SX50/40 (Two Samples)

If this really is 50X + 4X digital zoom = 200X, then the top photo is truly remarkable quality! Was it hand held?

At first I tohught your second photo looked greatly overexposed, then I noticed it was also much noisier than the first.....  However I think the explanation of the huge difference might be found in your EXIF data that you helpfully provided with each photo (original images): you took both photos at 1/60 second and at f/6.5, but you took the first at ISO eighty and the second at ISO eight hundred !

Thanks for posting,

Andrew