Thank you for the detailed response!
1. Have you tried setting the default zoom to Digital 2x? As others have pointed out, that works quite well without sacrificing much in picture quality. It gets you zoomed in closer and faster.
I completely avoid digital zoom, I don't want it at all. I don't think it's useful - I can get the same results by just cropping the picture. If I want to get the equivalent of digital zoom, I simply don't zoom in all the way - and in fact, yes, I do that often. I first take one shot partly zoomed in, just in case the subject is about to move, and then I zoom in some more. I do that knowing that if I miss the second shot because it flitted away while I was zooming, that's okay, I have that first picture and I can crop it - effectively, I've already done the "digital zoom". But I definitely want what I'm seeing as I take the picture to accurately reflect what I'm asking the camera to do, and digital zoom would just be trying to fool me and make it harder to know what I'm photographing. As well giving me less time to figure out how to crop it best.
None of the issues I described have to do directly with this, though. The autofocus problem would not be improved by digital zoom.
2. Have you tried center-spot light metering?
I nearly always have it set to both light metering and autofocus on the center, not its algorithm for balancing the entire frame. That gives me more control. With light metering, it means I can quickly choose to expose it more or less by shifting the center slightly towards a darker or brighter area. That trick works with all cameras I've used, of course, nothing specific to this one. And it doesn't address any of the flaws I described, though I'm curious to know which flaw you think it could address?
Most compact cameras I’ve owned have some trouble when birds are nestled among branches, in bushes, etc., but not to the extent you're describing. So, while multiple shots can sometimes be necessary to ensure the birds are in focus, it's not a huge issue. I often photograph birds at our feeders or out in the open where getting focus lock is much easier. See #10 where I provide my settings that pertain to focus…
The issue with this camera isn't that I need to take multiple shots, it's that the autofocus often fixates on the wrong focus - either the background or the foreground - and NOTHING will change its mind except either a) zooming out, or b) turning the camera off and back on. If it has decided that, say, the backdrop of leaves behind the bird is what it should focus on, it's not going to focus on the bird, period, unless I do one of those two things. Waiting, taking multiple pictures, or shifting the center a bit, have no effect on the focus once it thinks it has found the right focus. And most frustrating is that it often does this even when the bird is well framed in the center and covering a large portion of the view.
3. The quick zoom out and back in button, which I’ve only recently been using, can work nicely to recapture moving targets or birds that jump or fly to another branch p.
Yes, that is a useful feature, and one of the few that's actually usable while photographing, because its control is easy and accessible. I probably should've mentioned it in the review, but forgot.
4. Did they change the control dial function on the SX730? On my SX720, one simply spins it to change settings; no need to hold it down first. I can see how that would be irritating!
I just looked at a photo of the SX720 here, and it looks the same to me. "Simply spin" is not possible without pushing on it enough to create the friction to allow you to spin it; if you don't press down at all, then you'd just be sliding your finger down the surface of the dial and not spinning it at all. Most cameras' dials are raised such that you can touch them along the side, pressing gently inward, to get enough of a grip to spin them, but this dial has no sides, so you need to get a grip by pushing down into it. That causes me to push one of the buttons inside the dial far too often, and it's infuriating because it's just a stupid design choice they made that has no up-side. They could have easily made it a normal dial you turn from the side, like most cameras have.
5. Which photo mode are you in? I've been having my best luck with in Time Value (shutter) — setting it to 1/320 given that birds are speedy little things! Adjust exposure compensation from there.
P (full automatic) works best for me. It would be nice to have good shutter priority and aperture priority modes, but this camera doesn't and I'm okay with full automatic.
6. Many of the cameras with built-in GPS suffer from lags, too, and, worse, eat up batteries. So, unless you're traveling a lot, and need it, having GPS can be more a negative than a positive.
GPS is a 100% requirement for me. I almost never want to take photos without GPS, and for being out in nature, I especially want to be able to depend on the GPS for when I go through the photos later (maybe much much later) and want to either check which trail I was on when I took the photo, or even use it to find a location again.
I'm not sure what "lag" you're referring to. As for battery, I just carry a lot of spares. Cameras with GPS do allow you to turn it off to save battery. I nearly always prefer to keep it on, but it's not a drawback of the camera - if you want to lose GPS to get longer battery life you can turn it off.
Having GPS can never be a negative from my perspective. There is absolutely no negative aspect to having GPS built in. At WORST, you just turn it off, and you have a camera without GPS. What's the drawback?
7. I set my camera on a mini tripod the other and used the Canon remote control app. Amazing. I could take many pictures, much faster, compared to hand holding the camera. Of course, when they flew away from the feeder, I was out of luck!
That... does not sound like something that would ever be useful to me. I'm never trying to take pictures of a fixed location I have determined in advance. Even when I photograph feeders, the point of having a superzoom is to get a close-up of the bird, so there isn't one specific spot at the feeders I could aim at in advance.
8. Do have a setting turn off the touch screen entirely? The SX720 lacks a touch screen, but it sounds as if that omission is a plus!
The SX730 HS does not have a touch screen. I'm curious, though, what made it sound like it does?
9. Did you come to the Canon interface from another camera brand? I've used several brands, but have found the Canon to be the most usable, accessible, and user-friendly. Many reviewers concur. I wonder if they changed something in the classic GUI for the SX730. After four years, if this is your primary camera, I can hardly repeat the classic advice that you'll get used to it! But perhaps there are some tricks or shortcuts others know that could help you. What's particularly problematic? Or, which options do you wish were more readily accessible?
I've used several camera brands over the years, and my SLR was a Canon before I stopped using SLRs. Of course that one was bigger, and thus had much different controls. As I wrote in my review, in recent years I've mostly used Olympus Tough cameras aside from this Canon.
I'm not sure what you mean by "the classic GUI"? To me "GUI" implies some sort of touchscreen or mouse based interface on a graphic screen, but I'm talking about the physical dials and buttons you use to control the camera while taking pictures. You can't use a GUI easily *while* photographing, of course - you need to be looking at your subject, not thinking about visual interface elements!
Although there are many features I consider mostly nullified by the horrible interface of this camera, the one that's the biggest problem is the one I wrote about: The manual focus. With such an awful autofocus, a usable manual focus would be a big deal!
With many cameras that have a manual and automatic focus, there's a simple switch to toggle between the two. With this one, though, you first have to press the left button inside the dial (it's easy to accidentally spin the dial instead), then you have to spin the dial to slide across a menu of macro focus, regular auto, and manual (it's easy to overshoot and accidentally select macro, so you have to stop and pay attention), and then press the middle button. So that's a big strike against it right there - the process to switch to manual is so fiddly and error-prone that it's a big deterrent against trying to do it when I already have something framed and realize the autofocus is having a hard time.
But even when you do switch to manual, you run into the problem I described in my review, which is that the controls are designed to make it nearly impossible to actually set the focus to where it needs to be.
In any case, hope some of this helps. I do find myself often reaching for my Canon SX260 instead of the SX720 — it's lighter, has good quality, and there's something more magical and connected about using it.
That does look like a nice light very compact camera, and it has GPS. Unfortunately it has only about half the zoom, based on the specs I see. When it comes down to it, the amazing zoom power of the SX730 HS will keep me using it for years, unless I can find a similarly-sized or smaller camera with comparable zoom. And I still have my TG-4, TG-5, and TG-6 for when I don't need much zoom
