After seeing T.J.'s fine bird pictures using his Canon SX-50 HS I had to have one. I read a lot of reviews on it and it seems to be the best point and shoot camera on the market, called a bridge camera before you move into the big stuff. The two photo's were shot at about 100 feet. I did touch up some with Photoshop but the clarity of the pictures with this camera are much better then my last one.