is not just covering one colour/tone - a typical example being a black and white bird where the spot covers a black area, you end up with the black being grey and the whites blown!.
With a DSLR I always use evaluative but with this little Cam (and the SX40) I find Centre weighted average works fairly well especially if you use it in conjunction with Ev compensation as required.

IanF · Apr 8, 2013

I use evaluative metering for both DSLR and the SX50 with EV compensation as required. I find it gives reliable metering in most instances.

The Super fine setting was a very good find Roy :t:

I was impressed enough before with the image quality form this little compact camera - I'm even more impressed now.

I had a tinker around with it the last two days, albeit with close taken birds at no more than 8-10m. The pixelation is greatly reduced on images viewed at 100% giving very clean images when they're cropped and resized.

The last pheasant photo of the head is a straight 900x675 crop with no resizing or processing. In fact only the Marsh Tit had the exposure adjusted in computer else nothing else done to any of them. I'm must admit I'm not one for spending much time processing photos on the computer - hence I generally only shoot in jpeg.

For several weeks I carted around the 7D+ 400mm f5,6 comparing results. I'm quite happy now if going on a longish walk just to take along the SX50.

Tim Taylor · Apr 8, 2013

I could have done with some more time tinkering before I left on my trip as some of my images are spoiled by pixellation. Here's some of my bird pics from my China Trip on my blog.

Roy C · Apr 8, 2013

IanF said:
I use evaluative metering for both DSLR and the SX50 with EV compensation as required. I find it gives reliable metering in most instances.

The Super fine setting was a very good find Roy :t:

I was impressed enough before with the image quality form this little compact camera - I'm even more impressed now.

I had a tinker around with it the last two days, albeit with close taken birds at no more than 8-10m. The pixelation is greatly reduced on images viewed at 100% giving very clean images when they're cropped and resized.

The last pheasant photo of the head is a straight 900x675 crop with no resizing or processing. In fact only the Marsh Tit had the exposure adjusted in computer else nothing else done to any of them. I'm must admit I'm not one for spending much time processing photos on the computer - hence I generally only shoot in jpeg.

For several weeks I carted around the 7D+ 400mm f5,6 comparing results. I'm quite happy now if going on a longish walk just to take along the SX50.

Some superb detail in those shots Ian, especially the Marsh tit :t:

crazyfingers · Apr 8, 2013

Roy C said:
Hi 'crazyfingers', I have always found that spot metering should be used very carefully as you can get some strange results (exactly the same with a DSLR). If you do not cover the whole bird with the spot then metering can be unpredictable, even if you do spot off the entire bird you need to be careful that it is not just covering one colour/tone - a typical example being a black and white bird where the spot covers a black area, you end up with the black being grey and the whites blown!.
With a DSLR I always use evaluative but with this little Cam (and the SX40) I find Centre weighted average works fairly well especially if you use it in conjunction with Ev compensation as required.

I'm looking forward to trying the center weight.

I'm also wishing that the camera had more "s" button so that I could more quickly just change it on the fly. Going into the settings while hoping the bird doesn't fly away is too much.

Gelbbauchunke · Apr 8, 2013

Hello everybody,

the pictures of this thread lead me to buy a Canon SX50. Yesterday i took my first trip to the park to try my new camera. By the reason i'm a fotography newbie i only used the automatic mode of the camera to take the pictures. But I'm willing to try the tips about the manual settings to improve my pictures soon. Thank you!

cgilbert · Apr 8, 2013

Hi all,

Whilst I would never give up my DSLR and prime lens, there are times when I just wish to go birdwatching without all the camera gear and like Ian F and Roy C note, this is when the SX50 is ideal. Its surprising just what you can get from this little camera given good light, attached a couple of shots from last weekends 'birdwatching' as an example.

Regards,
Cliff.

crazyfingers · Apr 8, 2013

Gelbbauchunke said:
Hello everybody,

the pictures of this thread lead me to buy a Canon SX50. Yesterday i took my first trip to the park to try my new camera. By the reason i'm a fotography newbie i only used the automatic mode of the camera to take the pictures. But I'm willing to try the tips about the manual settings to improve my pictures soon. Thank you!

There are lots of tweak you can make in the settings but number one is to go into the menu and set the AF Frame to Flexzone and save that to either C1 or C2. That tells the camera to use the center rectangle for where it wants to focus. It avoids having the camera get confused and focus on a tree off to one side when you want it to focus at the center where presumably the bird is sitting in your viewer.

DavidNB · Apr 9, 2013

I've been out this morning, nothing particular worth showing, but happy because even my shots of feral pigeons and house sparrows, without any processing, show a noticeable improvement using superfine setting, which I finally managed to save to C2.

David

Atricapilla · Apr 9, 2013

I went down my patch this morning,heat rising off the track but managed a few shots on super fine/evaluative metering.Barn swallows having a well earned rest on the track on arrival at my patch

greenwell · Apr 9, 2013

Sx 50

Just got this camera and here is the first go,just a complete beginner at this.
The goldfinch only let me have the one quick pic before it was gone,pity about the head bit.

Chris.

Roy C · Apr 9, 2013

A few snaps from this afternoon. I will be glad when it warms up and I can get some 'proper' birds shots but until then the common stuff is good practice.
Mind you the Moggy did not help lol.
All shots taken in RAW at the full 1200mm except the moggy which was taken at 1000mm. The bird shots are all cropped but the Moggy is the full frame - shows the detail you can get out of this little Cam if you get near enough!

crazyfingers · Apr 9, 2013

Quite nice. Maybe someday I'll experiment with RAW. Trouble is I also use the SX50 for general stuff and I'd not want to keep it on raw. Another need for more wildcard buttons on the outside.

I set the camera for center weight metering. No interesting pictures yet though.

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