I have had 2 Canons, EOS lenses, a Tamron zoom, 1 Nikon, 3 Nikon lenses (wide angle zoom, a prime, a telephoto zoom), and I am never satisfied with having that perfect "tack sharp" photo, or very rarely. I get it most often on the wide angle. I actually used to use the watercolor filter a lot in photoshop just to get sharp edges...the Nikon is getting closer,(but I don't have a state of the art Canon to compare), I have been able to finally wean myself of the watercolor filter, but it has been replaced by the Topaz Adjust plugin.

Ever since she wrestled the camera out of my hands a year ago I know she has put 20,000 plus shots on the shutter.
And she is clinically a zoom addict...so here are a few things she's told me.

Ya need a good tripod...she found a nice bogen on ebay for $75...and you can get a wireless remote for about $20 on Amazon.

If you want to use the digital zoom the sweet spot is around 125X



If you want to push the zoom it gets really sensitive...we have a flagstone patio and when she is wide open taking a moon shot if the dog walks behind her the image jiggles.

Have fun and post some of your pics!

Having had this camera about a year, I have had plenty of time to experiment with it. The key to getting the sharpest images is to use the fastest shutter speed and to minimize camera shake. To this end, I Put in camera's ISO setting on 400. Any lower and it will be hard to get the fast higher shutter speeds. Any higher and excessive noise will ruin the image. I also shoot in aperture priority setting and stop it down 1 setting from full open. Too small an opening and the shutter will be too slow. Open all the way, and you risk chromatic aberations (purple fringing) and getting your subject out of focus. (The smaller the lens opening, the greater the depth of field. I also like putting the timer on the 2 second setting. Hold your breath and press the shutter. This gives you two seconds to steady the camera after pushing the button

Having had this camera about a year, I have had plenty of time to experiment with it. The key to getting the sharpest images is to use the fastest shutter speed and to minimize camera shake. To this end, I Put in camera's ISO setting on 400. Any lower and it will be hard to get the fast higher shutter speeds. Any higher and excessive noise will ruin the image. I also shoot in aperture priority setting and stop it down 1 setting from full open. Too small an opening and the shutter will be too slow. Open all the way, and you risk chromatic aberations (purple fringing) and getting your subject out of focus. (The smaller the lens opening, the greater the depth of field. I also like putting the timer on the 2 second setting. Hold your breath and press the shutter. This gives you two seconds to steady the camera after pushing the button

I think this is a common problem when your starting out with the sx50...I know I experienced it and so did my wife who has taken over that camera...

The long zoom is terribly sensitive to movement...you have to picture yourself shooting with a real live 1200mm lens...would you shoot without a tripod?

My wife's sx50 lives on a tripod...and shoots 90% of her long shots with a remote release. Check out her posts ---sleepydrdr---That being said there are lots of folks here that can shoot a the long side of the zoom hand held. I just ain't one of them...

Your going to hear that you cant get dslr quality pictures with the sx50...and in extreme situations you cant. But overall the little camera is capable of taking exceptional pictures with a little practice.

There are dozens of happy SX50 users on UHH - including me :)

It can take some getting used to and trials with various settings, before you are likely to see your best work. Try not to go into the digital zoom realm; you'll see better results if you stay within the optical zoom (to 50x).

And keep in mind with a camera that is zooming that far, the slightest movement on your part will show up as an unsharp image. I've gotten some good results with the "burst" mode, which shoots several images in one second.

Having had this camera about a year, I have had plenty of time to experiment with it. The key to getting the sharpest images is to use the fastest shutter speed and to minimize camera shake. To this end, I Put in camera's ISO setting on 400. Any lower and it will be hard to get the fast higher shutter speeds. Any higher and excessive noise will ruin the image. I also shoot in aperture priority setting and stop it down 1 setting from full open. Too small an opening and the shutter will be too slow. Open all the way, and you risk chromatic aberations (purple fringing) and getting your subject out of focus. (The smaller the lens opening, the greater the depth of field. I also like putting the timer on the 2 second setting. Hold your breath and press the shutter. This gives you two seconds to steady the camera after pushing the button