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Apple Picking with the SX40 HS

Started Sep 30, 2012 | Discussions
jasenj1 Junior Member • Posts: 45
Apple Picking with the SX40 HS

OK, it's been replaced by the SX50, but I bought one on clearance and have been taking pictures. So far I'm pretty happy. The AUTO mode seems to work well. For other modes, I put it at -0.3EV as it seems to want to overexpose.
With a giant zoom, 4 ft away becomes macro focus territory.

Switching focus modes is one more thing to remember. I still need to figure out how to focus-lock - getting a subject at the edge of the frame in focus with the center being out of focus took a lot of trial and error.

EVF is mostly useless so far. And the LCD is a rough guesstimate in bright light.

Very happy with this macro shot.

A tree.

A row. A good place to play with DOF.

I struggled to get the apples in the foreground into focus. Took three or four tries. Fortunately, with 12MP there is plenty of space to crop. The second picture makes a nice desktop background.

Again, very difficult to tell what was in focus. And I think I was at a range at the edge of macro mode.

More wrestling with focus and DOF. I finally got the apple I wanted in focus using macro mode, but I botched the framing.

Zoomed out and zoomed in comparison. 35x is still a lot of zoom!

Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
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BobT Forum Pro • Posts: 13,217
Re: Apple Picking with the SX40 HS

You've touched on a couple of things that I seem to find to be a slight problem with my SX40 as well.
Thanks for your samples.

0661--nothing seems in sharp focus here, yet nothing is blurry either. How does one get sharp focus in distant shots with lots of texture in them?
0676--same here, only in closer shots.

I really like the camera for the most part. But one of the few downsides to me is the poor quality of the EVF's resolution. Hard to tell if anything is in focus using it. True....you can set composition with it. But that's it. I always have to wait til I get home and preview on the computer to know/see how I really did with shots. It's usually pretty good. But I hate not knowing til iy might be, too late to reshoot.

I really like your pumpkin shot.

 BobT's gear list:BobT's gear list
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Bev Regular Member • Posts: 274
Re: Apple Picking with the SX40 HS

Love the shot of the pumpkins! I saw the XS40 on clearance for $292 in Target yesterday. I was very tempted, mostly because of being frustrated with Amazon. I pre-ordered the XS50 from them over a week ago and they still don't even have a delivery date for me.

Bev

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OP jasenj1 Junior Member • Posts: 45
Re: Apple Picking with the SX40 HS

BobT wrote:

0661--nothing seems in sharp focus here, yet nothing is blurry either. How does one get sharp focus in distant shots with lots of texture in them?

Smaller aperture. I should have tightened up the aperture on the tree shot.

0676--same here, only in closer shots.

In this shot, the leaves just behind the apples are in focus. I wanted the front apple to be in focus with everything deeper in the scene getting blurry. I was 3-4 ft away and on the border between macro and normal focus. Tightening the aperture would have helped get more of the scene in focus, but that's not what I wanted.

I really like your pumpkin shot.

Thank you.

arrow180
arrow180 Regular Member • Posts: 146
Re: Apple Picking with the SX40 HS

Looks like you were bumping into the SX40's minimum focusing distance on some of your close up shots. It is not alway possible to fill the frame with your subject with the SX40 so stepping back or reducing the zoom is sometimes needed to get the correct focus then crop later on your PC. Some of what I posted in reply to BobT on another thread may be of interest to you, http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&thread=42642207

Some good shots there. I like the child peeking through the trees and the pumpkins best.

One more tip. In Playback pressing the DISP. button gives different displays, one of which shows a zoomed in display of what the camer focused (or thought it focused) on.

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