The moon through Canon PowerShot SX50 HS (Video)

Since the day I saw something in the sky of Singapore, I was hoping to capture it again with a more powerful optical zoom camera. Finally, after checking a few models, I decided that the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS has the most optical zoom (50x) and is compact enough to be carried anywhere. Thanks to Canon, I am able to secure a loan set. I have yet to capture that UFO but I did some test on the zoom feature of this camera.

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Thanks to the super bright moon, I took some time to capture it on image and on video. I am actually amazed of the results. All the pictures had been color adjusted with additional adjustments made to the contrast and brightness.

As the camera has only 50x optical zoom, to get close to the moon, I use the digital zoom (up to 200x). Here are some of the 200x results.

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Here is another shot.

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If you notice, there are a lot of noise in the picture. One of the reasons is the sensor size. The Canon PowerShot SX50 HS has a 1/2.3″ sensor. Comparing to a DSLR, it is very small. If a sensor is small, noise will be introduced.

Another thing about this camera is the aperture range. It has aperture from F3.4 to F8.0. And when you use the Tele function, the aperture increases to minimum F6.5. This means that its performance will not be good in low light condition.

Nevertheless, I still like the optical zoom. Check out this video of the moon.

I will be doing other tests and to see if I can capture any strange objects in the sky or not. Stay tuned.
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