Backyard birds - SX50 Varied Ranges

I think I am selling my Canon 100-400L heavy lens and buying me a SX50...
Nice set of pictures..

They are all great, but that last one is stunning!

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Nighthound wrote in post #16753750
Amazing clarity, detail and color in these Kenn. That last one is a real stunner. Thanks for including the distances, being able to focus at 5 feet is a nice plus.

I took your 6th shot and converted it to LAB color in PS and bumped the saturation to +15 (I prefer LAB for color work, convert back to RGB for web). It brought the color more in line with your last shot which I think is on the money.

Hi Steve - I must admit my RAW workflow is still very much in flux. The SX50 is the first camera we've owned that can save RAW files natively, and we only shoot it in RAW(+jpeg) part of the time because of the speed hit. Even then I only process the RAW versions when either I think it could help save a marginal image, or significantly improve a good one. In the case of #6 above, the original jpeg WB was pretty far off toward green, and the light was very contrasty. I believe the RAW did help me to save it from the bin, but I really didn't get it right and probably over-compensated somewhat for both the color shift and in backing off the contrast. I'll take another whack at it. I really appreciate your feedback on this, and I bet I'm not the only one here who'd love to hear more about your workflow.
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Further to Steve's comment about the short minimum focus distance btw... The #8 Bluebird portrait above was shot at 5ft with full-zoom (1200mm), and that combination produces a very shallow DOF comparable to many DSLR/telephoto rigs.

However, to any experienced DSLR users who might wish to try this camera for birding, I should also say... that the SX50 is in fact an inexpensive superzoom with a tiny sensor, and really won't replace DSLR/Lglass rigs for BIF or any otherwise demanding wildlife photography. But it can produce very worthy images at moderate distances when shot to its strengths. This usually means base ISOs in good light, and primarily passerine or other stationary subjects. It does offer some $ignificant advantages over big kits for this kind of work though... Extraordinary reach and excellent IS that can be hand-held with surprisingly good results under ideal conditions, even when using slow shutter speeds. And of course it's a lot easier to carry wherever you might use it.

I prefer to shoot it in Manual mode at or near maximum optical focal length, and generally underexpose a little to prevent any loss of highlight detail. The in-cam jpeg engine is quite good, but some additional detail can often be squeezed out and more latitude in exposure correction is possible with RAW processing. Continuous drive in RAW is slow however... about 1fps in decent light. AF speed is average at best for a compact (very slow compared to any DSLR), but it does focus sharply and reliably with good contrast targets. Pixel-level IQ and DR cannot compare with APS or FF of course, especially at higher ISOs, but it is state of the art for this size sensor. We've used many different superzooms of several brands, and critically pixel-peeped them all... The SX50 has the most cropable 1/2.3" sensor currently available imo.

So, I really think most wildlife shooters would be well-advised to keep their DSLR gear. But some might appreciate having an SX50 in the bag as well.

Thanks again, and good shooting everybody.

Kenn