Testing the Canon SX50

[FrankMi]

I finally made the change. Thrilled as I was with the grab 'n go capabilities of the Canon SX40, when a friend of mine, having seen the images I've captured with it, wanted to buy it from me for an upcoming vacation, I sold it.

I then went right out and bought the Canon SX50. This provided not only a longer lens than what I could possible afford for my Nikon DSLR, but it also shoots RAW, something the SX40 could only do with a convoluted software update.

I wanted to test it but didn't get the chance until Mother's Day when I attended my grandson's graduation from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We were sitting in the nose-bleed seats so I snapped an image with the camera set to 24 mm FFE, its widest setting as shown below.



Take notice of the gal in the white dress just left of the center podium.

That is Brooke Baldwin, graduate of this UNC/CH, School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2001.

Today she is a CNN anchor in the Atlanta Headquarters. You may have seen her reporting live from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, or with Piers Morgan in London covering Queen's Diamond Jubilee, or perhaps at the aftermath of the Boston Marathon terrorist attack, or any one of a number of CNN news stories.

Today, however, she was presenting the UNC/CH commencement address to the graduating class of 2014. A superb public speaking communicator, she was very interesting as she told us the story of how she progressed from graduating at UNC/CH to her present responsibilities at CNN.

From the location I took the above image, I also snapped a shot of Brooke during her presentation. The image is hand-held so a bit soft but it really surprised me with just how far I could reach (1,200mm FFE) with the Canon SX50. Both of these shots are SOOC with no post processing other than reducing the size and identical output sharpening to compensate for the size reduction.



It won't replace my DSLR for serious photography, but on vacation with no kit bag or multiple lenses to carry around, and whenever I need to reach significantly longer than the 300mm (450 mm FFE) lens on my Nikon, it has a place in my photography stable.

[John 2]

Remarkable quality Frank. I bought my Fuji X-Pro1 as a more portable set up but the truth is that once you start to add lenses, that becomes watered down. My other half has been encouraging me to go down a point and shoot route instead of carting around a bag full of kit on holiday but I worry about the loss of quality. Maybe I shouldn't.

[FrankMi]

Remarkable quality Frank. I bought my Fuji X-Pro1 as a more portable set up but the truth is that once you start to add lenses, that becomes watered down. My other half has been encouraging me to go down a point and shoot route instead of carting around a bag full of kit on holiday but I worry about the loss of quality. Maybe I shouldn't.

Hi John, if you are going on a "photoshoot" holiday, you will not likely get the image quality with a $350 P&S that you have come to expect with a DSLR. On the other hand, if you are going on a "holiday" where studio quality photography is not your primary goal, than this approach can be quite viable. In a lot of cases, you won't be able to tell the difference in the final image.

If you are interested in seeing the difference, take a look at SmugMug images at the link in my signature. In the Carolina's folder in particular, you can compare images taken with DSLR and P&S cameras, each is clearly labeled. I haven't posted any from the SX50 but there are a number of SX40 images for comparison.