Hi, I have been using the SX50 for a long time, for some of the same purposes. I find it very useful, but it does have serious limitations. Here are some thoughts:
-It is not great in low-light conditions. You simply wont get crisp, clear shots in dull-overcast conditions. However, it’s still pretty good for grabbing shots to record what you’ve seen for later reference. Surprisingly, I find it can actually help me ID distant birds under low-light conditions.
***EXAMPLE: the first two photos show birds that were just little black specks with my old beat-up 7x Zeiss (which I love for their amazing brightness). With the SX50 shots, despite the terrible quality, I was able to ID some Gadwall and Hooded Mergansers.
-As far as I know, the only way to use the most extreme zoom settings is to put the camera on the C1 or C2 setting. I haven’t actually figured out how to program these custom settings (I came here today to ask how!)...But I find that if I put it on one of these settings, I can go beyond the optical zoom of 50x to settings between 100x and 200x. This is no longer an optical zoom but I still find it best for getting record shots of distant ducks.
***EXAMPLE: The photo of the lone male Long-tailed Duck is probably taken at 100x; the photo of the pair is probably taken at 50x. On C1/C2 I usually jack up the ISO to somewhere between 500-800, and sometimes set the exposure compensation to -1/3 or -2/3 in order to get the highest shutter speed possible. Obviously, these have little aesthetic value and are useful only as record shots.
-The dynamic range of the SX50 is not great. In bright, direct sunlight, it’s practically impossible to get good shots of birds that are dark with white patches: the white will almost always be blown out, or the dark areas will be clipped, no matter what. Chromatic aberrations will abound. Still, you can get record shots, and if you shoot RAW you can sometimes salvage the images in Lightroom or PS.
-Photographing small, fast-moving birds in cluttered environments will always be frustrating. You will have to zoom out and zoom in a lot. You’ll lose your subject more often than not. Autofocus will be hit-or-miss unless you manage to isolate your subject against a relatively clean background. With patience, you’ll occasionally get lucky. I usually use live view, but I’ve tried using that tiny dark viewfinder as well. Both are frustrating in different ways. I’ve improved somewhat with practice, but it remains a challenging exercise.
BOTTOM LINE: The SX50 is a great little birding camera IF you manage your expectations:
-It can be great for record shots of distant birds in open habitats, if you can accept that the image quality will be poor.
-It performs best under the following conditions:
- -In bright-overcast or low-angled (early morning/late afternoon) sunlight...And more generally, in situations where there is not enormous contrast between light and dark areas
- -With medium-to-large subjects (gulls, ducks, shorebirds, herons, raptors, corvids, etc)
- -In relatively open/uncluttered environments
- -With birds that are prone to staying still for more than a few moments
- -With birds that tend to perch or display out in the open (e.g. Red-Winged Blackbirds)
- -With birds that allow close approach (e.g. hummingbirds, which despite their small size are good subjects for the sx50 because they often seem oblivious to human photographers. Also, as I’m sure you know, there are some places where birds that seem shy elsewhere are apparently less wary of human interlopers—e.g. Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Orange County, CA is always crawling with photographers for this very reason...)
-When two or more of the aforementioned conditions are met, the SX50 can perform pretty admirably (***EXAMPLE: the Semipalmated Plover).
-When the aforementioned conditions are NOT met, it can be a fun challenge to make artful images of birds within their larger environment (I’ll attach some examples in a separate post).
I hope this is somewhat helpful...Let me know if you have any more specific questions