Railfan Technology > Camera Comparison

Can anyone comment on their prefrence for Canon SX60 or Canon G16 for rail photography purposes?

Thanks, Jim Evans

Hi Jim, in order to answer your question in a meaningful way it would be useful to know what type of photography you tend to do/would use either of those camers for i.e. do you tend to shoot in sunny conditions or low light as well? Do you tend to like to zoom right in sometimes or is that something you don't tend to do? Where you tend to photograph trains how fast do they tend to be moving? How important is absolute image quality to you?
Answering the above would help people to advise you as they are really quite different cameras in a number of ways, so the type of photography you tend to like doing should probaly lend itself more to one of those cameras than the other.
Or if you're only just getting started with photography...maybe you can't yet answer my questions fully! Just say if that's the case and i/people should be able to offer some advice.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/16 15:51 by exhaustED.

I'm learning that the G16 is better for lower light while SX60 has better telephoto potential.
Railroad photography requires fast speed, telephoto, and often low light capabilities.
About the only strength not of high priority is macro photography.

Regards, Jim Evans
 

The most important feature of any camera you choose for rail photography is shutter lag.  Shutter lag is the delay between pressing the shutter release and when the photo is recorded by the camera. DSLR cameras have a minimum shutter lag.  Pocket cameras, cell phones, bridge cameras etc have the most. The cameras in question have shutter lag.  You can read all kinds of specifications about the camera, but this one defect, an intolerable
shutter lag time will dampen your picture taking experience. If you want to photograph moving trains, by all means go for the camera with a minimum shutter lag.  My choice is a DSLR. 
If purchase price is a factor, try a gently used DSLR.  There are literally 1000's of great Canons for sale on line or at your local dealer.
TOM

Think about what will happen to your pictures after you take them.  A camera for printing 16X20 blow ups is far different than a camera used for posting to the Internet on TO or Flicker.  Manual controls for aperture and shutter speed is a must.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

FiveChime Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm learning that the G16 is better for lower
> light while SX60 has better telephoto potential.
> Railroad photography requires fast speed,
> telephoto, and often low light capabilities.
> About the only strength not of high priority is
> macro photography.
>
> Regards, Jim Evans
>  

Bingo, you've got the main differences between these two cameras. The main difference is the SX60 has a big zoom but might struggle to give good image quality when light levels are low as it has a smaller sensor and a 'slow' (aperture) lens (hard to avoid with such a long lens). The G16 has a bigger sensor and a smaller zoom so will do better in low light but the compromise is it won't zoom in a lot. Trying them out at a camera store would be a good way to compare before you buy. There are some better options i think if you want a big zoom that can also cope with low light but they may be a bit more expensive, try having a look at Sony and Panasonic...
Shutter lag on these cameras shouldn't be a problem, they are not basic point-and-shoot models so will be ok from that perspective.
Have a look at a website called 'DPreview.com' - great for comparing cameras and learning about photography generally.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/16 12:13 by exhaustED.

Thank you for the input.

Regards, Jim Evans

Those super zooms are about worthless for shooting an engine head on. The headlights will overwhelm your auto-focusing system. The camera will hunt for a focal point. By the time it locks on the engine will be too close for the zoom distance you have selected. If the auto-focusing system manages to lock onto something the lights will most of the time be super blown out yellow sun looking things on the front of the engine.

You can stand slightly off to the side and shoot a 3/4th wedge shot like 90% of general railfan photography. Or the roster shot will always work.

Photo 1 is with a point and shoot. Zoom lens can't handle it.
Photo 2 is with a dslr and a low quality lens.

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idontstairs Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Those super zooms are about worthless for shooting
> an engine head on. The headlights will overwhelm
> your auto-focusing system. The camera will hunt
> for a focal point. By the time it locks on the
> engine will be too close for the zoom distance you
> have selected. If the auto-focusing system manages
> to lock onto something the lights will most of the
> time be super blown out yellow sun looking things
> on the front of the engine.
>
> You can stand slightly off to the side and shoot a
> 3/4th wedge shot like 90% of general railfan
> photography. Or the roster shot will always work.
>
> Photo 1 is with a point and shoot. Zoom lens can't
> handle it.
> Photo 2 is with a dslr and a low quality lens.

There's nothing wrong with the autofocus on that first shot! The problem is you're pointing your camera straight at a very bright light plus you're also shootly partly into the sun, so the exposure has to try and take account of all that bright light but a subject that's in shadow! The second shot is totally different in that you have your sun at your back and the subject is well illuminated so the camera has no problems coping with the exposure.
It's like pointing a camera straight at the sun, you won't get a great photo because the exposure that's needed to 'tone down' the brightness of the sun will make the rest of the image dark, therefore the middle ground that the camera decides on is with a reasonably exposed main image but with a very bright light in it.
Plus what camera/super-zoom are you shooting with? You can't tar all cameras with the same brush if one is struggling with a certain type of shot. A good super-zoom will perform very similarly to a typical dslr, of which some are better than others...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/16 04:31 by exhaustED.

I like this site as a reference to compare cameras.

Yes - it's "the specs", but it should give you a good
idea of features, and likely, quality attainable.

http://snapsort.com/compare

/Mitch