Wahawk, sorry, I forgot about that. It does have a HDR mode. I missed that one.

There are several differences between the Panasonic FZ70 and the Canon SX50. The FZ70 has a range of 20mm to 1200mm. The SX50 has a range of 24mm to 1200mm. The FZ70 has a little faster lens at f/2.8 to f/5.9, where the SX50 is f/3.4 to f/6.5.

The Canon has an articulating lens and the Pany does not. The Canon has a remote shutter jack and the Pany does not. The pictures look pretty close as far as quality. They are both using the same sensor. The Canon has high speed video and progressive video and the Pany does not. It has interpolated video in HD.

The Pany has a panorama mode the the Canon has a panoramic stitch mode. The Pany will go for up to 60 seconds in the Starry Sky Mode and the max limit on the Canon is 15 seconds. The Pany shows the amount of zoom all the time in the X amount, and the Canon does not. It shows a symbol.

The Canon will go for 13 frames in the High Speed Mode for 1 second and the Pany will go for 9 fps for 3 frames. The Pany will go to 2 or 5 fps in shutter speed with and without auto focus and the Canon will go 2 fps with no AF and .8 fps with AF.
The Pany will go at 9 fps for one second in the High Speed Mode.

The Pany has an HDR mode that works pretty well and the Canon does not. The Pany has a 3D Mode and the Canon does not.

The Pany does a little better in low light because the lens is a little faster. For some reason the Canon will not go more than 1/8 second at ISO 1600 in the Auto Mode. The Pany will go to 8 seconds in that mode, and will switch to Hand Held Night Mode if not enough light.

In Aperture Priority the Canon will not go above 1 second in shutter speed in low light. If 1 second is not enough, the shot will come out too dark, if the ISO is set low. In Shutter Priority the camera will set the ISO to 80 at any shutter speed at or over 1 second, no matter where you have the ISO set. The Pany does not have that problem. At lower light levels the ISO is set completely by the operator. This is a big deal if you shoot a lot of low light shots.

My opinion. Both cameras have their strengths and weaknesses. Both take great pictures and I could see no difference at mid zoom. At the higher zoom levels I could see an edge going to Canon in image sharpness. I normally don't use the lens in any other position other than normal and the fact that the Pany does not have an articulated lens does not bother me. I don't like the fact that the Pany will not take a shutter release cable. That sucks!

The Menu system is better in my opinion on the Pany than on the Canon. The Pany does have 60X zoom and the 20mm shots at wide angle could really make a difference in tight areas. The difference between the 24mm wide angle of the Canon and the 20mm of the Panasonic is substantial.

The Pany has a 55mm thread on the lens and the Canon does not. You have to buy an adapter to use filters on the Canon. The Pany does not come with a lens hood and one is not available for it. If you buy a 55mm screw in lens hood, vignetting is going to occur at wide open.

The Pany is really subject to severe lens flare in shooting towards the sun. I don't know if the Canon has this problem or not.

I am keeping one of these cameras and have not decided yet which one to keep. I am leaning towards the Canon because of the articulated lens and the shutter cable jack, but more testing is coming.

The filter size on the FZ70 is 55mm. l did a shootout between the Canon SX50, Panasonic FZ200 and FZ70 cameras. The pictures can be seen here.

http://kgravett.smugmug.com/Other/SX50-vs-FZ70-vs-FZ200

Marlin the SX50 will take close up macro pictures. I know the camera has a macro setting, but this works mostly with things really close to the lens at no zoom. To take a shot using zoom, you have to be about 4 feet from the item. You will be able to zoom in on it, and the camera will focus. If it does not, you are still too close to the item. Back away further and the camera will focus. Like I said, in my experience, 4 feet or more is the closest you can be to the target.

For those looking for the manual, go to this link, and download the SX50 User's Guide.

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/digital_cameras/powershot_sx50_hs#BrochuresAndManuals

I think you will find that older versions of Adobe products will not process the SX50 Raw files as they are pretty new. What you can do is process the files with Adobe Digital Negative Converter and then process that file in your Adobe Elements Software. This is usually much better than using the Raw software that comes with the camera. I know Elements 11 Raw processor will read the SX50 Raw files, but am unsure of any of the previous versions of the program.

The link to the latest Adobe DNG converter is here.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5597

I have Photoshop CS6, Lightroom, and Photoshop Elements 11 and it installed on all three programs. Didn't have to do anything but install the program. To use it under Elements for example, open a photo and go to Filter and you will see the Nik plugins.

I picked up the Ebook version of the book you talked about tonight and could not put it down. The author does an excellent job of going through the camera and all of its features. Thanks for telling me about it. The book again is the Photographer's Guide to the Sony DSC-RX100.

An instruction manual comes with the camera in PDF format, and there is one available on line at this link.

http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model-home.pl?mdl=DSCRX100B&template_id=1&region_id=1&tab=manuals#/manualsTab

I have the Sony RX100 camera and it is a piece of cake to use. It has all the priority modes like Aperture, Shutter, Program and Manual, and it also has iA (intelligent auto) and iA + (intelligent auto plus) modes for anyone who doesn't want to mess with the camera. Both the auto modes are excellent. The camera has lots of features and they all work great. It takes great panoramic shots for example. The picture quality is excellent as it has a 1 inch sensor. Also the camera does really well in low light at f/1.8, which is a very fast lens. I have many cameras from DSLRs to bridge to point and shoot cameras and this is my favorite carry anywhere camera. It is loaded with features, easy to use, and I love it! You can't go wrong with this excellent Sony camera.

I have two shutter release units for the SX 50 HS. One is a regular shutter release from Canon and the other is an aftermarket interval timer release. Both work just fine, but the interval works for doing time released shots.

The Canon one.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004WCID/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00

The aftermarket interval timer. It can be used as a regular shutter release as well.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044BYKI4/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

I use Smugmug and Flickr. I am using the paid version of both. I like Smugmug better as it will allow up to 50mp pictures, which is something you will need if you ever do any panoramic shots. Flickr will go to 20mp. That is fine for normal photos but not enough for panoramic shots unless you resize the images. Flickr has a free version and a Pro version. The Pro version is only about $25 or something like that for a year. Both Smugmug and the Flickr Pro have unlimited uploads. Smugmug has three different plans, one around $40, one at $60, and the Pro Version at $125. With the Pro version people can buy your photos and you get a cut off of each one.

Here is one that is reasonably cheap, but very sturdy and well made. It is sold by Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U7KXI4/ref=wms_ohs_product

This is one of the best small tripods out there. It is kind of expensive but worth the cash.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029QGQ5Q/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00

By the way, the adapters are available on Amazon, and the filters are cheap. I normally use Hoya UV filters as they are extremely good quality. The cost is $13 for a Hoya 58mm flilter and $8.50 for the adapter.

There are actually two adapters for the SX50. One is 58mm and the other is 67mm. Once you put the adapter on the camera, just buy a UV filter of the correct size to protect the lens. Your lens cap will not work, so also buy a lens cap of the size of your adapter. I have both adapters, and like the 58mm adapter better because it is metal and the 67mm adapter is plastic.

To those who are curious, I am using the SX50 and it takes some fantastic clear, sharp, and detailed pictures! I bought a SX40 and returned it before the SX50 came out. The SX50 is much better and the auto focus is very quick! It also has Raw, which I am finding looks even better with less noise than the JPGs.

Here is one of my shots.

Butterfly with Canon SX50