SX40 Super Zoom (2 Viewers)

[Roy C]

I hate how I can either shoot a subject at wide angle touching the lens OR from 10 feet away at full zoom with not much in between.

The Minimum focus distance at full zoom (or with one of the digital converters) is 4.5 feet. Dragonflies at, say, 1260mm from 4.5 feet will fill the frame.
NOTE: at a little less than full zoom the MFD actually increases (which I find strange).

 

[RE Birder]

The Minimum focus distance at full zoom (or with one of the digital converters) is 4.5 feet. Dragonflies at, say, 1260mm from 4.5 feet will fill the frame.
NOTE: at a little less than full zoom the MFD actually increases (which I find strange).

Roy, there's some people waiting for your expertise on the Devon Birds Forum!

Cheers

 

[Ben Markham]

I took these today at Harewood House in West Yorkshire, I was very pleased to say the least.

 

[AndyM]

A few 'walkabout' shots taken over the weekend. The final shot was taken as part of my quest for half-decent flight shots. I used HiQ 10fps with CHDK overrides using a 1/1000 shutter speed and an aperture of f.8. Could have been better. Not brilliant but getting there.....maybe

Andy

 

[Neil]

I took these today at Harewood House in West Yorkshire, I was very pleased to say the least.

Great detail with these Ben. Nice.

 

[Neil]

A few 'walkabout' shots taken over the weekend. The final shot was taken as part of my quest for half-decent flight shots. I used HiQ 10fps with CHDK overrides using a 1/1000 shutter speed and an aperture of f.8. Could have been better. Not brilliant but getting there.....maybe

Andy

Andy
Isn't it great for just walking about.
Neil

 

[Neil]

I had a few days in Oman last week and I took the Sx40hs and the Sony Nex7.
I was happy with the ability of the sx40 to get some reasonable bird images as my wife and I wandered around being tourists.
The crab was taken with the internal 2x ( actually 1.95x) .
Neil

 

[Atricapilla]

Some great shots there Neil,please keep them coming.

 

[Roy C]

I had a few days in Oman last week and I took the Sx40hs and the Sony Nex7.
I was happy with the ability of the sx40 to get some reasonable bird images as my wife and I wandered around being tourists.
The crab was taken with the internal 2x ( actually 1.95x) .
Neil

Some cracking shots there Neil, especially the Curlew :t::t::t:.

 

[RonW]

I had a few days in Oman last week and I took the Sx40hs and the Sony Nex7.
I was happy with the ability of the sx40 to get some reasonable bird images as my wife and I wandered around being tourists.
The crab was taken with the internal 2x ( actually 1.95x) .
Neil

Excellent shots. I didn't find the quality of all the pics in this thread that convincing ( no offence), but these really show what that camera can do. :t:

 

[punta]

Excellent shots. I didn't find the quality of all the pics in this thread that convincing ( no offence), but these really show what that camera can do. :t:

Reason being Ron is LIGHT - get enough of it, which we do not get in the UK and this camera will shine :t:

 

[Roy C]

Probably not in the 'right hands' as far as Ron is concerned but here are a few snaps taken at 1260mm handheld.
With a small sensor like the one on the SX40 (less than 6mm on the long side!) you need the right conditions to get a reasonable bird image as 'punta' says. Not only good light but also you have to avoid cropping as much as possible - this is why judging web images is so difficult because you never know how much of a crop the shot is. It is no different to some of relatively cheap DSLR telephoto zoom lenses (ones in the £500-£700 type bracket spring to mind) They are fine if you can get near to the bird but if you have to start cropping heavily then the IQ diminishes rapidly.

 

[Roy C]

Excellent shots. I didn't find the quality of all the pics in this thread that convincing ( no offence), but these really show what that camera can do. :t:

You do need good conditions to get the best out of this very small sensor but one of the problems with a thread like this is that the photographic skills of people using this camera ranges from complete novices just starting out on bird photography to experienced DSLR shooters who use one as a lightweight walkabout when they do not want to lug around their heavy DSLR kit. It is therefore inevitable that standards will differ quite a lot. Having said that if you look at all the post's in this thread there are many very nice shots IMHO from a wide variety of different people.
Above is my latest offerings which no doubt does not come up to your standards so sorry in advance for for that.

 

[KFC]

You do need good conditions to get the best out of this very small sensor but one of the problems with a thread like this is that the photographic skills of people using this camera ranges from complete novices just starting out on bird photography to experienced DSLR shooters

Roy, Ben, Andy, Neil et al.

So impressed with your photography. As Roy says, people's photographic skills vary greatly. I am at the 'complete novice' end of the spectrum. How would you suggest I skill up and learn some useful concepts and techniques? Is there a 'Bridge cameras for dummies' book that you would recommend? I'm keen to use my SX40 with the selector wheel set to something other than auto. At Bird Fare this weekend, I was able to find plenty of photography books relating to DSLRs... would the information in these be generally transferable to the SX40?

Thanks for any help and keep the inspirational photos coming.

Ken

 

[Neil]

Roy, Ben, Andy, Neil et al.

So impressed with your photography. As Roy says, people's photographic skills vary greatly. I am at the 'complete novice' end of the spectrum. How would you suggest I skill up and learn some useful concepts and techniques? Is there a 'Bridge cameras for dummies' book that you would recommend? I'm keen to use my SX40 with the selector wheel set to something other than auto. At Bird Fare this weekend, I was able to find plenty of photography books relating to DSLRs... would the information in these be generally transferable to the SX40?

Thanks for any help and keep the inspirational photos coming.

Ken

Ken
A lot of the techniques for DSLRs apply to the SX40 to.
I like to use the Scene - hi speed mode to shoot fast bursts. I also set a manual iso to keep the shutter speed as high as possible. Auto iso keeps the shutter speed too low.
Get up an hour before sunrise and get out into the field and shoot at least 500 photos per day.
Neil

 

[AndyM]

Roy, Ben, Andy, Neil et al.

So impressed with your photography. As Roy says, people's photographic skills vary greatly. I am at the 'complete novice' end of the spectrum. How would you suggest I skill up and learn some useful concepts and techniques? Is there a 'Bridge cameras for dummies' book that you would recommend? I'm keen to use my SX40 with the selector wheel set to something other than auto. At Bird Fare this weekend, I was able to find plenty of photography books relating to DSLRs... would the information in these be generally transferable to the SX40?

Thanks for any help and keep the inspirational photos coming.

Ken

I think we all have our own different ways of doing things. I'm not far short of being a novice myself so try to keep things simple. For my usual 'pull it out and shoot scenario', I'm currently torn between using Scene Mode with the HiQ10fps selection and Tv (selectable shutter speed). As most situations require full zoom, you are pretty much restricted to an aperture of f5.8 so I tend to work around that. In scene mode you really do need good lighting conditions for the camera to automatically select a fast enough shutter speed to freeze any movement. The benefit here lies in the ability to shoot at 10 frames per second increasing the chances of at least one shot being half decent

Using Tv mode, you can select the shutter speed yourself. Basically try to select the fastest you can before the f5.8 symbol in the viewfinder/LCD turns red indicating that the shutter speed is too fast for the available light (so keep backing it off until it turns white again). The downside is that you are more or less restricted to a single shot or a rather sluggish burst of shots (c.2 frames per second).

I've recently been experimenting with CHDK which gives me near total control of Shutter speed, aperture and ISO whilst shooting at 10fps which is proving rather effective (I've not got past shutter speed & aperture experimentation yet).

I KNOW it's yet another Collared Dove (well 2 actually) but I consider this image to be one of my finest so far in terms of clarity etc. It was shot early in the morning at 1/1000, F8.0 at 10fps using the CHDK overrides. Try zooming in on it if you can.

My final piece of advice is listen carefully to Roy if he tells you anything. My Hoya UV filter has now been retired until extreme conditions warrant it's use. He said it would cause image degradation. He was, of course, completely right as usual :t:

Have fun!

Andy

 

[AndyM]

Ken
A lot of the techniques for DSLRs apply to the SX40 to.
I like to use the Scene - hi speed mode to shoot fast bursts. I also set a manual iso to keep the shutter speed as high as possible. Auto iso keeps the shutter speed too low.
Get up an hour before sunrise and get out into the field and shoot at least 500 photos per day.
Neil

Like I said, I'm not too far off being a novice. Hadn't considered upping the ISO for hi-speed burst! What sort of ISO did you tend to set on average for a noiseless image?

EDIT: Actually, how do you do that? I don't seem to have the option to change the ISO in Hi-speed burst or have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick?

Andy.

 

[Roy C]

Like I said, I'm not too far off being a novice. Hadn't considered upping the ISO for hi-speed burst! What sort of ISO did you tend to set on average for a noiseless image?

Andy.

I guess using a high(ish) ISO amounts to the same thing as upping the shutter speed Andy - as you know when shooting at full zoom you are at f5.8 wide open so if you set a fast shutter speed in Tv mode the only thing the Camera can possibly do is to up the ISO to get correct exposure (assuming you have set auto ISO).

I have only had a quick play with the 10fps mode but is there an override in CHDK that allows you to select a ISO as it defaults to auto from what I can see!.I go along with you in that shooting in rapid burst increases the chance of nailing one but I have not used the scene mode much because of the lack of controllability.

Re noise and ISO I find with the SX40 that up to ISO 400 is fine and even ISO 800 is OK unless you underexpose and try to push in processing - cropping heavily will increases the noise. If one underexposes and crops heavily this is a recipe for extreme noise in my experience. I admit that I almost always run some selective NR on the background as a matter of course on all my images which helps.

PS: That dove shot is very nice with some super detail and pin sharp :t: it also shows the greater DOF you get with the smaller sensor - an advantage in some cases but a disadvantage when it comes to creating a nice Bokeh.

 

[Roy C]

EDIT: Actually, how do you do that? I don't seem to have the option to change the ISO in Hi-speed burst or have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick?

Andy.

lol, I was just asking you the same question in my post above then I notice this edit.

 

[AndyM]

I have only had a quick play with the 10fps mode but is there an override in CHDK that allows you to select a ISO as it defaults to auto from what I can see!.I go along with you in that shooting in rapid burst increases the chance of nailing one but I have not used the scene mode much because of the lack of controllability.

Bring up the CHDK <Alt> menu and select the 'Extra Photo Operations' option. In there you will find options to override the Shutter speed, Aperture & ISO. It is not as straightforward as you would hope so I would recommend watching this tutorial which explains it all nicely;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWWUlManSUU

It sort of complicates things to make selections quicker. You have an ISO Value and a Value Factor. For example, if you wanted to quickly go from 100 ISO to 800 IS, instead of having to scroll through every number between 100 & 800 (101,102,103...etc) you leave the ISO Value at 100 and simply move the Value factor up from 1 to 8 which then gives you 8x100=800!

You'll understand it all better if you watch the tutorial...

HTH,

Andy.