I am disappointed in the manual. It was written by teenage alien schizophrenics who were off their meds and put out 286 pages of text without giving a comprehensive overview of any feature except how to turn the camera on and off...

There...I feel so much better.

But as Linda from a state that starts with an "M" said...ask a question here and you will get an understandable answer from people who are knowledgable photographers and have actually used the camera.

Personally, leave the manual at home...put the camera on auto and go out and learn the ins and outs of focusing...auto focus can get fooled pretty easily...and no feature can help with an out of focus shot...then work your way thru the other modes...one by one, refering to the manual and the folks here.

I agree about the manual. I am also unhappy that I had to pay to get it printed before I could find out how bad it was - I cannot work with a manual on screen, I need a book in my hand. Normally, when I get something complex like this, the first thing I do is sit down with it and the manual, and figure it out.

I don't use auto mode at all. I understand the normal functions well enough to get by. A lot of the time it is in P, switching to Av or Tv when I need that extra bit of control. Most of the 'extra' functions that don't work with RAW, I will never use anyway. It is just nice to know that I *can* get at them if I need to, by switching to jpeg only.

I downloaded the manual to my iPad and my iPhone. (free) and can sit with the camera and read the manual. But.....
I personally found the manual confusing at times and some information is in illogical places, at least to me. There is a large number of sx50 users in the canon powershot forum of dpreview.com. Like many on here they post tutorials, settings, links, examples and are great at answering questions. Between this site and dpr, I have learned much, much more than I have by reading the manual.
Two thirds of the manual are taken up with all that stuff... Does anyone really do all that B&W/HDR/assign colour/ stuff in the camera these days? When there are a gazzillion programs to do it all on a computer - and *not* to lose the original shot...

Maybe Canon figure that 'real' photographers won't buy a camera like this, and aim the manual squarely at the beginner crowd? I downloaded the manual for the 5D when the mark III came out - wishful thinking! - and that is a *proper* manual. I would hope that - at that price - it comes with a proper book, too!

I was a bit overwhelmed with the 286 page manual, too. What I found helpful was to print just a couple of pages of the feature I was trying to learn. My first thought was to try everything that was new and different but then I came to my senses and slowed down a bit. 8-) I also went through all the YouTube videos that another UHH'er posted by FatDragon100. She goes through just about every feature using her SX40 and you can also apply it to the SX50 to a large degree. Check out her videos when you have time, Bloke. In the meantime keep shooting. :D
Lee

We feel we are missing something too.... a clear and precise manual. ;)

I went from a G series camera to the xs50hs, and I know how the Menus are laid out. So, I read through and have only looked at it a few more times since May, when I bought my camera. When you want to know something about your camera, you look it up in the manual. If it isn't in the INDEX or Table of contents..... why should you have to re-read the whole manual to find what you're looking for?

You shouldn't have to 'take notes' as to where you found the answer.

In comparison, I was reading over the manual for the new PS G16 the other day... it's much more "tutorialistic" and an easier read than the sx50hs manual.