Recently, many of my images and comments
have described an affordable camera for birders, the
Canon SX50 HS.
My first posts demonstrated the difference between a
Nikon D300 DSLR camera with its 80-400mm lens,
and
the Canon SX50 camera.
See that information: (CLICK HERE)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PROVIDED HERE:
1) In-camera digital expansion of images;
2) Birds-in-flight
EXAMPLES ARE SHOWN DIRECTLY BELOW:
THIS CAMERA HAS THE ZOOM
(MAGNIFICATION) CAPABILITY OF
50X
Part of its zoom feature is accomplished using
in-camera digital expansion
Below are results...
a series of images, hand-held, ranging from 1,200mm through 4,800mm magnification
Belted Kingfisher
(Big Cottonwood park pond)
1st image:
1,200mm optical magnification, no cropping
2nd image:
2,400mm digital (in-camera) magnification, no cropping
3rd image:
4,800mm digital (in-camera) magnification, no cropping
A Second Series, with Canada Goose
1st image:
900mm optical magnification, no cropping
2nd image:
2,400mm digital (in-camera) magnification, no cropping
3rd image:
4,800mm digital (in-camera) magnification, no cropping
A stationary turtle at Kennecott Nature Center pond:
Views, beginning with a "normal vision" image
(what the scene would look like with the naked eye)
Normal Perspective (what the eye would see):
50mm, no cropping
1,200mm optical magnification, no cropping
2,400mm digital (in-camera) magnification, no cropping
4,800mm digital (in-camera) magnification, no cropping
An American White Pelican on Willow Pond lent itself to my experimentation:
Normal Perspective (what the eye would see):
50mm, no cropping
1,200mm optical magnification, no cropping
2,400mm digital (in-camera) magnification, no cropping
4,800mm digital (in-camera) magnification, no cropping
An area I'm only beginning to explore...
Birds in Flight
with the Canon SX50 camera.
My first attempt: 2 Peregrine Falcons chasing an American Kestrel, Sandy Pond on an extremely cloudy day!
Peregrine in flight against heavy cloud cover
Continuing a series with this bird, in rapid succession
Extremely low light available on these!
Normal Perspective (what the eye would see):
50mm, no cropping
This image shows the dim light I had to work with, photographing
Peregrines that can achieve speeds of 200mph.
Both birds decided to rest, on the huge pole (left of center)
1,200mm optical magnification, no cropping
In conversation with a birder recently, he told me he was not that impressed with results he'd seen posted from the Canon SX50.
He remarked that the camera did provide enough information to make a reasonable long-range Identification, but not much else!
Often, images for Bird I.D. have not been carefully executed... image quality is secondary to
"getting the picture" to VERIFY a bird's I.D.
One more comment regarding this camera, aimed at more advanced bird photographers:
The Canon SX50 HS camera is the FIRST OF ITS LINE to capture "RAW" 16 bit images, providing an enormous advantage for image improvement in Post-Processing!
This page is a work in progress...
More examples/explanations will follow in time.
Richard Young