Canon SX50 Specs (2 Viewers)

[pshute]

The following is meant as an index for this long thread. Maybe useful for newbies. Often the post cited was a starting point for a discussion, so it's worth to read on.

Good idea. I wonder if this would be a more accessible spot for it:
http://www.birdforum.net/reviews/showproduct.php/product/449/cat/all

 

[HermitIbis]

Good idea. I wonder if this would be a more accessible spot for it:
http://www.birdforum.net/reviews/showproduct.php/product/449/cat/all

Thanks for the hint. First I'll improve the index, major topics were missing.

The white-eyes are hard to photograph mainly because they are not just very small but they are in constant motion and just don't sit still for a moment it seems.

Just like Goldcrests. Facing restless little birds, I usually start with TV or AV mode, but after several failed attempts often change into "Highspeed" / burst mode. "Highspeed mode" could well be renamed Goldcrest Mode, or maybe Emergency Mode.

Have you dropped the idea about saving the longest zoom where aperture is still 5.6? #1830

No, this is still saved as "C1" in my own settings. Others may disagree, but it proved to be one of my best options in the dim winter light. Fortunately it's now March, and I am using this desperate measure only rarely. - I've recently bought a Raynox DCR 250 and decided to go through the whole thread, to collect and re-read the various posts on this item. As you might guess, it took some time. That's why I got the idea of an index.

 

[crazyfingers]

Just like Goldcrests. Facing restless little birds, I usually start with TV or AV mode, but after several failed attempts often change into "Highspeed" / burst mode. "Highspeed mode" could well be renamed Goldcrest Mode, or maybe Emergency Mode.

True. I used to use that mode a lot more but got tired of deleting so many dupes. But it has it uses. That might have worked well on the white eye.

 

[crazyfingers]

I just came back from a short outing to a pond I go to that's spring fed and I thought that it might have iced out. It had. And I was caught off-guard by a great blue heron that flew out the moment I came into view over the hill.

I got a couple shots on that might have been the worst possible setting I could use. "Handheld Night Shot" The evening before I had been outside in the dark experimenting with it and I had neglected to check my settings today.

I took two shots and was thinking well this could look interesting. As I understand it, hand-held night shot takes several short burst shots in succession and stitches them together to reduce blur. It's similar to how they take long exposure astronomy photos.

I was expecting that my great blue would show the wings in several locations because I could hear that the camera took at least three shots to stitch together.

Evidently though, the camera ultimately decided to use only one and so here it is. I am slightly disappointed because I was sort of looking forward to seeing a heron with three pair of wings

Here is the Heron, and the pond. The two heron shots are cropped about 50%.

The snow pack is still over a foot deep and close to 2 feet in some places.

 

[crazyfingers]

Another surprise bird today this should be captioned "never go to the end of the driveway to get the trash barrel without the camera".

It flew out of my bushes by the house and flew up in an ash tree in my front yard. It appears to have a house sparrow. It sat there for about 12 minutes and then moved to a different branch to eat. I have not yet found the remains below the tree.

Looks like a coopers hawk I think.

 

[Marcobf]

Beautiful shots, very jealous :t:

 

[crazyfingers]

Thanks. I took over 175 pictures. Most, unfortunately, would be keepers. I need to weed the number down some. I posted above the interesting feeding photos. I'll post some portraits later.

 

[crazyfingers]

So I've weeded down the coopers hawk photos from yesterday from 175+ to 90. Even 90 seems a lot to keep. Oh well.

Here are a few more I like.

1: It's patiently waiting for his food to die. Gruesome but it's nature.
2: Nice portrait I think
3: I like how the SX50 shows how it can fit through a hole to get the face.
4: The intensity of it all

 

[Stephen Prower]

Preset 171.56mm/f5.6 zoom

Marcobf

1. You addressed Stefan (Hermitibis):

That's a great resource -thanks. And that Waxwing capture is truly excellent with this little sensor

Have you dropped the idea about saving the longest zoom where aperture is still 5.6? #1830

2. Like Stefan, I also experimented with the 171.56mm/f5.6 zoom pre-set on C1.

I gave up because I was leaving it on by mistake when I needed my usual setting of 215mm full zoom.

3. However I have been photographing little birds a lot recently from about 20 feet (ie 3 metres). I have lost a lot of good shots because of too tight framing.

Then I read your post for Stefan, and realised that at so close a distance I could give up a few pixels on the bird.

So I restored the 171.56mm pre-set on C1, and today used it in earnest. It worked!

The birds came in flurries. They were preoccupied by the proximity of other birds, and so were not greatly spooked by my use of a red dot sight instead of Zoom Frame Assist. It was just as well because they rarely settled for long, so I had to lay the camera on and shoot quickly.

But in addition the extra bit of leeway in framing from a 171.56mm length of zoom instead of 215mm also came in very handy.

4. So.

5. Gain of one third of a stop in exchange for the pre-set of a shorter length of zoom than full zoom:

Not worth the chance of messing up when instant full zoom required (by failing in the rush to shoot to change setting).

6. Gain from ability to pick up camera with zoom pre-set for instant use (and ability to restore pre-set quickly by moving off C1 and back again):

Sometimes useful. But of course gain not specific to a pre-set of 171.56mm. One's choice of pre-set could equally fall upon some other length of zoom.


Stephen

 

[pooleparrot]

Sparrowhawk

Seeing CF's Cooper's Hawk reminded me of a Sparrowhawk I had a couple of weeks ago on prey(a feral pigeon). It took no notice of me and was more interested in it's kill, took about 600 shots in 20mins ;-)

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

Lovely shots PP/all. I was using mine on the weekend to aid ID's. This little Yellowhammer was quite obliging though.

Rich

 

[mtar925]

Thanks HermitIbis for that index!

Just got my SX50 last week - a factory refurb from the Canon online outlet. Other than the plain brown box it came it, it looks brand new. I haven't been able to post pics here at BF (if I shrink them down to a size that meets the limits here they look awful - how do you all do it?) but here is
my post at DPReview where I posted two shots from my very first outing with the camera. Not magazine quality obviously, but as one who is new not just to the SX50 but to bird photography in general I'm very encouraged with the results! Some thoughts follow....comments/advice are invited!

I started on Av because that has been my standard in general photography for many years. I also tried Tv since some bird shooters seem to use it. But in both cases I found that, perhaps because of the way I personally carry or handle the camera, I must have been rotating the selector dial inadvertently and wasted several shots with settings that I didn't intend. I shifted to P (not Auto) and found that - in good light anyway, and with zoom extended - the camera reliably picks the settings I would anyway. Is there a disadvantage to P that I'm missing? In overcast I will probably find Tv more useful.

One way I'd like to try shooting the camera is in M with Auto ISO. But that doesn't seem to be possible - Auto ISO does not appear as an option in M. Is there a trick that allows it?

I'd read about limited dynamic range with the small sensor and sure enough, some highlights were blown even in pictures where the exposure did not look that challenging - and despite the fact that the histogram looked OK in the post-capture display. I'm trying iDynamic and it seems to help, and will have to try some -EV compensation next time. Is there a disadvantage to iDynamic - other than the lowest ISOs not being available? I'm shooting in JPEG-L and wonder if I really need to learn RAW.

The spot meter doesn't seem to be very fine. Birds shot against the bright blue sky turned out quite underexposed, even using the spot meter. Is that normal behavior? Short of going full Manual and bracketing, I wonder if it might be better to run the camera in Auto for those shots and let the auto backlight compensation work for me.

I found the 1.5x TC useful and got some decent shots with it. I've configured the custom-function button for the TC - and am wondering what others use that button for? There seems to be quite a falloff to the 2x TC.

The finder is good enough for pointing the camera but that's about it. I'd read about some people thinking of superzooms as replacement for scopes, and.....no. Not this one, anyway.

Overall I'm thrilled with the camera. It's even lighter and smaller than I expected, and to get some postable pictures on my very first trial run is very encouraging! Thanks to all who have posted to this thread and shared their experience.

Matt in Walnut Creek, CA

 

[HermitIbis]

I haven't been able to post pics here at BF (if I shrink them down to a size that meets the limits here they look awful - how do you all do it?) but here is
my post at DPReview where I posted two shots from my very first outing with the camera.

Matt, your photos at dpreview are nice. About publishing photos: If you click on "Manage Attachments", you'll see that jpeg photos of 1600 x 1200 pixels (493 KB) are allowed. I am using jpeg Large (not superfine), so in the free software Irfanview, it is easy to scale down the size with [STRG + R], then chose a percentage of ~40%, that will usually bring the pixels below the desired margin.

These photos of avian raptors above are splendid. Wikipedia on Cooper's Hawk: "They have also been seen drowning their prey, holding it underwater until it stops moving." Ouch.

 

[crazyfingers]

free software Irfanview, it is easy to scale down the size with [STRG + R], then chose a percentage of ~40%, that will usually bring the pixels below the desired margin.

I use Irfanview also when I batch resize all of my photos each month that I keep on my notebook in order to save space on my notebook. I batch resize all of my photos to 1600x1200. I keep several backups of the original 4000x3000 photos on my backup USB drives. I also put the 1600x1200's on my Tablet.

For just screen viewing the size difference is not a serious hit on quality. And ~~400K vs ~~3.5MB saves A LOT of space when you're talking about 20,000 photos!

Also, plain old MS Office Picture Manager is easy to use of you're only resizing one or two photos.

EDA: It's actually 65000 photos on my notebook and if we assume a 3.5mb file reduces to about 400KB, that's 27GB vs 227GB!

 

[mtar925]

Thanks, I'll check out Irfanview.

 

[HermitIbis]

One way I'd like to try shooting the camera is in M with Auto ISO. But that doesn't seem to be possible - Auto ISO does not appear as an option in M. Is there a trick that allows it?

According to the manual Auto Iso is impossible in M mode (German manual: p.260). I don't have much experience with manual mode, but plan to use it more often in 2015, just to learn something new.

I'm shooting in JPEG-L and wonder if I really need to learn RAW.

You can use C1 and C2 for jpeg-L and shoot in Av or Tv mode in RAW. Then you can easily change between the three options. Most users seem to prefer jpeg-L, since RAW doesn't make such a big difference as it does for DSLRs, but the camera offers enough options to experiment.

I found the 1.5x TC useful and got some decent shots with it. I've configured the custom-function button for the TC - and am wondering what others use that button for? There seems to be quite a falloff to the 2x TC.

I've both C1 and C2 set on 1.5x TC, then it is easy enough to go to 2.0 or 50x by pressing the custom-function button. Most users are doing it this way, I believe. It is practical to set the focus area to "small". This option doesn't show with the TC on, but can be useful with 50x. Focusing on birds in the foliage between twigs and leafs works better with the small focus area. See my first photo below, taken in the spirit of crazyfingers' "I like how the SX50 shows how it can fit through a hole to get the face."

While I mainly shoot with 1.5 or 2.0 TC, never forget the green AUTO option. It is a marvel for ID photos of little birds 200m away or late in the evening.

The finder is good enough for pointing the camera but that's about it. I'd read about some people thinking of superzooms as replacement for scopes, and.....no. Not this one, anyway.

Scope or binoculars are superior in many circumstances. A rare bird hidden in a bush, a group of larks 150m away on the ground, just two examples. But if I try to capture a Red Kite or another large bird in flight, I am not so sure - the bino has a great view, but the SX50 in Sports mode 100x magnification isn't much worse to follow the bird - and you can zoom in and out according to the distance. Sometimes I take the binoculars with me, but the SX50 is never missing on my walks.

Plus some recent shots.

 

[crazyfingers]

Time for a fun example of zoom again.

I was out today and spotted a spec of white in a tree.

Zoom in all the way including the 2x teleconverter.
It appears to be a red-tail hawk looking at me.
Not spectacular but good enough for ID.

I zoomed all the way out. The white speck flew off but it was in the clump of trees behind the white shack at the town soccer field.

 

[Atricapilla]

Time for a fun example of zoom again.

I was out today and spotted a spec of white in a tree.

Zoom in all the way including the 2x teleconverter.
It appears to be a red-tail hawk looking at me.
Not spectacular but good enough for ID.

I zoomed all the way out. The white speck flew off but it was in the clump of trees behind the white shack at the town soccer field.

Great shot CF,
Is that an Owl sitting on the right of the Red tail

 

[crazyfingers]

An owl? I don't see one. I see a clump of dead leaves above the lowest power cable. I wish it was an owl. I have no photos of owls so far.

 

[Atricapilla]

An owl? I don't see one. I see a clump of dead leaves above the lowest power cable. I wish it was an owl. I have no photos of owls so far.

Tree plus clump of dead leaves minus owl = senior moment !!!!!!! :-O :'D