Are record-breaking zoom lenses all bridges have going for them? That’s what Canon’s latest move might suggest—the company has decided to beat Nikon at its own game by equipping its new SX50 HS with a 50x zoom lens. That's over a metre in 24 x 36 equivalent focal length!
Since time immemorial the idea behind the bridge has been to fuse all cameras into one, with lenses capable of shooting landscapes, architecture and wildlife alike. To do that you need a good zoom, so they tend to range from 28 mm to 400 or 500 mm. But the SX50 HS is a different sport altogether.
The Canon PowerShot SX50 HS has a 24-1200 mm zoom lens (that's a 2° field of view). In other words, it goes from ultra-wide-angle to super-telephoto—well beyond the average wildlife photographer's needs (600 mm is already a fine lens).
Now, as some may remember, this isn't the first 1200 mm lens to grace this planet. And I'll give you one guess who made it. That's right: Canon. Only a handful of copies were made, and ever since the Canon EF 1200 mm has become the stuff of legend. They were designed for 24 x 36 mm SLRs, weighed 16 kg, were 84 cm long and cost about £55,000.
Of course, this time it isn't a real 1200 mm lens. The SX50 uses its 12-Mpx BSI CMOS sensor and a 215 mm lens to obtain the same angle of view. But it's still the longest focal length we've ever heard of on a bridge camera. Might we also mention that with a wide-angle equivalent to 24 mm, 50x is officially the new record, beating even the Nikon P510's 42x.
Everything else on the SX50 HS is standard fare: a 7.1 cm swivel screen, a mediocre electronic viewfinder, Full HD video with stereo sound... It still has that "mini-SLR" look, and the grip is welcomely more indented than the SX40 HS's.
But there's also been one clear improvement here: the SX50 HS does RAW, which makes post-production in Lightroom, Aftershot and other programmes all the easier. Canon is catching up with Panasonic, who beat them to the punch years ago.
At €499 (around £400), the SX50 HS will be far cheaper than the Panasonic FZ200, although the FZ200 makes up for it with an f/2.8 constant aperture lens, compared to Canon's f/6.5 telephoto lens. But it's also much more expensive than the Nikon P510, which, with its 24-1000 mm lens, comes pretty close in terms of zoom range...
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Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
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Since time immemorial the idea behind the bridge has been to fuse all cameras into one, with lenses capable of shooting landscapes, architecture and wildlife alike. To do that you need a good zoom, so they tend to range from 28 mm to 400 or 500 mm. But the SX50 HS is a different sport altogether.
The Canon PowerShot SX50 HS has a 24-1200 mm zoom lens (that's a 2° field of view). In other words, it goes from ultra-wide-angle to super-telephoto—well beyond the average wildlife photographer's needs (600 mm is already a fine lens).
Now, as some may remember, this isn't the first 1200 mm lens to grace this planet. And I'll give you one guess who made it. That's right: Canon. Only a handful of copies were made, and ever since the Canon EF 1200 mm has become the stuff of legend. They were designed for 24 x 36 mm SLRs, weighed 16 kg, were 84 cm long and cost about £55,000.
Of course, this time it isn't a real 1200 mm lens. The SX50 uses its 12-Mpx BSI CMOS sensor and a 215 mm lens to obtain the same angle of view. But it's still the longest focal length we've ever heard of on a bridge camera. Might we also mention that with a wide-angle equivalent to 24 mm, 50x is officially the new record, beating even the Nikon P510's 42x.
Everything else on the SX50 HS is standard fare: a 7.1 cm swivel screen, a mediocre electronic viewfinder, Full HD video with stereo sound... It still has that "mini-SLR" look, and the grip is welcomely more indented than the SX40 HS's.
But there's also been one clear improvement here: the SX50 HS does RAW, which makes post-production in Lightroom, Aftershot and other programmes all the easier. Canon is catching up with Panasonic, who beat them to the punch years ago.
At €499 (around £400), the SX50 HS will be far cheaper than the Panasonic FZ200, although the FZ200 makes up for it with an f/2.8 constant aperture lens, compared to Canon's f/6.5 telephoto lens. But it's also much more expensive than the Nikon P510, which, with its 24-1000 mm lens, comes pretty close in terms of zoom range...
> Reviews: Compact Digital Cameras
> Photokina 2012: See all news
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