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I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: DP
Date: June 21, 2012 08:14AM
A quick demo of the zoom. But what impresses me is the digital zoom which I have always told students and others to ignore and look only at the optical zoom numbers. I was chillin' on my deck trying to get some pix of the birds visiting my feeder and of course hardly any show up no matter how still I sat, etc. So I saw something else and here's what I got.
This is the camera at widest setting; 24mm equivalent. Notice the red circle; about 175 yards away (I'd use my Senior 7 on that hole) is a guy leaning against the building smoking:



So I zoom to optical limit (35x) equivalent to 840mm:



And, what the hell, try out the digital zoom (54x) and wow:



Is it great? No, but it sure doesn't suck. And it zooms even more so I'll have to test that too.
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: mrbigstuff
Date: June 21, 2012 08:15AM
that is impressive.

poor schlub doesn't know he's being photographed by an SX40, though.
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: space-time
Date: June 21, 2012 08:27AM
that is impressive
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: sekker
Date: June 21, 2012 08:35AM
Amazing!
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: sekker
Date: June 21, 2012 08:35AM
And a little scary...
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: DP
Date: June 21, 2012 08:41AM
Quote
sekker
And a little scary...

CIA has already approached me to work for them secret smiley
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: The UnDoug
Date: June 21, 2012 08:49AM
That is totally cool!

Nude beach, here I come! ;-)
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: DRR
Date: June 21, 2012 09:02AM
Please correct me if I'm wrong - but isn't "digital zoom" simply an in-camera trick to crop and scale the image after it's been captured by the sensor? I mean you're not getting any more quality than at 35x (optical max) zoom, correct?
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: DP
Date: June 21, 2012 09:15AM
Quote
DRR
Please correct me if I'm wrong - but isn't "digital zoom" simply an in-camera trick to crop and scale the image after it's been captured by the sensor? I mean you're not getting any more quality than at 35x (optical max) zoom, correct?

Correct. But the software for processing said images has improved considerably. And the image isn't fabulous but is very passable. BTW, I forgot to mention these images were shot at 400 ISO too. The DIGIC 5 processor is leaps and bounds above just a couple of years ago.
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: freeradical
Date: June 21, 2012 09:35AM
Quote
The UnDoug
That is totally cool!

Nude beach, here I come! ;-)


winking smiley
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: DP
Date: June 21, 2012 09:42AM
BTW, I looked in the manual and the digital zoom will extend to an equivalent of 3360mm! Will have to see what it at least looks like.
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: RAMd®d
Date: June 21, 2012 09:42AM
but isn't "digital zoom" simply an in-camera trick to crop and scale the image after it's been captured by the sensor?

Yes.


I mean you're not getting any more quality than at 35x (optical max) zoom, correct?

Correct.

You won't get more quality than the optical zoom, and typically, digital zoom gives one nowhere near the quality of optical zoom.

I'd wager that if DP hadn't told anyone that this was taken with both digital and optical zoom, no one (except maybe another SX40 user) would know, and assume only optical zoom was used.


You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

There is no safety for honest men
except by believing all possible evil
of evil men.

Pixels were born to be punished. -Frederick Van Johnson

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* Sigs. It's Glocks I hate.
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: Grateful11
Date: June 21, 2012 09:45AM
That's pretty impressive for Digital Zoom. I've only tried it with mine a few times.


Grateful11
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: Ammo
Date: June 21, 2012 10:05AM
I recognize that guy. He's a notorious contract killer, known for his hair-trigger temper and phobia of being photographed. Ironically, he's also a member of this forum. confused smiley


Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: DP
Date: June 21, 2012 10:10AM
Quote
Ammo
I recognize that guy. He's a notorious contract killer, known for his hair-trigger temper and phobia of being photographed. Ironically, he's also a member of this forum. confused smiley

The building is a halfway house...
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: mikebw
Date: June 21, 2012 10:16AM
Quote
DP
Quote
Ammo
I recognize that guy. He's a notorious contract killer, known for his hair-trigger temper and phobia of being photographed. Ironically, he's also a member of this forum. confused smiley

The building is a halfway house...

So is that a confirmation or a denial?
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: DP
Date: June 21, 2012 10:29AM
Well, I'll just say I agree he could a forum member!
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: RAMd®d
Date: June 21, 2012 10:40AM
Well, I'll just say I agree he could a forum member!

POMTL!


You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

There is no safety for honest men
except by believing all possible evil
of evil men.

Pixels were born to be punished. -Frederick Van Johnson

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* Sigs. It's Glocks I hate.
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: JoeM
Date: June 21, 2012 11:46AM
I have never bothered with the digital zoom on my SX-40 for the reasons stated above. So given what was stated, am I right in assuming I could get the same results in Photoshop by cropping or is something gained in using the digital zoom rather than manipulating in PS? Thanks for bringing this up, BTW.


JoeM
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: DP
Date: June 21, 2012 04:28PM
Quote
JoeM
I have never bothered with the digital zoom on my SX-40 for the reasons stated above. So given what was stated, am I right in assuming I could get the same results in Photoshop by cropping or is something gained in using the digital zoom rather than manipulating in PS? Thanks for bringing this up, BTW.

Good question. Based on what I'm seeing with the SX40, tho, I'd say go with the digital zoom first. Do you know up- and down-rezzing basics in PS?
I am going to do some testing with the camera and will report back.
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: Buzz
Date: June 21, 2012 06:53PM
The SX40's images in digital zoom are still the same size..., so I'm assuming that some sort of upscaling algoritm is employed to expand a portion of the maximum optical zoom image to fit the digital zoom parameters. Cropping and rescaling in post processing is obviously similar; it really boils down to whose algorithm you like best.

///
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: hal
Date: June 21, 2012 07:25PM
I've always assumed that photoshop does a better job of it so it never occurred to me to try digi zoom...
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Re: I know you all are getting sick of the SX40, but...
Posted by: vision63
Date: June 22, 2012 11:17AM
That's SpyRiffic!
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