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Monday, February 04, 2013

Photographing Warblers with Canon SX 50 HS camera

Palm Warbler. AV, 1/1600, f5.6, ISO 400 -2/3 exposure compensation.
100% digital zoom ratio

Here's another shot of the same bird.

Here is the first photo before it was cropped.

Yup, I can photograph fast moving warblers with my new Canon SX 50 HS point and shoot super-zoom camera. That's what I found out this morning when I followed this fast moving Palm Warbler through the tree on Sanibel, FL, where they winter. Someone had commented to me that the real test of this camera will come in spring migration. I am encouraged and impressed with this camera. Getting any kind of decent photo of a warbler moving through trees is an accomplishment. It tests the photographer's and camera's abilities. These photos were shot in .jpeg and only sharpened slightly, nothing else done.
Palm Warblers are a common wintering warbler here. Look for their yellow (sat in mustard) undertail coverts, so nicely shown in the first photo, as a good ID tip.

6 comments:

Jude said...

Are there any issues with shutter lag? I loved my last point-and-shoot Canon, but the shutter lag was difficult to manage for bird photos.

Lillian Stokes said...

Not sure what you mean by shutter lag, so I guess it is not an issue with this camera. Canon says they have reduced focus times by 50% and shutter lag by 44% over the SX 40 and previous cameras.

Ruth Hiebert said...

This camera has me interested.It would be a handy one to carry along most of the time.

mjh said...

I'd appreciate seeing a zoomed shot with any sharpening or post-processing except for cropping. // I assume the LCD and EVF are lower resolution than your DSLR. Is that an issue? Thanks. peace, mjh

Lillian Stokes said...

mjh. See today's post on Green Heron. The second photo is cropped to about a fifth of the photo, with nothing else done.
These warblers only have a small amount of sharpening. The LCD on the SX 50 is very good, the EVF is not as good as a DSLR, but then again, this is a very inexpensive camera compared to many DSLRs.

Anonymous said...

Really enjoying this series of posts about your new Canon! The idea of being able to photograph wildlife for less than $400 is very attractive, and it's great to hear your perspective as someone who has used really good equipment.

Have you had any problems with the viewfinder compared to your DSLR?

Drew