Discuss best settings for non-DSLR camera - Bird shots.

[GloriaS]

Hello All,

I want inhanced feather defination, especially for white birds.  I usually take shots before 11AM and between 3PM and sunset.

Owner of a Canon Power Shot SX50 HS.    I like the 50X zoom, but maybe I zoom in too much or birds are to far away.

[hsbn]

There are limits to P&S camera but you can improve the image quality some what. First, shoot RAW (your camera support RAW), use lower ISO setting if you can. If you shoot JPG, in camera noise reduction may rob your image quality a lot.

[cicopo]

I think the most important thing to help with feather detail is a high shutter speed AND rock steady camera. ANY camera shake will smear that detail and the longer the lens (as in the higher the mm number used) the more that shake smear will destroy fine detail. This applies to any camera / lens combo & we've been taught to always use a shutter speed above 1/focal length when not using a good tripod. SO if your SX50 is zoomed to 500 mm (35 mm film camera equavelent) you need at least a 1/500 shutter speed BUT IS can allow slightly slower but it's better to have a higher shutter speed than depend on IS. 

I also agree that shooting in RAW will help retain better detail but I suspect shooting gulls like in your sample may also fool the metering slightly (the grey & white colours) so you may need to adjust your exposure slightly if the gull fills most of the frame.

[GloriaS]

Thank you so much for your reply on this subject.  I'm going to try this and see what happens.

[GloriaS]

Thank you very much for your reply. I have never tried shooting RAW. I do have my ISO setting on 160 now. Will have to see what the RAW mode will allow. Will try your suggestion and see what happens....thanks again and have a great afternoon!

[cicopo]

If you don't understand what RAW is & why it's so useful Adobe has a pretty nice explination here.

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/photoshop/pdfs/understanding_...

When you but a camera that produces jpg's you trust the built in software to do an acceptable job at converting the RAW data to a nice jpg, but every brand of camera uses different standards in trying to please it's customers. Some favor greener greens, some bluer blues for the shy etc. When you shoot RAW you can fine tune the exposure & the tints, brightness etc & create as many different jpg's from the original data as you'd like. You never modify the RAW data, you simply use it as the starting point of each image.

[bradmoss]

Have you watched this Video

[cicopo]

You forgot to add the link.

[GloriaS]

Thanks for that additional info.  I appreciate your input on this subject!

[GloriaS]

Yes, but this seemed to apply for persons with DSLR camera's that have lens.   Mine is a NON-DSLR with 50X zoom.