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

Canon SX50 Specs (1 Viewer)

I've bought another SX50, for half the price paid in November 2012 for my first. No warranty, sold "as new", and I believe it was never really used. 14 days return option, but the first photographs look good. The Gold crests were shy, so a Wren kindly helped out. In dim December light, I find myself preferring the AV mode over the standard settings favoured in this thread, based on TV mode. In the rare moments when a bird is close enough to allow a serious photo, I want to be sure to achieve an acceptable result; the AV mode mostly delivers. But I'll gladly return to TV mode when the sun shines again.
 

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I have started to experiment with center weight vs spot exposure. I don't have any definitive photos yet but thought I'd post these two of a branch of a tree.

In the winter in particular sunlight is in short supply and I find that woodpeckers and nuthatches will often be on the shadowed side of a tree. I took these photos with the same settings except one for center weight and one for spot. The sun is in back of the tree. The brighter of the two is spot and clearly is overexposed away from the main branch and has some other undesirable artifacts. But it could be useful still.

I've decided to set C1 to use spot exposure go to 2xteleconverter and maximum optical zoom automatically. With C2 I am frequently already at that zoom. Setting C1 to that setting will hopefully allow me to get some comparison shots at center weight and spot to see how well they do when the critters are in the shadows.
 

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HermitIbis said:
I've bought another SX50, for half the price paid in November 2012 for my first. No warranty, sold "as new", and I believe it was never really used. 14 days return option, but the first photographs look good. The Gold crests were shy, so a Wren kindly helped out. In dim December light, I find myself preferring the AV mode over the standard settings favoured in this thread, based on TV mode. In the rare moments when a bird is close enough to allow a serious photo, I want to be sure to achieve an acceptable result; the AV mode mostly delivers. But I'll gladly return to TV mode when the sun shines again.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the "I have two SX50's club". I didn't get quite that good a deal on my newer SX50 but I am still glad to have two now.
 
crazyfingers said:
I have started to experiment with center weight vs spot exposure. I don't have any definitive photos yet but thought I'd post these two of a branch of a tree.

In the winter in particular sunlight is in short supply and I find that woodpeckers and nuthatches will often be on the shadowed side of a tree. I took these photos with the same settings except one for center weight and one for spot. The sun is in back of the tree. The brighter of the two is spot and clearly is overexposed away from the main branch and has some other undesirable artifacts. But it could be useful still.

I've decided to set C1 to use spot exposure go to 2xteleconverter and maximum optical zoom automatically. With C2 I am frequently already at that zoom. Setting C1 to that setting will hopefully allow me to get some comparison shots at center weight and spot to see how well they do when the critters are in the shadows.
Click to expand...
Rather than relying on the Cameras auto modes for exposures all you need to do is to learn how and when to use EV compensation, that way it is irrelevant which metering method you use, you have full control over the exposure.
In your examples you could get exactly the same exposure using both metering modes by using EV comp. If using 'spot' you could dial-in some EV- to get the same as the centre weighted OR by using Centre weighted you could dial-in some EV+ and get the same as spot. The ideal scenario would be somewhere in the middle of these two exposures - Centre weighted Ev+1 or Spot Ev-1 should be about right.
Note with shots that have both dark and light areas you can never get the whole image exposed correctly as the dynamic range is not wide enough. Get the light area right and the dark area will be underexposed, get the dark area right and the light area will be 'blown'. This applicable to even the very best DSLR Cameras which has a much wider dynamic range than something like the SX50. In bird photography the trick is the correctly expose for the bird which will often result in the background being wrongly exposed - this can often be corrected in post processing by working selectively on the background although if the background is completely blown no amount of processing will recover lost detail (If you shoot in RAW there is some wriggle-room however).
I would recommend everyone to understand and use Exposure compensation, especially useful in bird/wildlife photography.

Just saying ;)
 
The first two of my Wren photos are underexposed I guess. In theory, I am aware that I should use EV compensation (as Roy has explained so well in reply #603), and also know how to do it: press the Func-Set button upwards. In such a moment I am often too nervous to adjust the ev.
 
HermitIbis said:
The first two of my Wren photos are underexposed I guess. In theory, I am aware that I should use EV compensation (as Roy has explained so well in reply #603), and also know how to do it: press the Func-Set button upwards. In such a moment I am often too nervous to adjust the ev.
Click to expand...

I have a hard enough time keeping some of these on-the-move critters in the frame long enough to get focus. Chickadees, Nuthatches, etc... do not keep still. Making adjustments seems beyond what I can expect that I can do. Especially in the winter with freezing hands. :)
 
crazyfingers said:
I have a hard enough time keeping some of these on-the-move critters in the frame long enough to get focus. Chickadees, Nuthatches, etc... do not keep still. Making adjustments seems beyond what I can expect that I can do. Especially in the winter with freezing hands. :)
Click to expand...
Once you get used to how you Cameras metering system reacts in different scenarios it is fairly easy and quick to dial-in some exposure compensation. OK you will not get it right every time but your exposures will be more accurate than just relying on the Camera to auto expose (no matter what metering mode you are in).
From what I remember of the SX50 it is fairly easy/quick to apply ev comp almost on the fly, although I will admit not quite as easy as a DSLR. Having said that it is Probably more important still to get the metering right on the SX50 because of the noise problem on these small sensor Cameras.
If you get into the habit of zeroing the Ev after shooting at a particular target/scenario then you have nothing whatsoever to lose by using Ev comp even if you do not always have the time to change it, at least when you do have time your exposures will be a lot better.In the case of your tree trunk example you had plenty of time to dial-in some ev comp as the tree was not going anywhere ;)
P.s. the trick is to know the tone of your target bird against the likely background and also the likely size in the frame that the target will be (e.g. how much the background is likely to influence the expose)- sound daunting but after a while you will get it right most of the time
 
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I have been looking at the sx50 and sx60.
Trying to decide which would be better as there are those who upgraded to the sx60 then reverted back to the sx50 and those who say the sx60 is superior.
I am more swayed by the sx50 for a 'walkabout' camera as it's not always practical for me to carry my dslr with a 300/f2.8 attached around with me all the time and taking very distant shots would be missed I feel. But which one, sx50 or sx60?
Bearing in mind that the sx50 has now dropped in price to £200 in some cases whereas the sx60 is almost double this. Is it worth the extra money and zoom?
 
Not sure where you've sourced your prices but lowest I can see right now is SX50 = £214 and SX60 = £274 so that's 60 difference not 200 :)
 
Marcobf said:
Not sure where you've sourced your prices but lowest I can see right now is SX50 = £214 and SX60 = £274 so that's 60 difference not 200 :)
Click to expand...

In that case, can you point me in the direction of the website/shop that sells a sx60 for £274?
I will be most impressed!

Found a website that sells the sx60 for £276. Cheaper than some sx50 's.
 
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silverback69 said:
Yes I noticed the price change. Annoying. But when it was priced at £199 it was out of stock. Same as pc world!
Click to expand...

Well they did have stock at that price for a while about a week ago when I put it into my basket. Hesitated because I'd prefer to buy from John Lewis. Suspect that ship may have sailed for the last time now though.
 
Interesting. There still seem to be plenty in the channel in the US.

A quick check the main on-line dealers all still have them in stock.
Amazon
Best Buy
Walmart
B&H
Ritz Camera
 
My settings for December: rain-protection. I guess others are using similar solutions. A [freezer] plastic bag cut in half works fine. An opening for the barrel, fixed with a rubber band. On the back, my solution is asymmetric: tightly tape-attached to the left side of the camera. In light rain, it is useful to have more room for access to the wheels and buttons on the right side.

Exposure compensation is easy for slow birds. For the swan, -2/3 was dialed in. I was struggling with a male goosander, the result was poor. Next time, when I am close enough, I'll try and shoot in raw, plus some extra work with layers and levels (something I usually avoid).
 

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crazyfingers said:
Interesting. There still seem to be plenty in the channel in the US.

A quick check the main on-line dealers all still have them in stock.
Amazon
Best Buy
Walmart
B&H
Ritz Camera
Click to expand...


Hi, I think they are still generally available here in the UK as well, but people were talking about the Black Friday deals where the price was reduced from £299 to £199 just for one day (in the high street shops), and promptly went back up to £299 the following day. That was a great deal, as often you only get this sort of deal on something you wouldn't buy anyway!

Mike
 
I have not been able to get out during the day but I have a Moon and the Pleiades.
 

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