Focal length and shutter speed

Spooky

Spooky

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Am I making a school boy error trying to shoot at 1/60 sec on a 200mm lens? I seem to remember reading something about focal length of lens = minimum shutter speed.

Call me a dumb ass if you like!

Cheers
 
If you can get sharp shots at that speed then go for it.
The "rule" is only there to ensure sharpness for those who don't have rock steady hands.
 
For head held shooting I was alway tought to shoot the inverse of the focal length (1/focal length) or 1/50 second what ever is quicker. This is only a guide and you have to find out what works for your self. Thats with out any staberlisation. Even kneeling down or controling your breathing helps, the thing is get to know your limits.

Until you know your limits it a safe rule for shooting at speed or at least for critical shots.
 
Thanks for all the responses. Just finished a days shoot and was surprised at a number of soft shots! I was shooting between 125 and 500 so thought they should be OK but then this little nugget of info came back to me and I was left doing a great Homer Simpson impression.
 
like has been said, depends on how steady your mitts are!! and to repeat, 1/focal length or 1/(focal length x crop factor) for non FF users. I don't really shoot long lenses so not sure how true or important this rule is for your situation (plus it helps having in-body stabilisation)!!! I just try and stick to "the faster, the better" rule!!
 
the faster, the better will always help no matter what lens (unless faster is worser because you want a specific shutter speed :) )

If your lens has decent image stabilisation it does seem possible to use 1/60 at 200 helped by steady hands.

Were all your soft shots at 125 or was it a mixture and maybe caused by other factors, i.e soft shots at 500 too meaning maybe some focusing issues, lens quality at max aperture etc,.
 
Yep i remember reading the rule is to select the shutter speed closest to the lens focal lenght, So at 200mm you would need to select 1/200 on a full frame camera or 1/300 on a cropped APS-C camera. Ofc as has been said depends on wether using VC and how steady your hands are.
 
Spooky said:
Am I making a school boy error trying to shoot at 1/60 sec on a 200mm lens? I seem to remember reading something about focal length of lens = minimum shutter speed.

Call me a dumb ass if you like!

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yes, almost certainly. Though there are no guarantees, the accepted rule of thumb is the one relating the longest permissible shutter speed, to effective focal length. It's based on full frame cameras and focal lengths, so effective focal length must be adjusted by the crop factor, eg if you have a 100mm lens on a 1.6x crop factor camera, the suggested longest permissible speed for hand-holding would be 100 x 1.6 = 1/160sec.

That's the guide, but it's only a guide. You may be able to do better than that, or not, but one thing that certainly holds true is that whatever shutter speed you can manage must be halved every time you double focal length.

None of this takes into account image stabisation, nor does any reduction in camera shake make any difference at all to subject movement.
 
I suppose the other thing that maybe goes without saying is that you still need to factor in subject movement, something that VR or a steady hand cannot help you much with.
 
It's ok as a very general rule, but the hand holding shutter speed is more down to the pixel density than the sensor size.
 
Good advice here guys and sorry i can not input much as i am still on the learning curve myself.
 
redddraggon said:
It's ok as a very general rule, but the hand holding shutter speed is more down to the pixel density than the sensor size.
Click to expand...

LOL That's a very topical take on it, but no.

The hand-holding rule of thumb is unrelated to pixel density, but an undisclosed and never defined level of acceptable sharpness - whatever that is exactly, but you know it when you see it.

When hand-holding, they is no such thing as 'sharp' and 'unsharp'. But there comes a point when it all becomes 'acceptably sharp' and we tend to define that individually according to circumstances.

But if you wanted to define it by pixel density, possibly in relation to the new Nikon D800 with its theoretically very high resolution potential, then to max that out would need an extraordinarily high limit - basically impractical.

It's well known that to max out a D800 needs the very best lenses, at optimum apertures, shot on a tripod at low ISO with mirror lock-up. It's (almost!) impossible to get near that standard hand holding.
 
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Lots of good stuff coming through on this thread; I may post more dumb questions!

Anyhow, I was shooting on a Nikon D700 with a Nikon 70-200 vrii lens. The soft shots tend to be around the 125 - 200 range. I have the vr switched off.

Will try the doubling method suggested and see what happens.

Spooks
 
good question, the point of VR is that you can get away with 1/125 (or lower) so why not use it?
 
ernesto said:
good question, the point of VR is that you can get away with 1/125 (or lower) so why not use it?
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Not exactly true. The IS/OS/VR system is for static subjects in low light, i.e. depending on the IS/OS/VR system, it gives you 2-4 extra stops of light to play with.

Most people taking action images, i.e. panning switch the IS system off.

Use the 1 over lens lens as a rough rule of thumb remembering to factor in your crop factor as well, this is just a guide and you can increase or decrease the shutter speed, but it all depends on the speed of the subject you are photographing and what you want from your images. The slower the shutter speed for action the more creative the image and more likely the softer the image, these images have their place, but I prefer sharp images which give the essence of motion which can still be achieved with higher shutter speeds. Panning is not an easy technique to master, anyone who says otherwise, we'll I've seen the results and most of those images would be in the recycle bin on my computer. Panning not a technique the pro's use often, why, because they can't guarantee the results.
 
Sorry, where was panning mentioned?

As I said, the point of VR is to allow lower shutter speeds than would normally be possible, whether in low light, wanting to use higher aperture etc,.
 
As many others have said the rule is generally 1/focal length but I've managed to get this handheld shot with a Canon 5D3 and Sigma 150-500 OS down to 1/10 Sec and still get a decent shot. It was at 150mm focal length, f4.5 and ISO 100 at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, this is a Jpeg SOOC and only resized. It's about the only longish exposure shot I've took TBH, I took about 6 shots at different shutter speeds just to see the effect and was quite pleased with it.

7095849405_7548f93868_b.jpg
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Yes, when you're on the limit - with or without stabilisation - take several shots if you can. Chances are one of them will be acceptably sharp. Safety in numbers an' all that :)
 
that's good for 1/10 at that length, have you thought about joining the olympic shooting team :)
 
HoppyUK said:
Yes, when you're on the limit - with or without stabilisation - take several shots if you can. Chances are one of them will be acceptably sharp. Safety in numbers an' all that :)
Click to expand...

Indeed, and I also find that if you keep your finger on the shutter and fire off a burst rather than jabbing at it for each shot, you'll reduce movement a little on the second shot when your finger movement is eliminated.

I suppose after that, just do anything that you can to brace yourself a little, even if there is nothing around, just tucking your elbows into your chest helps a lot. I sometimes resort to slowing my breathing and rolling my finger onto the shutter but I suppose when I start thinking about this stuff, things are generally getting pretty desperate and I'd be expecting a high reject rate.

I've also played around with cables that attach to the bottom of the camera and you stand on the other end, quite a faff to be honest but it's incredible how much movement is reduced when you have some opposing force to work against.

This is what I've used in the past.

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=111805
 
ernesto said:
that's good for 1/10 at that length, have you thought about joining the olympic shooting team :)
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:lol: Now that's funny, made me laugh. I used to go to Metheringham Gun Club years ago and shot everything from a .38 special to a Harris M89 sniper rifle and the guy who ran the place used to say similar things. I haven't shot anything more powerful than a .22 airgun since 1992 though. I'll just snipe with the camera for now, it's less messy.
 
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