SX40 concerns ....

I've had my SX40 for about 10 days and I'm not exactly overwhelmed with the results I'm getting. Some shots are very pleasing, but others leave me quite disappointed. I'm using the 'P' setting on the Mode Dial, auto white balance, evaluative focusing area, maximum resolution / fine setting, and everything else at default setting. I'm hoping that some of you expert folks on this forum can help to reassure me that it is my ineptitude rather than the camera that is causing the problems.

My previous camera - a Canon S2 IS - has served me faithfully since 2006 and I have taken well over 50,000 photos on it. So, although I don't pretend to be knowledgeable, I do have a fair amount of experience of what is achievable. I was expecting to see at least some small improvement in IQ with the SX40 compared to the S2 IS, if only because I assume that the sensor in an older camera probably starts to deteriorate a little bit with time. I've taken something in the region of 300 shots with the SX40 so far, and in the case of many of these I'm sure the S2 IS would have made a better job of it.

I have two main areas of concern. Firstly, I'm finding that too many of the photos are not as sharp as I would expect them to be, and secondly I'm seeing an unacceptable level of blown highlights in situations where I really wouldn't expect them to occur. The S2 IS would occasionally blow highlights if someone was wearing a very white T-shirt for example, but on the whole it handled skin quite acceptably. With the SX40 I'm now seeing that people's faces are looking over-exposed on too many occasions, even when there is very little if any bright sunlight.

I haven't yet tried experimenting with in-camera Exposure Compensation, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, Skin Tone, etc. and that is I guess the obvious next step. However, I didn't need to adjust these settings in my S2 IS and frankly I would expect to be getting better results from the SX40 with the default settings. Nor do I want to have to resort to post-processing on a routine basis. I'm quite happy to do this on occasions, but I don't feel that with a camera of this calibre it should be necessary to PP maybe as many as 60% of the photos I take.

I have attached a photo showing blown highlights. Any hints, tips, brickbats will be greatly appreciated.

Jeremy

The problem with this image, as I see it, is that there are brightly lit people in the center of a dark background, which fooled the camera. Shots like this benefit from spot metering; it was probably metered with evaluative. or averaged.

The male on the left, whose highlights are not blown, appears sharply focused.

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http://www.chezjeaux.blogspot.com

I too am having a similar problem, I've just upgraded from the Canon Powershot SX1 IS having taken 20,000 photos on that. Yesterday I went out and had for me near perfect saturation with the SX40 HS on a sunny day, taking about 100 photos. Today I've been out on a cloudy day and have taken over 200 shots with it, nearly all are overexposed, some by quite a lot. Most were taken on auto or P and exposure comp +-0, feel something isn't right but don't feel I've done much wrong.
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SteveT

I've had a similar problem with my SX40. I've put the exposure compensation setting on -1/3 or -2/3, depending on the situation, and that has worked very well.

Many thanks for your comments so far. I appreciate that in my first photo there is fairly considerable contrast between the areas of light and shade, but I'm virtually certain that my S2 IS would have handled that quite competently. Maybe the SX40 is less of a 'beginners' camera and I need to give more thought to the settings for each shot. That's fine, but I frequently find that I'm wanting to take shots at short notice in order to capture a particular scene, and I don't always have time to alter the settings. I found that the S2 IS used in 'Evaluative' setting was pretty competent to capture most things. I will certainly try adjusting the exposure compensation on dull days.

My second photo was taken yesterday on what was quite a dull day (we get a fair number of these in the UK!). In this photo there isn't any significant variation between light and shade, but as you can see there are still blown highlights and the focus isn't very good either.

Incidentally, when I put a photo into a post, how do I stop it appearing in a large size?

Jeremy

Whoops - I don't know what happened to that 2nd photo. I'll try again.

Jeremy

--First off the photo shows that these cams have an intolerance for wide dynamic lighting situations. The only cure is to avoid them or cut the exposure compensation to -1/3 or even -2/3. All digital cams need a little post processing. A run through Picasa is all that is needed.

I went from an S2is to SX10is and at first it seemed to be that there was little to no gain. However with a lot more photos to compare I realized that there was indeed an improvement.

Still waiting for more reviews before jumping on to the SX40. Not yet convinced. Also considering the Sony NEX 7 but that is a long shot.
Don V. Armitage

I've yet to use 2 cameras that would expose exactly the same and quite a few number of cameras have gone through my fingers. Still testing my SX40 too. It definitely needs a -1/3 or -2/3 EC especially if there is something of a very light color in the scene.

If you would like more sharpness, you can set up "My colors" with an increase in sharpness. Personally I like the in-camera sharpness but prefer a lower contrast, especially when an image has a wide dynamic range. We all have our preferences in that respect.

Good Luck! I'm sure you will get to know your SX40 as well as your old camera.
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Olga

I found that turning on the i-Contrast helped a lot in thse situations. FWIW I also compensate to -1/3 or -2/3, but the i-contrast really seemd to do the trick for me.

I have always set all my Canon cameras on -1/3 EC and sometimes -2/3 EC if a situation is very bright. Give that a try. I am getting what I consider good images out of my SX40, with -1/3 EC, and most everything else at defaults. I do change w/b as needed rather than depending entirely on w/b. Here are some examples from the last week or so.

http://www.pbase.com/chammett/canon_sx40_experiments

carolyn
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Ranger a.k.a chammett
http://www.pbase.com/chammett

'elegance is simplicity'

Many of us feel that Canon set the exposure level a little too high on the SX40 and G12, and thus choose to use -1/3 exposure compensation in sunny outdoor use. This helps.

Another thing that will help with blown highlights is turning on icontrast, which controls and teduces blown highlights quite well. I have found that I need to turn icontrast off when photographing people however, since it makes an unatural, orange tinted skin color. Or you can set your camera to custom color in the func menu and set the camera to lighten skin tones. I use mine at skin tone -1 and get good results.
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kind regards
Dale

A long lens is like a sports car.

The family sedan is forgiving and your mistakes don’t give you any noticeable scare or real bad results. In a sports car, a mistake has you already at the edge, and you end up in the ditch for everyone to see. (-:

Oh, for what it is worth, most of my Canons pretty much stay right at a minus 2/3 compensation all the time.

Ken

That's fine, but I frequently find that I'm wanting to take shots at short notice in order to capture a particular scene, and I don't always have time to alter the settings.

If you adjust the exposure compensation in P mode, the camera will save that setting until you adjust it again. This setting is not changed back to default when you power off the camera.

Hit the display button until the histogram shows, use -EV until nothing is touching the right side. This should stop the blown highlights.
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Russ

If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that when new cameras come out, numbers go up and quality goes down. By numbers, I mean things like resolution, zoom factor, frame rate, LCD size, scene modes, buttons, knobs and blinky lights. By quality, I mean the quality of the lens, the images, the LCD quality, the autofocus, the auto-exposure, the auto-whitebalance and the captured detail. I've been particularly surprised by the stranger and stranger choices made by the green Auto mode on Canon cameras. My old S3 and earlier Canons chose values that made sense. Newer Canons will choose incomprehensible values, such as 1/15 at f5.6 ISO640 when using the flash (complete with camera shake warning).

I attribute this to the fact that most people probably choose a camera based on which one has the biggest numbers rather than which one takes the best pictures. If I could get an S3 with 35x zoom and HD video, I would trade my brand new SX40 for it in an instant.

I went shooting today and it was anything but perfect for shooting. There were no clouds and the sun was bright. I went anyway just to see how I was going to be able to work with bright sunlight. I set the EV at -1/3 and turned on iContract. I was amazed how much it worked. Now the shots were usable but not exactly perfect as they would have been on a cloudy day.

I tried a test shot using iContrast and one without on my deck at home. The only PP was to straighten the images.

This first shot was with the iContrast turned off.





This shot is with iContrast turned on.





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Kevin

The key is to learn how to expose correctly, using the appropriate metering, from the start.

"iContrast" or dynamic range enhancement can be better handled in Photoshop, and with more selectivity and nuance.

There's a learning curve in photography. Photographers who learn it will get consistently better results.

http://www.chezjeaux.blogspot.com

--I assume you took these in 'auto' mode. The second was at ISO 200 and higher shutter speed. The I-contrast has made quite a difference for sure.
Don V. Armitage

No, I shot them in P mode. I don't agree with the auto ISO mode, sometimes I can't figure out why it makes the decissions it makes. All I did was turn iContrast off and reshoot. I've seen some wierd choices like ISO 160 and 1/500th shutter. The other day I took an indoor shot with the flash from about 8 feet and it set the ISO to 800. I am going to turn off the auto iso unless I think I might be getting in lower light.
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Kevin

Desifinado said:

The key is to learn how to expose correctly, using the appropriate metering, from the start.

"iContrast" or dynamic range enhancement can be better handled in Photoshop, and with more selectivity and nuance.

There's a learning curve in photography. Photographers who learn it will get consistently better results.

http://www.chezjeaux.blogspot.com

Click to expand...

I agree with most of that. But if you are shooting scenes where the subject is half in bright sun and the other half is in shade it is difficult to meter it properly. I found iContrast to help get the shot and preventing blown out areas. Blown out data is very difficult to restore in photoshop because there is no data to work with.

I'm still learning my SX40. I haven't shot using a live view and no optical view finder in a long time. The more I learn the more auto features I turn off. You are right, you have to know your camera's strengths and weaknesses to be successful at getting good shots.

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Kevin