I want to add one thing to Matt's comments, and it applies to the Canon SX series (SX 40/50/60) as well as to other cameras. Unless you plan to use the RAW data, you will get the highest quality photographs if you set the camera to record the largest JPG files.
Jeannie and I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the photographs that her SX 40 produces. The major disadvantage of small sensor cameras is their high contrast, noisy files, but if you work carefully and the light is on your side you can avoid these problems to a considerable extent. The major advantages that these cameras have over large sensor cameras are that they are smaller, lighter, less expensive, and they have significantly greater depth of field at a given aperture and focus distance.
Bob Pollock On Jan 18, 2015, at 7:08 PM, Matthew G Hunter wrote: Hi Folks,In attempting to discern details from Liz's photos of her large falcon (and finding it difficult because of the blown highlights and high contrast), I was reminded of a couple things that Bob and Jeannie Pollock wrote to me a year or two ago when they saw many of my first photos with my Canon SX50HS (Liz used same model for her falcon photos). While Bob's details of the instructions are specific to this camera (or one very similar), the basic adjustments can be done with many cameras. What I have done is made these adjustments and applied them to one of the custom spots on the dial on top of my camera, so that I can use or access it any time. I could have just sent this email to Liz, but I know that at least 6 of you on this list have this very same camera, and the rest of you may learn something from what I learned from Bob and Jeannie. Again, these suggested settings are especially for outdoor conditions of strong light and high contrast with these small cameras (may not be necessary for a camera with a larger sensor). If photos are taken in lower light or less contrast conditions with these settings, some photos will end up somewhat dark and dull, but this is easily corrected with photo editing software (Bob, feel free to clarify anything I muddled).
SET CONTRAST TO LOW OR LOWEST SETTING"One thing that I suggest you do is go into shooting mode and press the Function Set button. Go down to My Colors on the left bar and then over to Custom Color on the bar that has appeared on the bottom of the screen. Now press Display and the first choice is Contrast. Set Contrast to the lowest setting (the leftmost one) and press Function Set to go back to the shooting screen. The reason that I suggest this is because the very small sensors in our cameras have a tendency to blow out highlights (they retain no detail) and the best way to reduce the possibility of that happening is to use the lowest Contrast setting. To see what I mean, take two pictures of an object with white or light areas with Contrast set to the lowest and then to the highest setting." MATT'S NOTE: Under this setting, some photos may come out with lower contrast than desired, but this is easily remedied with photo editing software.
SET EXPOSURE MINUS 2/3 STOP"Here's one other thing that you might want to play around with. We've discovered that both of our Canon compact cameras produce better exposed pictures if we set the exposure to minus 2/3 of a stop. To do that, in the shooting mode press the function set ring upwards to bring up the exposure compensation bar and then change the exposure by rotating the function set ring. Slightly underexposed pictures (underexposed according to what the camera thinks is right, that is) usually look better, are less likely to have blown highlights, and require a faster shutter speed that coincidentally increases the probability that the picture will be sharp." MATT'S NOTE: Again, if the photo turns out a little too dark, it is easily lightened up with photo editing software. However, without this adjustment, if the pale areas are blown out (meaning they are so white there is no detail left in that part of the photo), that area cannot be salvaged.
Thanks to Bob and Jeannie for those tips--they have helped me tremendously over the last year or so--and I hope some of you find these helpful as well.
Hoping to go look around for a large falcon Monday.... Matt Hunter
