60D question

Yesterday I was trying to take some photos of my friends hummingbirds. I had the camera set in manual mode. I coul not get the shutter speed to get higher than 1/250. Needless to say my photos did not stop wing action.

My camera was purchased 3 weeks ago through the CLP. I am going to test some more this evening to see if I can duplicate the problem. I didn't have time yesterday as I had to return home from my trip.

Thanks for any tips.

Did you have the flash turned on? Flash will limit the shutter speed to 1/250.

I don't think I had the flash turned on but I may have. I am still learning this camera so that's something I will check this evening when I try to take more photos.

Try a higher ISO and shutter priority to stop the action.

Also safety shift may be on. The camera overrides what you tell it if it senses under exposure.

mrbtd wrote in post #14882442
Also safety shift may be on. The camera overrides what you tell it if it senses under exposure.

The OP was in Manual mode. There is no safety shift in Manual mode.

Could the quick control dial be locked? Just a thought.

I had gone up to ISO 3200. I was in full manual mode. I do not remember if I had the flash off. It was mid morning. Not direct sunlight but slight overcast.

I leave my flashes, 430EX II and 550EX, is HSS (High-Speed Sync) mode to avoid such shenanigans. You can use 1/8000 with HSS enabled. Granted, the range is extremely limited, but at least the shutter fires.

I guess I should clarify. The only flash I have right now is the one built on the camera.

ldgary wrote in post #14883017
I guess I should clarify. The only flash I have right now is the one built on the camera.

Ok. Then HSS does not apply. It is curious that your shutter speed was limited to 1/250. That is the shutter speed limit with the built-in flash popped up.
Edit: One thing that comes to mind: your camera may "think" an external flash is attached. There is a small metal strip on the right side of the hot-shoe that activates a switch to tell the camera a flash is attached. If the metal strip is down, the switch is pressed, and the camera thinks there is a flash attached. You can usually dislodge the metal strip with a tooth-pick or something similar. See a photo of the strip/switch at:

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/dougpardee/1330​66175/

You should be able to fire the shutter at any shutter speed if you are in manual mode, regardless of whether or not a flash is connected (or the camera thinks one is).

ScullenCrossBones wrote in post #14883399
You should be able to fire the shutter at any shutter speed if you are in manual mode, regardless of whether or not a flash is connected (or the camera thinks one is).

This is simply incorrect. Shooting mode has nothing to do with flash sync. If the on-board flash is up, or there is an external flash attached (and turned on), the shutter speed is limited to the camera's maximum flash-sync speed. On the 500D it is limited to 1/200. On the 60D it is limited to 1/250. The ONLY way to get around this is to set the external (built-in can't do this) flash unit to HSS. This is true for ALL shooting modes.

ScullenCrossBones wrote in post #14883399
You should be able to fire the shutter at any shutter speed if you are in manual mode, regardless of whether or not a flash is connected (or the camera thinks one is).

TSchrief wrote in post #14883432
This is simply incorrect. Shooting mode has nothing to do with flash sync. If the on-board flash is up, or there is an external flash attached (and turned on), the shutter speed is limited to the camera's maximum flash-sync speed. On the 500D it is limited to 1/200. On the 60D it is limited to 1/250. The ONLY way to get around this is to set the external (built-in can't do this) flash unit to HSS. This is true for ALL shooting modes.

You are only limited to flash sync speed with Canon compatible flashes. Also known as "Dedicated" flash. With a non-Dedicated flash you could set a shutter speed higher than the camera's flash sync speed. But in that case you would see a dark band at the bottom of the photo from having a shutter speed higher than the camera's sync speed.

I just tried an old school, non-dedicated flash on my 7D and 5D Mk II, and both were able to set a shutter speed much higher than the camera's sync speed.

Like TSchrief stated look carefully at the hot shoe to see if that small switch is sending a signal to the camera making it think a flash is mounted.

At ISO = 3200 the basic exposure for bright sun would have been f/16 at 1/3200 sec. Even slight overcast as you mention would have yielded a stop more; perhaps 1/3200 sec at f/11. I would have thought that any of the pictures you took at ISO 3200 and where the shutter was limited to 1/250 would have been terribly blown out (over exposed).

Can you post a picture here with EXIF attached? We might be able to tell more what is going on. For one thing the EXIF will clearly indicate if a flash was attached (even if it wasn't).

By the way, you likely will not perfectly freeze the wings of a hummer solely with the capability of the 60D. To freeze all motion in a hummingbird's wings, you need a shutter speed of 1/5,000 to 1/20,000 of a second. Having said that, I think that sometimes the slower end, which the 60D can do, the lsight evident motion improves the shot.

Go to http://www.rpphoto.com​/howto/hummer/humguide​1.asp for some good tips on "hummer" photography.