Upgrading SX20 to SX40

Ive had my SX20 for about 2 years and have loved it so far. I shoot primarily on program or manual, and I use CHDK for raw. Because if CHDK, I intend to stay with Canon if possible.

My primary reasons for upgrading are that about 90% of my shots are of my 6 year old and are action shots -playing, baseball, etc. It's hard to get a 6 year old to be still!
The SX20 with burst is about 1shot a second, where out of the box I've read the SX40 is 8 FPS in burst and so far, but I am not sure that alone is worth the cost of upgrading. (I have a tight budget - I can swing the $400 if I use my Brandsmart no interest card)
I'm just looking for more points to consider from someone who has played with or owned both.
I do not wish to own a DSLR, I simply can not justify that cost for personal use. The mega zoom is an absolute must. I don't care about video. I use it some, but I only ever watch it on my PC and it's just not a concern of mine.
When I am not taking photos of my kid, it's usually flowers, etc so I do use the macro feature quite a bit, but I am perfectly happy with macro on the SX20.
I do take quite a bit of indoor shots, an the SX20 isn't great at that. I prefer to not use the flash but when I do use it, I have a homemade lightscoop I use.
I don't take many landscape photos but we are going on a cruise soon and it's something to keep in mind.
When I am not carrying my SX20, I have a Panasonic ZS8 that is always in my purse.
I guess what I am trying to decide is if the speed is that much better on the SX40, and as I said, anything else I've not thought of that would make it worth the $400 upgrade.

Thanks in advance!

Kayhold wrote in post #14134590
....I guess what I am trying to decide is if the speed is that much better on the SX40....

Depends on your budget, I guess, but I sold my SX30 for the SX40 and have never regretted it. Better IQ and higher usable ISO made all the difference, so the improvement from an SX20 should be even more dramatic.

teekay wrote in post #14134907
Depends on your budget, I guess, but I sold my SX30 for the SX40 and have never regretted it. Better IQ and higher usable ISO made all the difference, so the improvement from an SX20 should be even more dramatic.

Thanks. I have read the sensor is better on the SX20 (CCD) but I'm not sure how outdated that info is.
I can afford it but I budget everything and in order to get the camera, I have agreed to give up my 2 a day Starbucks habit, lol
I keep going back and forth between "Thats a lot of money for higher FPS in burst mode!" and "But I use burst mode most of the time!"

If I could find something to push me either way I can stop torturing myself. For a it I was considering just going DSLR but I don't need or want all of those features and included costs when all I really want is something I can shoot raw with (CHDK) and take high speed photos with a great zoom.
The zoom is non-negotiable. My kid HATES pictures so I can not be anywhere close to him when taking them, LOL

I can't sell my sx20 - its not beaten but it's certainly well loved.

I am a bit :\ that the sx40 doesn't come with a lens hood, though.

welcome!

Check out this review from Gordon Liang about the SX40 HS's continuous shooting. Scroll down to "Canon PowerShot SX40 HS Continuous Shooting". He wrote 7 paragraphs on the feature and has about 20 photo samples of the burst mode

^^Thank you! I did plenty of google searching and that never came up. Will go read now

Hi KayHold,

I just got my SX40 HS yesterday, and have played around a bit with the settings in order to see how it works, and get a better grasp of how it works. I sure love the quality of photos it's capable of taking.

As for burst, I haven't had the opportunity to try it out yet, but I have tried shooting some photos in low-light mode and in that one, the camera takes a series of pictures too, similar to what it does in burst, and then combines it to one shot. That process, in my opinion is quite quick.

Although you may not be in need of it. I thought I would mention that you can't have longer shutter times when increasing the iso more than 1 second. It is than locked to iso 100. Can be of interest to you if you are thinking of shooting photos of your son in a darker environment and don't want to use the flash. From what you say though, this won't be a problem to you. There are also some other features that have been omitted in the SX40 compared with earklier models of the series. You can read more about it here: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1163084

Anyway, given the function you are using the most, I think you'll be happy with the SX40HS, the photos are very high quality, although a little softer on the most extreme zoom, but that's common for these cameras I think (I've never had one before). You can see for yourself in this https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1108703
As you already have the SX20, there should be a similar effect to that, even though the SX40s photos are sharper and the low-light is better.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

/Tobias

I have the SX40 and it is nice but...I missed my SX20 so much I bought another one. The SX40 is much faster but I like the SX20 CCD colors much better. I also have two superb Sony DSLRs which I use for dedicated photo trips.

Hi,

While reviewing the SX40, I compared it with the SX30 and found that it's much faster
in many ways, including in autofocus times, which is the major part in shutter lag.

I expect that upgrading from the SX20 to the SX40 will be a significant change.
However, you must keep in mind that you're dealing with a DSLR-Like camera,
which is essentially a compact camera in a beefed up body, so its capacity of
quick AF and action shots will always be limited. Once your expectations are
in the right place, you can be happy with it for all your needs.

Also, you'd probably be able to go a full ISO level without image quality degradation
compared to your current camera, so you get more speed for those action shots.
See my comparison with the SX30 here.

HTH,
-eyalg