Fujifilm HS50 EXR has arrived ! (1 Viewer)

[Keith Dickinson]

thats a vey nice reed Bunting keith. The day wasn't a total loss then ?

Knowing you I suspect that this is a Raw image that has been pp'd yes ?

I am surprised that you went with ISO100 on a day with such low light levels but you seem to have got away with it.:t:

I like the way that you have chosen to compose the image too.

Yes it's a RAW image - very little PP other than a small amount of sharpening, no noise reduction at all. This was taken in the late afternoon when there was a little bit of sunlight, the only time I got a well lit bird.

 

[earleybird]

wow there has been some excellent posts in this thread and it looks like it is already a useful resource for new and prospective fuji HS50 owners . Well done everybody.:t:

Gordon ...outstanding... thank you for posting all that information . I hadn't expected that much and your exif data is very useful when evaluating your images. I recommend everybody visiting this thread to take a look through Gordon's photostream.
Some of the most amazing images I've ever seen.:eek!: It just shows you what is possible with some good preparation and attention to picture composition.

Mind you Ontario low light and UK low light are clearly 2x different sorts of low light lol. if you look at Gordon's American Sparrow exif its taken at 185mm (max FL) f/5.6 1/210 exposure time which is impressive and a stonking ISO100 ! so not exactly what we would call low light in the UK, where you often can't see your feet :-O

 

[Gordon W]

Mind you Ontario low light and UK low light are clearly 2x different sorts of low light lol. if you look at Gordon's American Sparrow exif its taken at 185mm (max FL) f/5.6 1/210 exposure time which is impressive and a stonking ISO100 ! so not exactly what we would call low light in the UK, where you often can't see your feet :-O

Well, there's low light, earleybird, and then there's low light. |;|

The sparrow was taken late morning out in the open under overcast skies, so low but not low, while the chickadee was shot around the same time but it was in a treed area and the ducks were shortly after daybreak, also under overcast, so I call the light in those low.

Shot this Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) a while before sunrise this morning, so the light also qualified as low, too low, but one takes the shots one is presented with. I use Auto ISO limited to 1600. I should probably lower that to 800. ISO 1600 is a bit of a stretch for small sensors.

FUJIFILM FinePix HS50EXR
1/85s f/5.6 at 185.0mm (1,000mm EFL Handheld) iso1600

 

[earleybird]

thats a lovely image Gordon and black is such a difficult colour to get good detail with. I love the way the low angle sunlight is catching one side of the reeds .

When they say shoot during the golden hour they are not far wrong there are they.!

The new HS50 sensor is supposed to improve IQ at higher ISo settings but I agree with you I tend to set ISO800 max unless I'm trying to catch fast movement in very low light.

I suppose I should set the camera up and take a series of shots to check IQ at various ISO settings but there just isn't enough hours in a day

 

[kennethwfd]

best of mine from today. I do need to have settings built around the S mode as there were a trio of dunnocks, but every pic has suffered from motion blur to some degree.

yes, i know its buried amoungst branches, but the sun was out and I was out with the aim of practising.

I.'m thinking along the lines of shutter speed and even with IS, 1000mm is still a heck of a reach handheld. I think I'll dig out the monopod tomorrow

 

[Keith Dickinson]

Whilst out yesterday I used the video on the camera for the first time. Reviewing the movie tonight the speed seems slow. Like an idiot I wasn't paying attention to the setting for the video yesterday.
Which would you use?

 

[earleybird]

i'd probably use HD high definition setting 1280x720 60fps .
I'd only use 1920x1080 for exceptional video quality .
To be honest the files are so massive what could you do with them ? You probably couldn't upload them to youtube or flickr as they would be too big unless they were very short.

I haven't used mine in video mode yet ! I tend to use a little pas Fuji J150 4Mp camera set to 320x240 as the file sizes are ok to upload to youtube.
The video on the HS50 is wasted on me :-C

 

[Keith Dickinson]

Right I'll look into the settings. I used video to record a juvenile gull that was attempting to break into a tennis ball, kept stabbing it with its beak - obviously thinking it was an egg. A still shot just doesn't convey the same information.

 

[earleybird]

best of mine from today. I do need to have settings built around the S mode as there were a trio of dunnocks, but every pic has suffered from motion blur to some degree.

Try taking RAW and JPeg so that you can compare images .
I think you'll find that your JPegs will be the better image until you master the manual settings.

Try A mode set your ISO to 800 if its very dull or ISO400 if fair and bright.
Use f/5.6 and see if you can get your exposure time to come up to 1/120 or better still 1/250:t:

Don't be afraid to use the cameras excellent high ISO image quality . Try taking a shot at ISO400 then take the same shot at ISO1600 and see if you can see any significant difference in IQ

I'm wondering if your problems stem from using the camera hand-held at max zoom ? have you tried using a tripod ?

 

[earleybird]

Right I'll look into the settings. I used video to record a juvenile gull that was attempting to break into a tennis ball, kept stabbing it with its beak - obviously thinking it was an egg. A still shot just doesn't convey the same information.

brilliant ! that would have made a good subject for trying burst mode shooting
Shame about all the crap we dump into the environment that injure, trap and poison wildlife .

I've seen kids throwing stones into the air because they thought it fun to trick the gulls into thinking they were getting chips :C

 

[Keith Dickinson]

Did consider burst but it was at max fl and I'd forgotten the monpod again so wasn't confident of holding the camera steady enough to get usable still shots. The video is shaky but there's enough clear to see what the poor bird is trying to do.

 

[earleybird]

heres an interesting dilema that faces us every day. how best to compose our images and which to save and which to bin.

I would normally bin this image immediately as I check them after downloading into Picasa.

Its not a bad bird image and there is plenty of feather detail especially given that it was taken in low light through db glazing during a heavy bout of rain.!
if you look closely you can even see the tiny rain droplets on the back of the Bunting.:eek!:

The problem is ,there is no way that you could keep the out of focus foreground in the image and if its cropped out you'd end up with the bird badly composed with its eye and head cramped at the edge of the image .
Ideally we should aim to place the area of interest ( ie the eye) somewhere along the imaginary third lines in the frame. (rule of thirds)

The cropped image is a good record shot but as I know he will be back tomorrow and the next day this image is going to be deleted.

 

[Keith Dickinson]

I'd mask of all the left hand side of the picture to leave just the out of focus green blur and then try and alter the colour/brightness of the blur to something approaching that of the rest of the background. That would take the emphasis of the blurred area and leave more on the bird..

 

[Joms]

Very interesting thread. I bought an HS50 last week and have been wrestling with its learning curve since then, but feel I'm finally getting a grip on it. When I bought the HS50, I had intended on buying a Canon SX50, understanding the camera store had no HS50s in stock, but as it turned out some arrived that very morning, so I got to handle both cameras in the store and walked out with the HS50 because I much preferred its manual zoom and better EVF and haven't been disappointed with the decision. For a point 'n shoot, the HS50's focusing is amazingly fast and accurate. So far it's focused where I wanted it to and even managed to catch a couple birds in flight.

I'm not a birder, but I like to photograph birds when the opportunity arises. My normal wildlife lens is a Canon 100-400mm with a 1.4x TC, but due to its size and weight I don't normally have it with me, so I've missed a lot of bird photos because of that. The HS50 should rectify that situation.

These are a few of the birds I got with it so far.

Beautiful captures but too little. I've looked at your pbase gallery. Awesome and welcome aboard!

 

[kennethwfd]

not much today. a few miserable turnstones huddled in the lee of a rock and this tame hen blackbird. Not the best angle, but the eye and beak sharp

 

[earleybird]

not been a good day for me either .:-C

Gloom gloom and more gloom interspersed with the occasional bit of sun .

Lets see your miserable turnstones then ! I've never seen one of those either . You get all the best waders.

 

[Gordon W]

My latest bird photo. I'm pretty sure this is a European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris). I don't often photograph birds on the feeder, but took this as a test of the HS50 shooting through the double pane glass of the front window and I'm surprised at how sharp it is.

FUJIFILM FinePix HS50EXR
1/550s f/5.6 at 123.8mm (669mm EFL Handheld) iso100

We're in the midst of a daylong ice storm, so the light is dismal and dreary today.

 

[Joms]

My latest bird photo. I'm pretty sure this is a European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris). I don't often photograph birds on the feeder, but took this as a test of the HS50 shooting through the double pane glass of the front window and I'm surprised at how sharp it is.

FUJIFILM FinePix HS50EXR
1/550s f/5.6 at 123.8mm (669mm EFL Handheld) iso100

We're in the midst of a daylong ice storm, so the light is dismal and dreary today.

Nice one...

At ISO400 you can still get pretty darn nice Starling. See link below...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joms_birding/8593348971/in/photostream

Cheers,

Joms

 

[Gordon W]

Nice one...

At ISO400 you can still get pretty darn nice Starling. See link below...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joms_birding/8593348971/in/photostream

Impressive, Joms, and just sitting there posing for you. Doesn't get much better than that.

 

[kennethwfd]

here they are. normally very active little birds, scurrying around and a challenge to photograph because they are so quick. many a time, i have composed my shot, only to have the bird move in an instant, and as their name suggests they do flick stones aside looking for food. One reason to buy the Fuji