Hand held 300mm

[beano]

I've borrowed a 75-300mm from a friend for the weekend, and was just wondering what would be a realistic shutter speed to hand hold this lens at 300mm, and not get camera shake?

Thanks

[Woolburr]

Conventional wisdom is 1/focal length or in the case of a 300 mm lens...1/300th of a second. Beyond that, most would also recommend that since you are using a 350D with a 1.6 crop factor sensor that you should also factor in for the sensor. Given that circumstance a minimum shutter speed of 1/500th (300mm focal length x 1.6 crop factor =480mm effective focal length...then 1/focal length) is a better choice to insure sharp images.

[tommykjensen]

Actually the speed would be minimum 1/480

I'll just repeat what Jon explained just one day ago.

Originally Posted by jon

You're right, the crop factor bit has been gone over repeatedly. I'll try to keep this brief and clear.
With a 200 mm (say) lens and the same shutter speed you'll get the same amount of shake at the sensor whether you're using APS-C or FF. That far, no problem, right?

Now here's where the "crop factor" comes in. Your desired output is an 8x10 print. So you need to blow up the FF shot 8x. You need to blow up the APS-C shot (8x1.6)x or 12.8x to get that same 8x10 print. It doesn't matter whether they're the exact same framing or not. To get an 8x10 from an APS-C, you need to enlarge it 1.6x more than you need to enlarge a FF. Right?

Now, when you blow up the original image you also enlarge the camera shake that was recorded, right? And since you've enlarged the shot from the APS-C 1.6x more than the FF, you've also enlarged the blur from the APS-C (which was the same as the blur in the FF original neg/capture) 1.6x more. So, since you enlarge the blur more, you need to have less blur on the sensor to get the same amount in the finished print. So you need a faster shutter speed.

Hehe Dan beat me to it but I think Jon's way of explaining it make it more clear why the crop factor need to be considered.

[beano]

Thanks for the quick replies!

I guess it's definitely a sunny day lens (or high ISO of course) without the tripod lol...

[phylet]

ive got a sigma 70-300 (APO) and i can get down to about 1/100 OK.

[tommykjensen]

Not everybody have that steady hands so some can go lower some will need higher.

For example I got a shot of at 1/25 with my 300 mm f/4 IS prime. (Yes IS helped a lot there).

[::John::]

Originally Posted by phylet

ive got a sigma 70-300 (APO) and i can get down to about 1/100 OK.

My wife, the first time she used the 75-300 on the 350D was happily (and accurately) shooting around 1/100 and 1/125, too, so I know what you mean, phylet.

[Jon Foster]

Does this 75-300 have IS? If so, you can drop a couple more stops with ease... Here's a high ISO night shot taken hand held.

Canon 300D, 75-300mm IS USM, Shutter speed: 1/13, F-stop: 8.0, ISO speed: 3200, Focal length: 80mm



Jon.

[beano]

Originally Posted by Jon Foster

Does this 75-300 have IS?

No it's the cheap one.