Can you hold it Steady?

[MDJAK]

Unless I am using high shutter speeds, I am unable to hold my camera steady enough so as not to degrade picture quality, unless using an IS lens.

When I use my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens for portraiture, I can see the shake right through the viewfinder.

I've read constantly here and elsewhere the importance of a tripod.

I finally bought one, a gitzo carbon fiber and then went in search of the BEST ballhead. I found it at www.reallyrightstuff.com (http://www.reallyrightstuff.com)

My problem is, I'm going away on vacation to Hawaii and they are out of stock.

In this case, I have to give a big shout out to a great and responsive company. I emailed them with my predicament and (don't tell anyone) but they did their best and are shipping out a head to me today. It's truly a breath of fresh air when a company is as responsive as theirs. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[TammieO]

You'll like the RRS ballhead. I know I do.

[tim]

Try it before you go on holiday. I've read many, many times people buy something before a trip then find it doesn't work, or at least not how they expected.

[mocca]

I find that the older I am, the more shaky my hand get. I used to be able to handhold my caemra at shutter speed around 1/(2*focal length), i.e., at 1/50s for 100mm focal length (on a film camera). At the moment, I usually use 1/focal length (on a 1.6 crop camera) to make sure I get good pictures. With IS, it helps about 2 stops but anything lower than 1/4s (even at 28mm) is still pretty risky to get consistent results.

MM

[MDJAK]

Thanks for the tip, Tim. And you're right, I will definitely use it before going away.

I just got the UPS two-day tracking number from them. I should have it tomorrow, just in time for the weekend. Too bad I'm working Saturday.

[AirEOS]

MDJAK....what subject are you shooting....i mainly shot aircraft and i got this one at 1/20...i find its easy to track a fast moving object with a slow shutter speed and an f-stop at about 5.6 (think this one was)....then one moving slow..... a tri-pod is a very handy piece of equipment if you shotting rainfalls or anything where light is at a minimum....

This is that shot...Singapore Airlines 777 at 1/20th f5.6

[kram]

wow, cant believe thats a 1/20!! Nice shot.

[RockOne]

Nice one AirEOS !

[MDJAK]

That is a great shot indeed. Firstly, I'm going to Hawaii and want to do a lot of sunrise and sunset landscapes. I'm kind of going by what I read and have seen, which indicates that razor sharp pictures of landscapes really require a tripod. I've never used one before and I'm hoping it will improve my technique. Lord knows, I can use all the help I can get.

[RockOne]

If you keep a lookout you may find the odd second hand tripod lying around in Hawaii :-) :-) :-) !!
http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=78437

[MDJAK]

Rock, thanks for pointing me to that post. I didn't see that one, and it certainly was worth seeing.

While I try not to do stupid things (at least not anymore), unless my wife was harassing me not to go further, I would have loved to get that close also.

Thank the God of Lava you guys didn't get hurt.

I got to run now. I'm going to hunt down every UPS truck for my ballhead. Unfortunately, they usually deliver late in the afternoon.

[Little Fish]

That is a great image of the plane and I know it takes a lot of practice to get the timing right. Maybe it's just me, but I think that with practice I could get a clearer photo at 1/20 of a moving plane than of a plane sitting still.

For what it's worth, when I have to handhold at a slow shutter speed I find that if I take 5 or 6 shots in burst mode usually at least one of them will look like I held the camera rock steady.

Frank.

[etaf]

i usually use 1/effective focal length as a guide for shutter speed - has worked for film eos5 and pro1 shots over the years

[Grampaw]

ETAF
If I'm shooting at 400mm, that means I need to use shutter speed of 1/400 ?

[grego]

wow, cant believe thats a 1/20!! Nice shot.

It's called panning. That's how you get that effect. You need to shoot at less than 1/60 for a decent effect, generally.

[AirEOS]

Quality is reduced due to the programe i was using to get the file size under 100KB...took many efforts to get a shot like that....glad you like it....

[DwightMcCann]

Can't tell how pleased I am that you are going the tripod route! Using a tripod changed all my images forever ... mainly because it so improved my work that I could finally see how poorly I'd been doing previously. :-) I don't always use a tripod, but now my standard is images as good as if I had used a tripod.

[MDJAK]

Got the ballhead today. Now I'm sorry I didn't go for the extra hundred and get the L bracket. It's really not practical to take shots vertically without it.

The head itself is beautifully made. I was taking some macro shots in the evening (while getting chewed by mosquitos), some as long as 15-20 seconds.

I would love to post a sample but I only shot RAW and I am afraid to admit I don't know how to save it to jpeg so I can post it.

http://upload.pbase.com/mdjak/image/46249225&exif=Y

I figured out how to post one. This is my first try with a tripod. This shot was 25 seconds long.

Critique, please.

[HKFEVER]

When I use my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens for portraiture, I can see the shake right through the viewfinder.



I have this same problem with 100mm f/2.8 marco, but is fine with 200mm f/1.8L, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS and 24-70 f/2.8L.