Very Impressed - SX-50 HS best of the SX series thus far.....

Hello all:

Hope things are going well for you in your parts of the world. As a matter of background info, I've been a long time DPReview poster (since 2002) and have always enjoyed using cameras from many brands.  I'm not a fanboy of any particular brand since I can appreciate the advances made by the likes of Canon, Nikon, Fuji, and Olympus.  Over the past several years I haven't posted much - except on a few forums.  As far as Canon is concerned, I;m currently shooting with the S100 and G12 (and now also the SX-50 HS).

Through the years I've amassed a massive collection of cameras (up to 91 at one point - yeah, I know...I'm a sicko), but over the past two years have sold off a good 90% of 'em.

But there's one category of camera that I always enjoy keeping up-to-date on and that is with the advanced enthusiast models (specifically from Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, and Olympus) - and back a decade or so, these were known as "Bridge" models, or "Prosumer Digicams."  In the past I've had the likes of the Canon S-3 IS, S-5 IS, SX-10 IS, and SX-20 IS (I skipped the SX-40 because I didn't care for the look or feel of that camera - purely subjective, I know).  Of that group, I found (at least to my liking) that the SX-10 IS was the best of the bunch.  Yet, even though I enjoyed all of them, I always missed being able to employ RAW capabilities.

Some may ask, "why didn't you look at getting the Panny FZ-150 or FZ-200?  Although I love Panasonic cameras (I have the LX-5), the FZ-200 just had too much noise - even at the lowest ISO levels (again, that's purely subjective on my part - no need to argue here) - and the zoom reach stopped at 600 MM.

Several months ago I elected to also purchase the Nikon P510 - one that I've really come to admire - even though it doesn't have RAW.  Yes, it has it's moments (both positive and negative), but I was positively taken aback at the clarity levels of the small 16 MP sensor (to include the awesome higher ISO capabilities) of that camera.  I posted my comments about that camera here (to look at the images, make sure to click on the "View Original" under each photo 'cause this new format sucks in displaying photos).

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/42598716

...and here (regarding high ISO 800 levels)

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/50271679

I've been meaning to get the SX-50 HS ever since it first came out, but due to being tight on funds, I was initially going to wait even longer.  But the other day I was playing with one for a few hours in the camera store, and I knew I would have to get one - which I subsequently did.

So what did I discover...?

I love it - it has an excellent overall balance of performance and IQ quality.  I was particularly struck by several things that caught my eye immediately:

1)  Metering:  The metering is superb - providing an excellent balance regardless of the lighting conditions.  In extremely difficult scenarios (either too bright of highlights, or the shadows being too prevalent), the SX-50 HS does a superb job of keeping things in balance.  This is not easy as many cameras - especially competitors - can either lose it on the highlight end of things (meaning, severe underexposures due to the meter being influenced by the highlights)), or the prevalence of dark shadows (meaning, this can result in severe overexposures leading to highlight blowouts).  With the SX-50 HS, it was rare that either of these occurred, which immediately caught my attention.

2. Color Tonality:  I was also struck by the rich color tonality of this camera.  The combination of this sensor plus color engine results in a superb rendering of colors - this was very important to me.

3.  Excellent IS:  Let's face it, everyone has some form of IS, VR, OIS, OS (and any other names that you can think of), and the one in the SX-50 HS seems to function superbly.  I was surprised at some of the sharp images that I managed to capture at 1200 MM.

4.  AF capabilities:  I found the SX-50 HS to have excellent AF capabilities - and also at 1200 MM. The AF capabilities of the Nikon P510 are quite fast also, although I was must admit that getting it lock on at the P510's maximum 1000MM is difficult at times.

5.  Optics:  Excellent - I find the sharpness levels to exemplary for a lens of this type and when you think about a 24-1200 spread...that's unbelievable.

6.  Dynamic Headroom for a small sensor of this type:  One of the things I really came to admire was the headroom available in the 16 MP P510 files - more than I would have ever imagined.  And so it is with the SX-50 HS also - lots of headroom (considering the tiny pin-head size of this sensor), which was a welcomed surprise. Of course, in theory, one would expect the SX-50 HS to have a bit more (or equal) headroom compared to a 16 MP version.

But then most of you knew all of that, so I'm just preachin' to the choir here.  So to get the meat of the matter, on my next posting will be images that I took yesterday.  All were captured in RAW mode, ISO 80 - 100, and I always use a specific locale to test a new camera - which is Sunset Lake in Holly Springs, NC.  There, one can find some brutal contrasts and many a camera defect (in regards to DR, sensor, NR, balance) can be discovered at this locale.  I went between the hours of 12 Noon and 1 PM - one of the more difficult (and brutal) time periods in which to shoot photographs because of the exceptional bright lighting (and shadows given this time of year).

The end result - I was totally impressed to say the least.  I was really enjoying shooting in RAW and being able to post process in Lightroom after the fact.

Images are in the next posting....