Canon PowerShot SX40 HS Handheld Night Scene
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The Canon PowerShot SX40 HS, like many cameras these days, offers a composite shooting mode which captures a quick burst of images before combining them into one to reduce noise. Canon calls this Handheld Night Scene and you can find it in the Scene presets.
Like other models, the sensitivity and exposure are fully automatic, so to make a comparison with a single shot exposure here, I first took the scene in the Handheld Night Scene mode, before matching the settings in Program. |
In this first example, the SX40 HS's Handheld Night Scene mode automatically selected 1600 ISO. It's immediately clear from the crops below that the single-frame version in Program at the same sensitivity exhibits much greater visible noise than the composite Handheld Night Scene version. Meanwhile, the degree of detail is roughly similar.
So Handheld Night Scene mode is acting like perfect noise reduction, greatly reducing the amount of visible noise without smearing-out fine details. A very successful result here for the SX40 HS. Scroll down for another comparison, or check out a selection of single-exposure shots in my Canon SX40 HS sample images gallery. Alternatively skip to the chase and head over to my verdict!
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS: Handheld Night Scene at 1600 ISO
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1600 ISO |
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1600 ISO |
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS: Program at 1600 ISO
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1600 ISO |
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1600 ISO |
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS: Handheld Night Scene versus Program mode (at 1600 ISO)
For this second example, the PowerShot SX40 HS once again selected 1600 ISO in Handheld Night Scene, making it easy to make a comparison in Program mode.
As above, the degree of fine detail on both samples is roughly similar, but the Program version shows far more visible noise textures. In contrast the version taken with Handheld Night Scene is much smoother and cleaner, with virtually no visible noise speckles. Again it's as if noise reduction has been applied, but without the compromise of smearing-out fine details.
So in conclusion, Handheld Night Scene can prove to be a valuable ally when shooting under dim conditions at high ISOs. It really lives-up to its description too, as while this second example was shot from a tripod, the first really was handheld.
Now head on over to my Canon SX40 HS sample images for more real-life examples, or skip to the chase and check out my verdict!
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS: Handheld Night Scene at 1600 ISO
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1600 ISO |
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1600 ISO |
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS: Program at 1600 ISO
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1600 ISO |
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1600 ISO |
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