Hands-On Review of SX50 & Wish I'd Had it for Sandy!!!

[H and B Digital]

Here's a link http://tinyurl.com/csaas7e to my hands-on review of the PowerShot SX50 on H and B Digital's blog (our website is http://www.handbdigital.com/).

I wrote this last week, well before Hurricane Sandy. I live in Lower Manhattan, and wish I had one of these little buggers during the storm. Instead, I was lugging around my 7D with the 24-70 f/2.8, my 20D with the 17-35 f/2.8, and the 70-200 f/2.8 IS II and a flash in the bag--along with rain covers to attempt to keep the above dry (they were fine inside my Domke F1-X bag). I went back out later without the above and just my S95, nowhere near the SX50's zoom capacity. Although the SX50 isn't waterproof and not comparable to the 7D or other EOS bodies in terms of image quality, running around with that amazing zoom range and not worrying about $1000's of dollars in gear would have been great.

I'll hopefully be posting photos from Sandy on our blog later today (I'm still without power at home, but our store is open.)

Cheers,
Dan at H and B Digital.com

 

[artsmalley]

Thanks for the review. Hope things return to safe and normal for you all soon. One question. I read that previous models had a ISO limit on it which hindered low light long exposure photography. Has that been rectified at all? Did you shoot much with it in lower light settings and see how it performed? Thanks.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Tes, please post your images. In many of the news images, I noticed dozens of people holding up their cell phones or point and shoot bodies, and saw oen G10/G11/G12 like body.

I'd expect that the SX50 would have difficulty in the low light, particularly if used with the lens zoomed out. You would need a fairly fast shutter speed if you needed to stop the action. A camera like the SX50 works best in bright daylight. Of course, the 7D also struggles a bit in low light when compared to FF, but would be many times better than the tiny sensor in a SX50.

 

[H and B Digital]

Thanks for the concern, I certainly hope things return to some normalcy soon. Even though I'm without power and heat, there are many who suffered far worse and my thoughts are definitely with them. I was fortunate to go out and shoot a few photos from the relatively safe confines of the West Village in Manhattan. Here's a link http://tinyurl.com/csaas7e to a few photos posted on H and B Digital's blog from the storm.

Additionally, below is one of the photos typical of the "happy hours" before the storm--and before reality hit--where people were out taking portraits with smaller cameras (though this appears to be with something like the Canon S95 series, which I also used and love).

Finally, regarding the SX50, there is an ISO limit in auto modes (at 1600, I believe), and you can set the limit at ISO 1600 or below in the manual functions. You can still shoot up to ISO 6400 (12,800 expanded) in the manual settings, however, and can shoot up to 15 second shots. I haven't had a chance to shoot it at night (maybe I can take it home tonight and shoot some dark West Village photos, but I generally don't take new cameras out of the store!), but in low light conditions around the store it focuses incredibly quickly. I don't have images of those yet, will try and get some up. As I believe I said in my review, I certainly don't expect the images to stand up to an EOS or other DSLR, but where else can you get a zoom like that???