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First camera in years SX60HS - disappointed... please help?

lisa32
Apprentice

Hello

A quick background, over 10years ago I loved pottering around with an old film EOS 300V my brother gave me, I had a Tamron 28-300 lens and it was just fun. Then I just stopped photography.

 

Recently I decided to get a new camera and a friend with the SX40 highly recommended it but by now it was the SX60 so that's what I got. 

 

BUT so far I'm Very disappointed. The sharp images are few and far between. They look good on the screen but as soon as you zoom in - nope they are soft.  With my old camera, I always got the results I wanted... Now it seems no amount of effort is getting me any results.

 

I have the option to get a 1300D as they are on sale atm.... Would love thoughts.

 

Thanks

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

ScottyP
Authority

Can you post sample images?

 

There are a lot of things that could be going on. One thing to keep in mind is that with your old film camera you were probably looking at little paper snapshot prints but now you are blowing it up onto a huge computer monitor way bigger than an 8" x 10" print. Any weakness in the image is magnified. 

 

One likely culprit is high ISO.  Your power shot had a relatively little sensor and so it will struggle somewhat in lower light. If the camera raises ISO it will lose resolution and will pick up staticky "noise" in the images that looks bad on a big monitor. 

 

Another likelysuspect is slow shutter speed. If the camera is struggling in lowlight and has already opened the aperture to maximum and boosted the ISO it may then lower the shutter speed trying to get enough light into the camera. If so that may be too slow to freeze subject motion and/or too slow to counteract your hands shaking as you hold the camera and the result is blur. 

 

Watch a few short free video tutorials on the exposure triangle to see at least what is going wrong. You can then work around the limitations of the camera.  If you get another power shot camera be sure to get one with a larger sensor and/or a bigger aperture lens (lower f/number) or the same limitations will apply. Getting a DSLR camera that uses interchangeable lenses is also helpful if you have the budget. 

Scott

Canon 5d mk 4, Canon 6D, EF 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS mk2; EF 16-35 f/2.8 L mk. III; Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art" EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; EF 85mm f/1.8; EF 1.4x extender mk. 3; EF 24-105 f/4 L; EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS; 3x Phottix Mitros+ speedlites

Why do so many people say "FER-tographer"? Do they take "fertographs"?

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4 REPLIES 4

ScottyP
Authority

Can you post sample images?

 

There are a lot of things that could be going on. One thing to keep in mind is that with your old film camera you were probably looking at little paper snapshot prints but now you are blowing it up onto a huge computer monitor way bigger than an 8" x 10" print. Any weakness in the image is magnified. 

 

One likely culprit is high ISO.  Your power shot had a relatively little sensor and so it will struggle somewhat in lower light. If the camera raises ISO it will lose resolution and will pick up staticky "noise" in the images that looks bad on a big monitor. 

 

Another likelysuspect is slow shutter speed. If the camera is struggling in lowlight and has already opened the aperture to maximum and boosted the ISO it may then lower the shutter speed trying to get enough light into the camera. If so that may be too slow to freeze subject motion and/or too slow to counteract your hands shaking as you hold the camera and the result is blur. 

 

Watch a few short free video tutorials on the exposure triangle to see at least what is going wrong. You can then work around the limitations of the camera.  If you get another power shot camera be sure to get one with a larger sensor and/or a bigger aperture lens (lower f/number) or the same limitations will apply. Getting a DSLR camera that uses interchangeable lenses is also helpful if you have the budget. 

Scott

Canon 5d mk 4, Canon 6D, EF 70-200mm L f/2.8 IS mk2; EF 16-35 f/2.8 L mk. III; Sigma 35mm f/1.4 "Art" EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; EF 85mm f/1.8; EF 1.4x extender mk. 3; EF 24-105 f/4 L; EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS; 3x Phottix Mitros+ speedlites

Why do so many people say "FER-tographer"? Do they take "fertographs"?

Thanks your answer was v helpful. I think you were so right about the monitor making it look bad; when I actually printed pics they looked much better. I've decided to stick with the SX60 and learn all I can, already I am getting better results. Thanks again

It can be easy to draw the wrong conclusion about image sharpness looking at your monitor. Depending on the software  you're using you may be unknowingly viewing the image at 200% or 300% magnification which can make the image appear pixelated and soft.

The best way to check the image for sharpness is at 100% magnification. Your viewing software will often show you the amount of the magnified view, maybe somewhere at the bottom of the screen or in a toolbar. By viewing at 100%, each single pixel in the image is displayed as one single pixel on the monitor.

Say you're working with a 3000x2000 pixel image. If the monitor resolution is 1440x900, at 100% you will see a 1440x900 section of that image. If you increase the magnification above 100%, then the software has to do some interpolation where one image pixel has to be displayed as more than one monitor pixel onscreen. That means there's some guesswork involved and the results can be less than ideal.

Thanks I'll use that info from now on 🙂

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